A performance about people with autism opened the small stage of the theater on Malaya Bronnaya. Natalya Bondarchuk about the play "Others", in which autistic children play on an equal footing with healthy peers and adult eminent actors

Olga Tomashevskaya

There is a unique family theater in Minsk, where children with autism take the stage along with ordinary children. "There's nothing like it anywhere in the world," says Dutch filmmaker Hans Salemink, who has been working with children with autism since the early 1990s. But if in the world sponsors line up to help such a theater develop, then in Belarus a desperate father of many children and producer Leonid Dinerstein. He is 56, he does not understand anything about crowdfunding and fundraising, he has never come across sick children before. But when Dinershtein saw how children with autism change in the theater and after for long years silences begin to not only speak, but also go on stage in the lead roles, he is stuck in this project.

"Names" met with Dinershtein to find out why the theater, which really helps children with autism and which everyone calls a cool project, is on the verge of survival every day.

- Lenya, people who have sick children are usually involved in such projects. But I take it you don't have a personal history of autism?

With my four children, thank God, I was not familiar with this problem before the theater. But such a thing happened. I have a colleague Ira Pushkareva, she has her own studio, where children are taught choreography, music, acting. Five years ago, children were brought to her from psychological problems and different behavioral responses. This is how the family inclusive theater "i" appeared. Ira worked quietly. Good pedagogical hands gave results. In the end, she turned to Pushkareva public organization"Children. Autism. Parents". They brought a sponsor to the rehearsal, who agreed to finance the musical for the big stage. With one condition - the premiere is needed in two and a half months, by the Children's Day. These are incredible times. Ira called me. And then everything moved at the speed of light.

Everything could have ended with one performance, but in the process of rehearsals, I caught the eye of world statistics. I, of course, went nuts. Every 102nd girl, every 58th boy in the world has autism. I shift to the Belarusian demography - it turns out 22,000 children. We have 1,200 registered children with autism. And where are the other 20,000?

- And where are they?

Don't know. Often parents do not make a diagnosis. Can you imagine how to live with such a record? When a child grows up, the record "autism" is often changed to "schizophrenia", where does he go with this then?

We have a Mishka in the theater, his parents basically do not diagnose him, and he studies at regular school. The guy is lucky for teachers: he was allowed to sit under the desk all primary school, now he is an excellent student, goes to the olympiads.

But Kastus Zhibul, the son of very wise philologists, actually studies at home, everything is too complicated for him at school.

There is also Max Lagun - a great artist, fantastic. The guy is painting art studio, one on one with a teacher and an easel. And here, having got into the noise, din and bustle, at first he sat in the corner. And only rehearsals on the fifth Max came to the children. We introduced the role of the Silent Hare especially for him. And he also drew prints for the costumes.

- And children with autism were not afraid of the big stage?

No. Everyone played in the very first performance, it was "Flute-Charadzeyka" at the Philharmonic. Large hall, full house, side chairs. The kids played fantastic. Ilya, for example, sang in the finale. He did what he had to do on stage. In rehearsals, he never completely succeeded.

- And after this performance, you decided to continue the project?

When you are already over fifty dollars, you realize that there are signs, and you need to hear them. After the premiere, I offered Velcom to take the performance to five cities and make five briefings. Show that autism is not death number that there is a way out. And they agreed.

When we got out, Ira said: “Listen, how are we going to take them?”. And then only I realize that there is no money for additional transport, everyone will go on the same bus - both with and without autism. A bus, a closed space where children with autism do not have the opportunity to retire, to be in their shell. Four and a half hours there, we dined there, played - and four and a half hours ago.

But in the end, for all the children it was a real holiday, and for children with autism, it was a crazy breakthrough. They've been evolving all this time, you know? Precisely because they ended up in a healthy, non-aggressive team. In an environment open to inclusion, where they are on an equal footing.

Our theater is almost the only place where they can work on an equal footing. Children with autism and children with Down's syndrome are two categories for which there is no other way of socialization other than full-fledged infusion into a healthy environment. For them, this is the only way to understand how this world works. And for other, ordinary children, it becomes a crazy inoculation of tolerance, tolerance and understanding that there are special children. We have achieved a balance in the theater that is ideal for socialization - 85% of healthy children (50 people) and 15% of children with autism (13 children).

There are no concessions for children with autism at rehearsals. Hans Salemink, our Dutch colleague who has been working with autistic people since the early 1990s, was stunned at our rehearsals. He himself has been doing the performance for a year, and for the last three months he has not changed anything, because these children find it difficult to adapt to changes. Hans works only with autistic people, his troupe is not inclusive, there are no healthy children in it. I saw his troupe - these are people of eighteen to twenty-six years old, with whom he works with childhood. If he hadn't told me anything about autism, I would have seen a well-chosen troupe of the third or second year of the theater institute.

Max hardly spoke - in everyday life, at least. And six months later, he spoke tongue twisters on stage

So when Hans saw what we were doing here, he said: “Guys, you are generally the only ones. What I do, no one does, but what you do, no one does. I don't know any analogues. So we got into the zone of absolute know-how.

Children with autism open up gradually. The same Max who was the Silent Hare at first. He hardly spoke - in everyday life, at least. And six months later, he spoke tongue twisters on stage with us. Everyone around us was shouting: “Two tutors behind us, God forbid something happens.” Max's mother was by his side, and our psychologist was by his side all the time. But it was real, it was not a game, he went to a live team, and worked there fully. In our second performance, "Chygunka", half of the scenery is his. And he came out with a speaking role.

Yes, Kastus Gibul. We have saved all his moves in the play. Yes, they helped with the development of drama, but at the same time they clearly kept the logic of a person with autism. And he played leading role!

- What is this logic?

Their logic is as follows: it can, as it were, go in one direction, and then abruptly, suddenly - once! - and go sideways. He may start panic attack, it is not clear from what, each in its own way. One of the characters in Kastus - Cat-naadavarot - this is his essence.

The process was very difficult, of course, because of the thirty children who eventually acted there, seven were with autism.

- Still, how did it happen that having come to this project by chance, you decided not only to stay in it, but also to develop it further?

I'll explain now. Here look. A boy appears with us - such a big one, overweight even. He was born normal, and then stopped talking. This happens to children with autism. The boy was rotten in all schools. He came to us so intimidated, but at the first lesson I literally look - he is bursting straight, I want everything so much. And in the end, my mother calls me: “Listen, what did you do with the child? He came happy for the first time." As a result, he received one of the main roles. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy enters the theater in three years. These are the things that happen right before your eyes.

Girl Vlada, who came at the age of 14. A beautiful girl who wants to become an actress, but at first she hardly spoke. Grandmother understood her, but we almost did not. For six months, she reached the etude. Yes, she is afraid sudden movements, does not stand two hours, is afraid of screaming. But these are not at all the fears with which she came six months ago.

I was hooked when I saw how these children develop. That's why I'm stuck. How to get out of this? I have another twenty years, I guess. Maybe my health is good enough. I want to create a territory of free creativity, which does not fight with anyone, in which normal free individuals grow. Let then each of them builds its territory around itself.

- And where does the money for inclusive theater come from?

I'm looking for where I can. I am a fundraiser at 56. The fact that I royally succeeded in the early nineties, when my colleagues and I “stirred up” the Alternative Theater in Minsk. Then friends-businessmen gave him money. Now one of the old friends helps a little. Velcom financed the performance. But this is a one-time help. The process requires, albeit not very large, but permanent financial support. We need a rehearsal base, a room, two hundred and fifty meters, in which there is a hall ninety meters for classes - with a machine tool, a mirror, a coating. A warehouse nearby to store some things, a couple of locker rooms, a room where something can happen. Such a workshop would be needed for two years, and during this time, it is necessary to build or look for a hall. Children need to have somewhere to go.

We need constant video monitoring. Because it's ready methodical material. The techniques that we create at home can be replicated anywhere, in Grodno, in Gomel, in Kaliningrad - wherever people are ready to work with this.

One of the next tasks is to change public opinion regarding autism. When we told the society a year and a half ago the word "autism" - the society was frightened and moved away. Now I see that the reaction is already different. We have come a long way.

- The state cannot help with anything?

We would like help from the state. But in fact, we understand that no state has the strength to fully implement such a project as an inclusive theater. Take any country - it will be the same there. However, in Europe the way is open for private financing, there are benefits for sponsors. For organizations such as ours, in European countries money moves by itself. We have it the other way around.

How can you help?

Imena is raising money to support the Theater for Children with Autism project. They are needed to pay for the work of acting teachers and a psychologist, renting a room and promoting the project. In total for the year of work it is necessary to collect 53 100 rubles. While on account 1 719 rubles.

Today, 63 children are involved in the family inclusive theater, of which 13 are children with autism. Part of the cost of the theater is covered by families who pay for classes in theater studio. But this money is sorely lacking for the development of the project. Your donations will allow 30 children with autism to be enrolled. And if the theater has its own premises, 60 children with autism will be able to attend. Every ruble is important for the project.

"Names" work for the money of readers. You send 5, 10, 20 rubles, and we make new stories and help even more people. "Names" - for readers, readers - for "Names". Click here and choose a convenient way to transfer!

The play is staged by Family Inclusive Theater "i" with the support of velcom. The key role in the new performance will be played by Vlada Zenevich, a 13-year-old girl who, thanks to the theater, started talking in just a year.

"The professor said, 'Give the kid a chance'

Monday evening. Today, "theatrical" children have a lesson in choreography. One of the students, tall beautiful girl, dances, unlike the others, not on her own, but accompanied by a tutor, who prompts the movements. The tall girl is Vlada Zenevich, she has autism. And her “assistant” is Ekaterina Kuraksina, a psychologist of the inclusive theater. To go on stage without a curator until Vlada dares.

Vlada's mother and I are sitting in auditorium, and while we are talking, she practically does not take her eyes off her dancing daughter: she says that the girl has completely changed during the time that she goes to the theater. A year ago, Vlada practically did not speak, but now she communicates with children and dreams of becoming an actress.

Until the age of 2.5, she developed absolutely normally, spoke in the usual children's three-word sentences. In the morning she got out of bed, ran to me: “Mom!”. And one day she suddenly fell silent, sat quietly for a week. We went to a speech therapist, he sent us to a neuropsychiatric dispensary, but for a long time the doctors could not understand what was wrong with her, ”recalls Victoria. - At the age of five, Vlada was diagnosed with autism. She, rather, has elements of autism, but this is the only diagnosis for which she “fits”.

At the age of three, Vlada went to a normal kindergarten where she stayed for two hours a day. But a week later, this idea had to be abandoned: the girl did not like it there.

On the last day, I took her away with such tears that we didn’t go to the garden anymore. After that, she was afraid to go to the store with me and did not take off her clothes anywhere. I stayed at home for two months. Then a professor from the neuropsychiatric dispensary looked at her and said: “Give the child a chance,” says Victoria.

So Vlada again ended up in kindergarten, but already with her mother: Victoria got a job there as a nanny, and later became a teacher. For two years, the girl was in a speech therapy group. Everything went very well: sensitive teachers, sympathetic children. And then Vlada got into a special group, where, in addition to her, 15 people with different diagnoses were trained.

The only positive was that it was good. music worker who took care of Vlad. And they also taught them to walk in formation and eat together at the table, ”says Victoria.

"Intellect is no problem"

At the age of seven, Vlada became a schoolgirl. Of the three options - to send her to a boarding school, speech school or organize home-based combined education - Victoria chose the latter:

Of course, I have been everywhere. In the boarding school, seventh-graders learned to press buttons, and Vlada mastered this a long time ago, because she has no problems with intelligence. They were ready to take her to the speech school only on the condition that the speech diagnosis comes first, but she has it secondary. All that was left was home schooling.

It was assumed that she would go to school for such subjects as drawing and labor, and the rest would be taught by a defectologist at home. In practice, it turned out that no one knew what combined learning was. For a whole year, Victoria wrote statements asking her to allow her daughter to attend singing and physical education classes.

“We have a shared territory with her”

Victoria has two educations - designing and modeling garments and psychology. She got the second when she realized that her child was developing differently than other children. But now the woman does not work, because she needs her daughter.

There are no problems with her at home. Our territory is divided: I practically live in the kitchen, and the room belongs to her. Of course, I can go there if I need to, but this is her personal space, which is very important for autistic people. She has her own hobbies - she loves magazines, a tablet, and she reads something in English there. I can safely leave it for two hours, if necessary, for example, to the store. She is absolutely adapted, and in the kitchen she will find what she needs, - says Victoria. “But I can’t let one go out into the street.” At the cottage, yes. And in the city near the house there are roads, cars. Although with the orientation she is doing well. She knows all the metro stations, and which of her relatives lives at which.

Vlada calmly visits and receives guests herself. But he does not like idle pastime.

Everything is clear with her: a birthday is a dress, a cake, pizza, people, gifts. In the morning she is waiting for guests, met them, ate a festive dinner, and then everything - it's time for everyone to leave. She does not understand why people are sitting if all the points of the program have already been completed, - Victoria laughs. - The same with the New Year: Santa Claus is waiting with gifts, but the next day the Christmas tree can be removed.

Vlada's dad has been living separately for a long time, but he constantly visits his daughter.

He loves her, buys toys - a tablet, for example - this is his gift. Comes once a week. If I'm with her more lessons do, then he plays. They can also roll on the floor. She is waiting for him. But she also has a limit for her dad: she’s played enough - that’s it, it’s time to leave, ”says Victoria.

Vlada and mother live on two benefits and a pension. In addition, Vlada's father gives money.

We do not chic with her, but we do not live in poverty. I think if I went to work, I would hardly get more, - says Victoria.

"Lucky we got here"

She learned about the inclusive theater created with the support of velcom from her friends and immediately took her daughter to an audition. Vlada began studying in January 2017, and the theater became a saving straw: after all, since the first grade of school, Vlada had not communicated with children. For a year, both mother and teachers note, the girl has made incredible progress in socialization and speech development. And most importantly, she really likes to play.

I have never seen her so pleased. Ask her what Vlada wants to become, she will answer: "Vlada wants to become an actress." She used to be afraid of crowds and noise when she was at school, during the call she covered her ears with her hands. Now it is perfectly normal to perceive loud music. At first we went once a week only to acting skills and now also choreography. Vlada is very disciplined. For example, at the acting they put articulation. Ordinary children may perceive this as a game or pampering, but she is serious. They said to do it - she will do it conscientiously, without being distracted. She has grown a lot verbally. Six months later, she was already performing in the play. I was terribly worried, but she went on stage and blossomed. She was so bright that I couldn't take my eyes off her. I realized that she needs an audience, - says Victoria.

Vlada has already performed twice at big stage. In the production of "The Tree of Fairy Tales" she has important role- the role of the tree.

At first it was difficult for her to repeat the movements, but now it is much better. Look, she's been on stage for about forty minutes, and she's not tired yet. For me, it's just a holiday, - mom admits. “Here, for the first time in their lives, the children didn’t point fingers at her. On the contrary, everyone helps, takes by the hand, shows, explains, leads somewhere. Happiness that we got here, that she was accepted and she likes it. Here - communication and perspectives.

"Vlada is a ready-made animator"

Victoria really hopes that her daughter will find her way in life, and the theater has become one of the opportunities. And Vlada also draws beautifully - once a week, her mother takes her to an art studio.

I believe that she is a ready animator. He takes a pen and in a couple of minutes, without taking his hands off the sheet, draws a hare from “Well, wait a minute!”, And it’s very similar. He can draw a fairy tale and make up a story from the pictures, says my mother. - I want Vlada to do more physical education, but there is nowhere to go. We found an exercise therapy room, but there are older children and not only autistic children, but with different diagnoses. Therefore, while he is working with me at home, I have my own program, a simulator. Oh, and the choreography too. exercise stress.

Psychologist Ekaterina accompanies Vlad on stage from the very beginning and also sees progress.

She is in contact with children, very open. We started with classes of 1-5 minutes, gradually increasing the time. At first individually, then they decided that it was time to common group. It happens that some movements do not work out, then I process them to make it easier for her. Vlada is very good in miniatures, her favorite is articulation exercises. She got used to work, for her it is not entertainment, but work. But the main thing in our theater is that the child is happy and leaves classes with a smile, - says Ekaterina.

The premiere of the performance "The Tree of Fairy Tales" will take place on April 2 at the Republican Palace of Culture of Veterans with the support of the telecom operator velcom. Start at 19.30.

Theater and children

Generalization of experience eight years old theater classes on the example of one performance·

Rakhmanova A.V., Berezkina O.V.

A little about "Our House"

This is the name of the Center for Curative Pedagogy and Differentiated Education. It is located in Yasenev, a green area on the outskirts of Moscow.

It has an integrative kindergarten and a school for children deprived of the opportunity to study anywhere. Previously, children with such medical diagnoses (most of them suffer from several severe disabilities at the same time) were considered unteachable. Most children are non-speaking, with severe emotional, motor and sensory impairments.

It is important that all these children live in families. The task of Our House is precisely to help such parents raise their children so that they have the opportunity to go to school, study like all children, gain experience social life, grow up, notice others and consider their needs and feelings. Often visiting Our House is one of the few opportunities for both them and their parents to get support and find friends.

We consider the main thing for our children to be a harmonious combination of upbringing of spirituality and physical development, the acquisition of practical skills.

We have always attached particular importance to the team principle of work. It is very important not only the clear interaction of the teacher leading the lesson and his assistants, but also the consistency of programs in different lessons (subjects). For example, if in the main lesson they work with a geographical map, and in cooking they stir the dough, then both skills will certainly find application in a play or in drama therapy classes.

Roles and their performers

Our children were then 8-10 years old. A lot of time has passed since then, the composition of the class has changed, but I want to talk about everyone, so that it would be easier to imagine the group with which it all began .

Lina is a non-speaking quivering, fair-haired, tall and thin girl, impulsive, loves to rustle and knock with some object, sometimes on someone's head.

Sasha is of medium height, strongly built, with a very serious, often gloomy expression on his face, he hardly speaks, but often sings fragments of various songs. He lives in the countryside, after a hard road he comes to his senses for a long time.

Karina is small, very lively, all "outside". To the request: “Show me where Christina is?” - she happily pointed to the ceiling and walls around. Likes to throw things at different sides. Freezes easily.

Igor is a speaker, he knows what date it is today, answers the question, but belatedly: to the previous one. Does not walk independently, but crawls very dexterously. Strives to climb higher and likes to hang head down from the sofa. He loves society, but is so eager to attract attention, reacts violently that he often has to feed him lunch separately.

Anton is a tall, dark-haired boy with large sad eyes in thick black lashes. Very lethargic: all the time on the couch; can walk, but does not like. Walks unsteadily, waddling, due to weak ankle joints. He did not eat on his own: he shouted, cried in front of the plate, but did not guess (could not?) Raise his hand and take a spoon until they help. Hand, palm flaccid, smooth, like a baby.

Yaroslav- a tall skinny boy. Affectionate, very attached to his mother, but calls her by name: not mother, but Tanya. Sleepy almost all the time due to the constant use of strong drugs. With some effort, but with full understanding, he says a few words, stuttering a little, as if the word is born not in the throat, but in the stomach or even in the heel, and it needs to be pushed up.

Michael- short, nimble, always knows what he wants, walks with someone else's help, crawls quickly. He has a progressive disease - the gradual extinction of motor functions, the prognosis of life - up to ten years (he lived sixteen).

And so "for such a small company" I wanted to discover the "huge secret" of literature and theater - a great life with strong and beautiful passions, with gods and heroes. I really wanted to teach these children not only to send a spoon for three counts into their mouths (they took it - they scooped it up, we carry it, they hit it), but to talk with them about friendship and courage, suffering and hope. I wanted to try to teach you to notice others and control yourself. .

Then, when choosing roles, we did not set the task of mastering any skill, but tried to justify, to describe by the role the little that each child could do. So Anton, in the role of Ilya Muromets, treated passers-by with kalik and drank from a cup on his own. In the next scene, it was enough for him to pull off the Nightingale the Robber (a rag doll) from the pedestal with one movement, drag it to the prince (usually this is Mikhail on wheelchair, draped under the throne) and throw the robber at his feet (both justified in the script, and much easier in execution than handing over).

The action lasted a minute and a half, next to each child there was always an assistant teacher who voiced his role, which made the performance look somewhat strange, but even this option was not available for some children. . So for Sasha, the need to wait for his entrance to the rehearsals, the atmosphere of the holiday due to the failure of the schedule, the presence of parents and relatives, unusual ceremonial clothes on the day of the performance each time turned out to be a very serious burden. Most of the time that day he spent alone with his mother or with me. Sometimes I listened to the performance from behind a closed door, in the corridor.

Performance as a holiday

This is another aspect of our attitude to theatrical action.

For each holiday, we prepared more carefully than for ordinary classes: we decided who would be with the children on stage, who would help the children-spectators; thought over options for participation in common activities and the possibility of recreation for each child. Why a holiday, if you have to prepare for it like that? Life consists of inhalation and exhalation. Then we could only answer that life is not a stagnant swamp, it is full of surprises and surprises, which are not always in our power to undo, even if we wanted to, maple syrup is not waiting for us at every turn of the road. How much easier it would be for us then if we knew that in time Sasha would become our star, that he could be entrusted with the most important , responsible role, knowing that he will not let you down and, no matter how difficult it is, will get together and finish the performance .

But serious romantic roles to overcome: Prince Siegfried, Moor of Peter the Great - this is still far ahead. As long as you can " descriptive " the role of Hercules in the play-sketch « Cyrene deer".

A characteristic feature of Sasha was that he liked to "wind circles" for a long time - to run around the entire perimeter of the room without stopping, especially when he was nervous. Therefore, the myth of the capture of Lani was chosen, especially since there was a girl in the class who was very suitable for this role: the swift and impetuously unpredictable Lina. Looks like great ancient greek hero was also a special child early youth he almost killed his teacher - by accident, from an excess of strength, then his unfortunate royal brother had to look for various heroic deeds for years in order to use his irrepressible energy somewhere. The feat with Lan was that Hercules (Sasha) first chased her through all of Greece in one direction, then Lan (Lina) turned around and they ran in the other direction, finally, he caught her and brought her to the king.

So, starting with the myth of Lani, an acting duet was born. For several years, Lina will now be waiting for her prince behind the walls of castles, and Sasha will fight for her release.

drama therapy allows you to solve many problems related to motor and cognitive development, but for us it is more important that it provides a unique opportunity to lead the child through all the epochs of the formation of mankind: from awareness of awakening emotions through the formation of spiritual qualities to the highest spiritual values. Just as in order to acquire a human body, gills and a tail must inevitably appear in order to be discarded and transformed later, so in order for the spiritual component to mature, each human soul must receive all the experience accumulated by mankind. Live paganism through a folk tale, the ancient era through myths and legends, the Middle Ages through ballads and mysteries. Then, having passed through the dark fear of paganism, the ancient passions and the notions of fate among the Greeks, Roman discipline and submission to the majority, through the uncompromising asceticism of the Middle Ages, it is possible to come to a balance of spirit.

It is significant that this order of study of historical epochs coincides with the program of general education schools in history and partly in literature. There, too, at first there is a study of primitive societies, then legends and fairy tales, the ancient world, and only then they move on to the history of the Middle Ages. That is, if you are not fascinated by the philosophical concept of Rudolf Steiner's curative pedagogy, you can accept such a sequence simply as a natural one. chronological order studying the main milestones of human development. After all, history is a kind of alphabet, the knowledge of which is necessary, for example, for a more complete perception of works of art, whether it be theater or painting, cinema or ballet. In addition, a small child easily believes in a fairy tale and, in order to gain peace of mind it is enough for him to know that good always triumphs over evil, that if you are small, but kind and brave, they will definitely come to your aid. As he grows older, gaining life experience, a teenager begins to understand that parents are not omnipotent, that a small daily feat of overcoming oneself will have to be performed without a magic wand. Here is where they can help. true stories great people who have proved with their whole lives that neither physical weakness nor ugly appearance from the point of view of some people interfere with doing truly great things - stories about A.V. Suvorov and Hannibal - arap of Peter the Great.

Of course, when designing a program for special children, we must limit the amount of material studied: the principle of less is more is especially important here. First of all, it is necessary to include the figures that are most significant for our culture.

Just like kids play with cars, dolls, gradually moving from simple manipulations with objects to more complex role-playing games, junior schoolchildren and adolescents need to live the experience previously accumulated by mankind. Like a human embryo, it is not just a reduced copy of either an adult or even a baby, but must mature: it must go through the experience of all creatures from a tadpole to a mammal in order to finally establish itself in the human image.

That is why the program of the Waldorf schools seems to us to be quite natural and correct, where education is built according to epochs, regardless of the intellectual age of the children.

But even if this theory seems controversial to someone, there is no doubt that in order to ignite children, the idea must be interesting to adults as well. No one can say with certainty what exactly the children understood in complex plot what is the percentage of understanding classical text, but on the other hand, they unmistakably feel falseness, boredom or deep excitement and admiration for the text of the original, sounding in the voice of the presenter.

With the help of a literary and dramatic game in different forms, you can simultaneously solve many problems. This is the experience of ordering your emotions. Children learn through the role to be aware of their emotions and adequately express them.

Education of feelings - education of the ability to reckon with the feelings of another person and restrain one's emotions. This is impossible if a person is not aware of the reasons for his own mental discomfort, but tries to drown out mental anxiety with physical pain (for example, bites himself), instead of explaining to others what is happening to him. But our children react in this way to an unusual situation or a stranger.

None of our pupils have play behavior, independent role playing. For the development of the psyche and socialization, it is necessary to somehow compensate for this, so our children need theater so much. This is a kind of alphabet of life. Social roles are clearly defined, characters are pronounced. The queen - so with a train, the prince - so with a sword and in a camisole, the beast - so with a tail, black - evil, white - good; everything is clear, everyone in his place. Girls and teachers are in long dresses, boys are holding wooden swords. And then after all, we often hear: "Boys, do not offend girls!". That's right, but where can they understand what a girl is, and how she is so different from a boy, if the young lady is in the same as his tracksuit and rushes about.

Types of drama therapy in "Our House"

We have two areas of work - literary drama game , whose techniques and methods are close to what psychologists call drama therapy, and theatricalization as a form of conducting any lesson (more often it is L.F.K.), where the plot serves mainly to maintain the attention of students, creating a good emotional background. An example of theatricalization of physical education classes can be considered a play about the Kyrenia fallow deer, described above. They played it in the gym.

All children, both ordinary and special, need a theater - participation in the production of a play, a theatrical performance in any form accessible to them. We use two forms literary and dramatic games: therapeutic and staging a performance for showing to the audience .

I would call therapeutic the form of a mini-performance, when playing which the main thing is to create an image, an archetype . Here the main objective- to give an opportunity to one or two heroes to survive, to overcome what hinders them in life. Such a lesson can be carried out in a mini-group of 2-3 people, the rest can play the role of extras. The story is played no more than 2-3 times, because too deep experiences are affected here, and frequent repetition can lead to nervous breakdown. Spectators are not invited to such performances, especially since in our case they are parents, and their emotional reaction can distort the therapeutic effect. A feature of our children is extreme sensitivity to the moods of others, with the inability to integrate and adequately express their emotions. Experience of catharsis, successful resolution of the situation in fabulous atmosphere performance helps to cope with shyness, cowardice and a sense of rejection in real life. This performance is not for the audience.

Such was "Wizard's Hat" based on a fairy tale by Tove Jansson. At that time, Seryozha was very keenly experiencing his "otherness", according to his mother, he even asked her: "Why am I not like everyone else?" Often did not stay in general classes. It was for him that we role-played this fairy tale two or three times in our playroom, making him Mummy-troll - the main character, one of the teachers - his Mom, and the rest of the children - guests.

Visitors come to Moomintroll. The game of hide and seek begins. Moomintroll (Sasha) climbs into the "house" (a closed part of the gaming complex), where they put on a fur hat and mittens. They've already found everyone, but where is Mummy? He himself goes out to the guys, but no one recognizes him. Everyone is afraid of him: “You monster! Tell me, where did you put our Mummy-troll?! Then my mother came, hugged and said that she always recognizes her son, and all the ridiculous clothes immediately fell off. The guests rejoiced at the return of their friend. We did not dare to show this even to our parents, since Sasha's mother was still very painfully experiencing a reaction to Sasha's behavior in transport. For both of them, and for other parents, this topic is much more painful and closer than Shakespearean passions: love and death.

Putting on a big show with rehearsals, with the use of costumes and scenery, allows you to solve many problems.

The process of staging a performance is quite lengthy, we can say that it is “alive”, the performance seems to mature from conception to premiere. We want to talk about how this happens, using the example of the production of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by A.S. Pushkin. This is a very difficult to manage multidimensional and multilevel process. From the hustle and bustle at the beginning, a clear outline is gradually born - the main concept of the performance. All its participants - children, teachers, and parents (some of them also play roles) are co-authors. Gradually, from time to time, everything superfluous disappears, and as the participants master and realize their roles, new episodes appear, props are specified, and successful finds are fixed.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

This performance was staged in the 2006-2007 school year in the senior class (children attend our school for 8-9 years). The historical and theatrical course in this class had already been completed: from ancient Greece to Shakespeare and Suvorov. Children have matured and have become much better at understanding speech and interacting with each other, and we found it possible to return to fairy tales. This return was already on a completely different level, because A.S. Pushkin wrote his fairy tales rather for adults. In the old days, the whole family listened to a fairy tale, from young to old. not without reason folk tales end with the saying: "The tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows (and not at all for small children)." The plot of the Tale of Tsar Saltan was relevant for older children and for their parents, whom we first attracted to work on the play and some even as actors. It was important for us to take a story that everyone knows well and that reflects the idea of ​​leaving the native school under the wing of the big world and creating a new living space there.

The entire production process can be roughly divided into three phases. : preliminary, stage-rehearsal and premiere.

preliminary stage includes several parallel processes and takes quite a lot of time (up to a third of the entire work on the performance).

First of all, you need to choose a play that can be used to talk with the guys on topics that are important for them and teachers. After all, a literary and dramatic game is a way of communicating with children, and it is important that this communication be mutually interesting. This communication should take into account both the ability of children to develop, and their actual opportunities. For our actors, it is necessary that the play contains visual figurative material, so that there are many concrete actions. The chosen work had a dynamic plot, bright, solid characters and burning topics for us (separation problems). At the same time, the correspondence of the images of the main characters to the capabilities of the actors is pretended, since they already had theatrical experience. At the same stage, we decided to involve parents. Firstly, they were very interested in the production, and secondly, great performance it was impossible to put the forces only of children and their teachers. Of course, not all parents were able to decide to go on stage with their children, not everyone is ready for this, but all parents were given the task of making an illustration to an excerpt from a fairy tale with their children using any technique. The texts were selected taking into account the role of each . The most striking works were obtained in the families of Lina and Valya. Two parents were involved directly on the stage - Sasha's mother Maria and father Valya.

List of participants:

Three maidens 1 (queen) - Maria G. (mother S.)

2 (weaver) - Tanya (ped.)

3 cooks - Valya

The Tsar Father - Sasha

Messenger - A. Rakhmanova (teacher)

The Swan Princess - Lina

Prince Gvidon - Dima

Swans friend - Oksana (teacher)

Korshun - Oksana Ovchinnikova

Shipbuilders - Olga Berezkina (psychologist working with parents) and Valya's dad

Squirrel - Alla

Moderator - A. Rakhmanova (teacher).

All students in the class are involved in the performance. The roles were selected based on the following considerations: the temperament and character of the child should not only correspond to the role (as the director sees it), but the role should also help develop his abilities, cope with behavioral problems, and grow personally. We wanted all participants in the performance to gain new experience in different areas - emotional, behavioral, cognitive and experience of interaction and communication. Below we will dwell in more detail on the features of the distribution of roles in this performance.

The main feature of our theater in the fact that the main roles are always entrusted to children (except for sharply negative ones). Even if the child does not speak at all, the script is written in such a way that the content of the role becomes clear from the remarks of others. The pupil will have to go through it himself. Playing a silent squire all your life, you won’t feel like a knight, and the prince’s silence, compared to the servant’s talkativeness, only emphasizes his dignity.

Therefore, the exact text of the script is not written, and the scenes are not set until the children begin to rehearse. After all, the replicas of the characters comment on the actions of children, and it is impossible to predict in advance how the child will behave in the role, what kind of gestures he will use. It is after the first, preliminary, rehearsal that it may become clear that the chosen work is not suitable for staging a performance in this group. In this case, one or two more games are played - actually therapeutic drama therapy, and everything starts all over again: the selection of a work, etc.

Stage rehearsal stage

In our work, the advice of a psychologist to play the whole performance with paper dolls on the table helped us a lot. Moreover, the dolls were painted in accordance with the type of children's costumes. Postcards with reproductions of famous artists were used as decorations.

Sasha with mom(the king and queen) were together at the beginning of the performance, then they had to be separated, and only at the end of the performance they joyfully united again, which corresponds to the correct version of the social life of a teenager and an adult. This role is small. In previous years, Sasha played difficult dramatic roles(Prince Siegfried, Moor of Peter the Great, Romeo). His leg hurt all the time, which was reflected in his mental state. Therefore, it was important that his role did not require a constant presence on stage. At the same time, the role of the king made it possible to work with the problem of overprotection on the part of the mother and the adequate expression of the child's protest against overprotection.

Dima(Guidon) has not received big roles for a long time. He was always a little behind in growth from his peers, thin, quiet did not cause much trouble. But over the past year and a half, he suddenly matured: he grew a lot, gained weight, appeared increased attention to girls and women. He tries to draw attention to himself, but his actions cause irritation and even fear among others outside the school. Dima pinches painfully, often loudly and out of place laughs or screams, grabs his hair. Therefore, he was given the role of overcoming - the young prince, the defender of the weak. Negative behavior within the framework of the role was strictly limited to the plot: the mosquito prince punishes his aunt.

At Allochki(squirrels) the role was predominantly “descriptive”, because she came to school later than all the children, got used to it for a long time and quite often missed classes. Therefore, she did not have a preparatory period, the experience of deep diverse roles. The girl is very mobile, emotionally labile, constantly jumps and sings, which is quite consistent with the description of the role: ("The squirrel sings songs and gnaws everything nuts ...").

Valya(cook) at school for a long time, but she moved to our class only last year, in her previous class there were fewer theatrical performances. The girl really likes to squeeze something in her hand - a pencil or a stick (in the performance a ladle), she constantly "sounds", making rather loud vocalizations. It took the kids a long time to get used to it. Although she had direct interaction in the performance mainly with adults, participation in the general action helped her by the end. school year improve communication with classmates. There was also an element of overcoming in the role, since it is difficult for her to stay still for a long time, and according to the plot, the cook sits or moves around in a small space of the castle house for most of the performance.

Lina(princess) - the role is descriptive and at the same time restraining. The impetuosity and trembling of character correspond to the role of the Swans - "the Swan beats among the swells ... And she waved her wings, splashed water with noise." In itself, the image of a beautiful princess for Lina is not new. For a long time she was the only girl in the class and naturally all the roles of princesses went to her. Even in the game in the "boyars" they chose her most often, and she always reacted very emotionally to this. It is precisely because of her serious attitude to the performance (it is very important for her to finish the story to the end), her expressive gestures and facial expressions, even after the arrival of Alla and Valya, the leading roles were entrusted to her. But! It is important that, unlike previous roles, she does not achieve admiration immediately and helps the prince for a long time, remaining in a modest cloak.

In addition, a complex costume - a long dress with a two-layer heavy skirt, over a white cape (wings), also sets a different movement pattern. Especially compared to her casual wear- sports trousers.

The rehearsal process was difficult, especially in the beginning. However, we tried to stick to playing the whole performance every time, especially in the first and last rehearsals. This was done to better perceive the meaning of the whole tale as a whole. In addition, when only one scene is played, one of the children will inevitably remain unused. Some children, especially Liina, are very much looking forward to their appearance, and it is difficult to explain to them that their stage will only be completed at the next rehearsal, on another day. Therefore, we usually skipped only those scenes in which absent children were involved, especially if they were not necessary for the development of the main plot line, for example, the squirrel scene if Alla was not there that day. In the process of rehearsals, it is necessary to carefully observe the reaction of children, noting everything that corresponds or, on the contrary, contradicts the role. For example, if S. was worried, shouted loudly, it was said: "Well, kings have a cool character, sometimes they get angry." And if Dima behaved rudely with Lina, he began to kick, grab by the hair, they joked: "The prince does not behave like that with his bride, even if he grew up on the island. Look, the Princess will not marry you!" I also sometimes had to tactfully comment on the behavior of the parents: “That's it, the mother leaves, the son will go hunting alone, on a date the prince must explain himself.” This scene was the most difficult, my mother tried to accompany him all the time. Initially, Alla had three short exits - with a gymnastic ribbon while depicting waves at sea; squirrel in front of Gvidon and at the meeting of Saltan. But then it became clear that it is easier for her if there is one, but a full-fledged performance, because it is difficult for her to switch ..

In parallel with the rehearsals, work was underway on the scenery, to which the guys were also connected. Sasha independently sewed parts of the appliqué to the canvas - Gvidon's palace. All the guys helped color the cardboard barrel and the squirrel's palace. This is necessary not only to immerse the actors in the context of the play, to get used to the characters, but also to make the space of the stage “their own” for the actors. Minimize the oddity of the interior .

Premiere Stage

It can be very difficult to decide when a performance is ready to be shown to the public. It is important to conduct at least two or three rehearsals without children. Adults need time to clearly work out the movements around the stage and the timing of the exits, but since our children do not memorize their roles, but live, the emotional expressiveness of gestures decreases if the rehearsal period is too long. If the time frame does not allow the performance to be finalized, sometimes it is necessary to release it "raw" so as not to deceive the expectations of the guys. Long preparation and waiting should be resolved.

This is an example of a big "real" performance.

Conclusion

It is difficult to talk about the long-term results of drama therapy, because the changes in the behavior of children and parents, of course, were influenced by the work of the entire team in all classes, and yet a fact is a fact. In the summer, Sasha and his mother were in a camp in Poltava, where his mother decided to let him go for the first time, and where he played with ordinary children of 7-8 years old. Valya's parents said that they really want her to stay in this class, because here the children have a positive influence on her, and the behavior of the girl at home has also changed for the better. Dima's mother agreed to come to psychologist's classes with the baby in order to build Dima's interaction with his brother.

Application

Unfortunately, most teachers involved in theater with children are very lonely in their work. It is extremely difficult to find materials, scripts suitable for school plays children with disabilities. But in any case, whether you are adapting a classic or composing your own play, the director-educator must clearly understand the following:

For what - What interests him in this play?

what can children-actors and spectators - children and parents - find in it for themselves.

When What works did the children study in Lately, what is their life and theatrical experience, and so on, for example, the time of the year when the play is being rehearsed is taken into account, and most importantly: will it be shown.

Where - stage and rehearsal space.

How many the time you have to prepare the performance, whether it is limited or not, and how long the performance can last.

With whom - a performance is a common thing, and one person cannot put it on. In the best case, you will get a recitation with lively pictures. For a good performance, at least three people are needed who discuss the performance together, know the script and the work, rehearse at first without children, at the stage of the formation of the performance, and before dress rehearsal. Adults breed bottlenecks, clarify exits and place accents. Everyone is responsible for his own - a reader (author), a musician and a "breeder" - an assistant director.

Here some tried and tested rules who can help in conducting classes (rehearsals).

For classes, you need a hall or a spacious room, free from unnecessary furniture. It should contain only chairs - according to the number of children and teachers, props - objects, furniture or even sports equipment necessary for this lesson. It is desirable that there is a room adjacent to the hall for storing costumes and scenery. During the performance, children who are not on the stage will be able to relax there, in addition, if your hall is not equipped with stationary backstage, such a room can partly replace them.

The space allocated for the stage can be larger or smaller, depending on the number of people employed in the performance and on the chosen play. You should also consider that if your actors have severe speech and/or fine motor skills, you'll need more space, as long dialogues and complex gestures will be replaced with large sweeping gestures and beautiful stage passes. However, this also has its advantages, since too “conversational” plays “not for everyone” are not very scenic and difficult to perceive even when performed by professional actors.

It is desirable to start the lesson with some “magic” sound - a bell or metallophone, and finish with it, emphasizing the transition from reality to a fabulously theatrical space. Moreover, the reverse transition is even more important for many, especially for those who have increased emotionality combined with rigidity, a tendency to get stuck on one topic. Children get into the role so much that they can neither talk nor think about anything else.

Then the actual playing of the entire performance or individual actions, but always with a brief pronunciation of the ligaments and the end. This part of the lesson may vary depending on the mental development of the children, the complexity of the performance and the degree to which the children are familiar with the material.

When staging classical works, it is very important not to replace the original text with a free retelling, reducing, preserving the rhythm, style and language of the original. But when working with non-speaking children, it is sometimes possible to transfer the words of one character to another: in a dialogue, a speaking adult can pronounce the words of a partner with surprised or indignant intonation, as if repeating, asking again.

We continue to look for new forms and methods of work. So this year, parents of children were also involved as actors. We plan to use video recording more fully - not only at the final stage, but also to shoot all the important stages of the rehearsal process. The participation of parents revealed the need for a detailed discussion of the goals and objectives of the upcoming work.

Good luck to everyone who is also looking! Write to us, we will be happy to learn from you or help.

As part of the social project of the theatrical forum "Golden Knight" in Moscow, the performance "Others" was shown, dedicated to the problems children with autism. The scriptwriter and director of the professional children's theater "Bambi" Natalya Bondarchuk told about the details of the work on the performance of the RP.

- Natalya Sergeevna, your performance “Others” is about children with autism and how difficult it is for their parents in an unenlightened society. The production involved children who actually have autism?

Yes, I have children with autism in the play, and I don’t want to make a zoo out of them. There was a child here, uniquely gifted, and he did everything that was required on the stage. I will not specifically say what gender this child is. Let me just say that I met the mother of our artist at one of the conferences. We got into a conversation, and I suggested that her child try to work out in my nursery. professional theater"Bambi". They came and did everything right off the bat, and it was great. Then it was necessary to read the text in the recording studio, and the child brilliantly coped with the task. Now it is difficult to distinguish him from ordinary children involved in the play. Of course, I was worried that rehearsals are one thing, and when there is a little more attention to special children, they can become isolated. But it wasn't. Everything happened just as I expected.

- Is it easy for you to work with special children?

Yes, it's easy for me to work. But pay attention: there are different forms of autism. Some children, despite their peculiarity, are very contact, while others do not like too much attention. Artem Rabins, who played the protagonist of the play "Others", has an autistic older brother, and in a very severe form. He came to our hall, but did not want to participate in the performance. Despite this, he is very interesting person. The brothers love each other, they have established contact, and this is very important. And for me it is important that our actor learned everything from his brother: move like autists, speak, burr a little, and so on. I could not wait for such a child, take another for the main role, but then everything would be untrue.

- Does the stage help special children to open up?

Yes. We had a boy with cerebral palsy, and when I invited him, he was an outcast in society. He was not taken to kindergarten, or to school, or to any circles. He was the smartest child and very talented, but so peculiar. I gave him the role of the main robber in " snow queen". He was funny, like a cuttlefish, due to his plasticity, his speech was slightly impaired. And the audience didn't know about it. They saw the funny chief robber and applauded. The child was absolutely happy. Do you know who this child is? As a child psychologist, he wanted to rehabilitate children like him. I also had a girl whose one hand was dry. And we came up with a costume for her with wings, she played a bird with us. Her dry hand was not visible, and she did an excellent job with the role. And I also remembered a phenomenal incident that happened to us. The girl Zhenechka Chaikovskaya, who was paralyzed after the flu, corresponded with our children's theater. She was brought in her arms to a children's performance in Simferopol, because she was not walking. She watched our performance and suddenly got up and went! The theater heals, but only faith is needed, it is very important.

- How, in your opinion, did the audience receive the play “The Others”?

You know, when I went on stage, I thought that no one had come to the performance. There was such silence. But it was full of people, there were a lot of children. In such a natural, incredible silence in the hall, it is very convenient for artists to play. Because you can’t play such a performance in a noisy hall.

Many people took part in the play "Others" famous people, including Elena Proklova. Was it easy for her to agree to take part in a production with such an important social theme?

When I offered Lena Proklova to play the main role, I simply explained literally two or three lines from the script, and she said: “Natasha, I got goosebumps.” Today, at the run-through, for the first time she watched the performance from the side, her role was played by another actress from our children's theater. Lena was completely shattered and came to the show even more tuned in to her role. But her readiness is phenomenal. In general, I admire Lena, I have such a tender feeling for her now! She is a true professional and, as it turned out, a great teacher. Lena made very important remarks to our little artists and helped us a lot.

Photo: Alexey Sovertkov / Russian Planet

- At the same time, the performance was absolutely free for the audience, admission by invitation.

Yes, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture, this performance was charitable. As a matter of principle, I want all screenings of The Others to be free for viewers, after all. social project. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare society so that such performances are supported by trade unions, because the actors work, and, unfortunately, we cannot just ask them for a bowl of soup. Therefore, I urge everyone who is not indifferent to somehow help us. We do not need much, just to survive as a theater and as people, so I really hope for a resonance in society.

- Will you tour with this performance and somehow continue the topic raised in other productions?

Necessarily. I think that our first tour will be in Ryazan, we have already agreed on this with the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Ryazan Region Vitaly Popov. The most difficult thing that awaits us during the tour is the transportation of very complicated scenery. They are voluminous, they were made by my wonderful friend - the artist Sergei Vorobyov, who worked on the films "Pushkin: The Last Duel" and "Gogol. Nearest". He made powerful, amazing sets that can transform, but you need funds to transport them. And transportation must be well prepared. I want to do a screening of this play on April 2nd, World Autism Awareness Day. This is a very important topic and we need to draw attention to it.

In my thoughts to continue this theme, this performance. I want there to be a second performance with the same actors, but to have a continuation of the plot. I have already submitted this project to the Ministry of Culture, it will be called "Challenge". And also, you know, I dream that a film will be born from the performance. I will do my best, beg the Ministry of Culture, because this is a very important topic. I would put her in the very first place.

Photo: Alexey Sovertkov / Russian Planet

Just by the way your eyes burn when you touch on this topic, it is clear that you have put a lot of effort and soul into it.

I have been working with children with autism for 20 years. It was so many years ago in Klaipeda in Lithuania that I first saw a boy sitting and constantly looking at one point. I asked what happened to him? They told me it was autism. That was the first time I heard about this diagnosis. It turned out that America has overtaken us here. Not only did they make Rain Man, they made an amazing Feature Film Temple Grandin, as many as ten world-class films about autism. And yet this topic has not yet been fully disclosed. Humanity has not yet figured out what it is. But it is very important to have time to understand it. I did not begin to pronounce the following information from the stage: it has already been calculated that now every 68th person on planet Earth is with autistic syndrome, only with different forms of manifestation. The number of autistic people increases by 15-20% per year. Scientists have calculated that perhaps in 10 years every second child in America will be born with autism. Then, excuse me, what kind of wars? Everything will fade into the background. And in the first place will be the evolutionary change of humanity - that's what awaits us. It is to this problem that I dedicated the play.

Your performance inspires hope that our society will be able to understand and accept special children. Their parents really need the support of others.

I want to tell the parents of such children: know that you, first of all, are not alone. Fortunately or unfortunately, there are already a lot of such parents. And it’s really true: fathers often cannot stand the current situation, and the burden of worries falls on mothers. I filmed an episode for the play in Sevastopol. There, the mother talks about her child, without hiding, of course, that he is autistic, her son is already six years old. She is so bright man, and when I asked: please tell me, how do you feel about this? As to the punishment of the Lord, or is it, on the contrary, as a gift? She says: of course, as a gift! This is how it should be treated. These children teach us love. And I want to say to everyone: learn love from such children. Then we will have a humane humanity. What, in fact, this performance is dedicated to: to learn to love, to respect all forms of the neurological development of mankind. Because we are not the same. None of us are the same, and each of us, by the way, has traits of autism. Everyone can remember that in some situations they behaved like our heroes. Therefore, it is important to understand, forgive and love.

The theater workshop is another type of art therapy. Class theatrical art with autistic people can be bewildering, but it is also very interesting way work. Theater allows children with autism to recognize their role and address feelings that are so difficult for them to understand. You know how difficult it is for them to express grief or pain. They laugh when they are hurt and when they are happy, and it is really very difficult for them to distinguish our feelings from their own, to understand their own and our feelings. Theatrical art is, of course, loudly said, but such activities help them simultaneously learn to move in space, feel the other person and express their feelings. In some classes, we learn to pretend that we are laughing or angry, or that we are sad. There are classes in which they work in pairs and pretend to quarrel. Sometimes we depict real family scenes. We attach great importance to these things, just as we specifically ask children to make very loud noises from musical instruments. We deliberately exaggerate the scale of the ordinary situation.

As I said above, in the theater workshop you can teach children how to move in space and at the same time instill in them social norms. It is enough to hang a curtain in the hall to arrange a “stage”, and then you can practice moving around the stage: enter it from one side and exit from the other. Then you can complicate the task each time, for example, ask the child to walk back and forth across the stage twice. You can “arrange” a meeting for the children on the stage, you can ask the child on the stage to call another, and all this is “pretend”.

We managed to put on a performance based on the fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", which took whole year. We started by working on stage movement as I described above. Then, after looking at many picture books, we chose this tale, acted it out, and everyone chose a role for themselves. Naturally, the talking children chose the most best roles: Snow White, the king, the sorceress and the hunter who was supposed to kill Snow White. Non-speaking children got the roles of gnomes, and this is where the big problems began. The roles were chosen, the plot was familiar, but nothing worked, and we stopped the “rehearsals”. We started making decorations: trees, furniture for the dwarfs' house and a castle. We made our own costumes: the dwarves had white caps and white T-shirts, the king built himself a crown and beautiful raincoat, a hunter - a sword and a hunting suit, and, of course, very Nice dress for Snow White… On the day the children put on their costumes, the work began. The children worked with the utmost concentration. They really knew what they needed to do. They didn’t teach roles, just the teacher recorded the text on a tape recorder, and we practiced scene after scene so that they could determine by ear what they needed to do. The performance was shown to other children. A funny thing happened during the show. When the queen died, the king had to cry and wipe his tears with a handkerchief. But during the performance he did not have a handkerchief. He looked around, but instead of going for a handkerchief, he found me with his eyes (I was standing backstage) and signaled to me that he needed a handkerchief. I tossed him a handkerchief and he was able to continue!

At what age do classes begin in the theater workshop? This performance was attended by children from the middle and senior groups children's center.

Do children understand what you tell them? To finish talking about the theater, I want to remind you of our goal: to teach children to express themselves using theatrical techniques, that is, to put on performances, fantasize, invent, create unusual situations for them. When they encounter such situations in life, they do not know how to manage them, they do not know how to control their anger or express their sadness, and the theater workshop helps them learn how to do this.

We use MACATON language in our work, which facilitates communication, and we are convinced that oral speech becomes more and more meaningful for children, even if they do not speak. If they know that they can express their thoughts and that they will be understood, that they will be heard, that they can “speak” without necessarily using words, then they do not need to express their feelings through aggression, because they have another means to say that they are bad. And, of course, they generally become more calm.