Archived: Us and them

Us and them

„(…) Although Dario Harjaček and I decided on this project more than three years ago, our intention was to build it at the moment when the play is being created, from our own experience and the experience of the gathered collaborators. During two months with the performing team – nine actors and fourteen students of the ZKM School – and with a large number of educators, who were a valuable source of information and insight first hand, we dug a whole mine of living material that resisted black and white interpretation. . We wanted to see the school through a multifaceted prism, constantly asking questions and avoiding restrictive answers. Here are therefore some of the questions that came to our notice as a red thread:

Is a school, as it stands in its definition, an educational institution? What is the attitude of society towards school? In what ways does the average rule in schools? Do we study in school for knowledge or for assessment? What do grades 1 to 5 and a score of less than 5.0 mean? How much knowledge acquired in school has contact with reality and to what extent are young people qualified for life after leaving high school? What is the relationship between free will and coercion in school, how do they influence each other and how do they manifest themselves – both among students and teachers? What is the status of a professor? What tools are available to them to gain authority and trust among students? How much room do they have for a creative approach to the subject they teach? What does the crossword puzzle students-parents-teachers look like? Who are We and They and who or what divides us in this game of separation?

The word school comes from the Greek word skolé, which means “leisure entertainment; leisure”. The question that remains umbrella is how in these few thousand years of the idea of acquiring knowledge through fun and play have we come to school as an institution where boredom and anxiety prevail? And what can we do to change that? ”

Katarina Pejović

(…) “School is the most important thing!”, Everyone shouts today when they actually think: school is dead!

These malicious thoughts will come true if the formal system of upbringing and education does not change radically. School should be a place of personal growth, but rarely is it, both for those who learn and for those who teach in it. It should also be a place of critical attitude, but everything in it is organized to suppress that attitude. It has the potential to be a place of creative collaboration, but it is more often a place where mere execution of tasks is expected. Awareness could be developed there that personal well-being starts from respecting the well-being of the other and the different, but hatred and aggression are more often tolerated in school than love and tolerance are nurtured. This school should be a place of equals and solidarity, but staying in it usually serves to maintain power relations and class reproduction. This school could also be a place of honest dialogue, but it is rarely openly discussed. That school could be the best thing, but that is not the case in Croatia in 2019.

In an age of general social polarization in which the differences between us and them are increasing exponentially, the school could be a place to warn that these differences are insignificant. Moreover, school is the only place where this can be done systematically. Of all the social subsystems in crisis, it is education that can make a difference, give strength and provide hope. And while writing epitaphs for formal education, it might be more useful to start a conversation about school – honest and without gloves, positively life-dirty and infinitely interesting. An open conversation that would end with a common cry: school is the most important !!!! “

Boris Jokić

“Why don’t most young people visit the theater more often? How to attract a young audience? What kind of theater do they want and need? (…) The special feature of the play We and They is precisely in connecting ZKM actors, director Dario Harjaček and playwright Katarina Pejović with young students through joint creation. In this project, they learn from each other, share their thoughts and transfer knowledge, knowledge and experiences thanks to improvisations on a topic that is very close and familiar to everyone, and lately very relevant.

Children and young people love to act with professionals, and young audiences like to watch their peers on stage. He trusts them. They can be identified and connected with. They are We.

I believe that young people need such a theater today – close to them, one that directly concerns them, in which they recognize themselves and which moves them to actively watch, listen, think …