Plays are one of the least read literary forms. If we were to talk about plays aimed at children and young people, we would be talking about the margins of the periphery.
ASSITEJ works to highlight and promote quality dramatic creation aimed at children, avoiding infantilization and asserting the literary value of these texts. It is in preschool, primary, and secondary schools, but also in higher education, that we must first change this reality in which contemporary theater aimed at children and young people is almost nonexistent.
In recent years, the initiatives carried out by our organization have yielded results, and the interest generated by dramatic creations specifically for children and young people is notable. Every day, more and more educational centers request texts to work with students in their classrooms, as well as organizations, fairs, and events that wish to showcase these texts.
He ASSITEJ cycle of dramatized readings It is a project to promote the reading of theatrical texts for children and young people. Its objective is to foster interest in reading and theater among children and young people, providing them with an enriching experience that stimulates their imagination, creativity, and communication skills.
Since the ASSITEJ Dramatized Reading Cycles began, the project has been adapting to achieve greater dissemination and broader impact. Strategies have been developed to ensure that the Dramatized Reading Cycle also serves as a gateway to educational centers, fostering the introduction of quality dramatic proposals into the classroom, in addition to works linked to the school curriculum. It is vitally important that both teachers and, above all, students can appreciate the artistic value of dramatic works and discover the expressive possibilities that reading offers through their dramatization.
We are convinced that reading, like theater, is a fundamental tool in the development of each individual's personality and socialization, as an essential element for living in a democracy. We are planning the Reading Cycle in this direction.
It's necessary to show children and young people that there is a contemporary theater, beyond the pedagogical, that speaks to their reality, in which children also participate. A theater with rigor, that values them and takes them seriously as audiences of today: a living and committed art capable of moving and touching its audience beyond their passive positioning, engaging them in a complete experience.
A dramatic text, in addition to being performed, is a literary work in which quality must always be emphasized. It also represents, due to its characteristics, a magnificent tool for promoting reading. Of great interest within the Series is always the post-reading meeting with the artistic team and the authors of the plays, a moment in which the audience has the opportunity to delve deeper into the creative process of creating the text, ask about the choice of theme, approach, structure, characters, and how the actors and actresses approach a specific character or situation. Teachers always receive a good sample of the selected texts well in advance at their schools to be able to work on them with their students; a process we have found to be enormously enriching and broadens the subsequent experience of dramatized readings.
