From September 24 to October 3 this year, a total of 5 youth workers, representing Volunteers Centre Skopje, were witnesses and active participants in a training course “Act it Out!” in Debrecen, Hungary. The goal of the project was to gain new knowledge about Image and Forum theater.

Surrounded by positive energy every day, the working atmosphere was great. The good preparation of the organizers contributed to the understanding and successful completion of certain activities.

We really liked the very connection of the activities and how each subsequent one complements the previous one. We worked on understanding each other and how to accept another opinion, even if it differs with our cultural values ​​and habits. The activities were focused on two themes – Theater of the image and the Forum Theater. The Image theater is a performance where the actors statically represent a certain emotion or relationship. Most often, the topics arise from everyday life and are an indication of obsession. The interesting thing is that the people in the audience also have the opportunity to change the scene and thus change the dynamics and nature of the scene itself. Forum theater uses theater to achieve social goals. It is a form of theater that encourages audience interaction and explores different options for dealing with a problem. Forum theater is often used by socially excluded and disempowered groups.

The knowledge we gained from these experiences is very important because now we have opportunity to contribute to our communities. Huge thanks to Volunteers Centre Skopje for the chance to participate in this project and to Hang-kép Egyesület for the excellent implementation and hospitality!