Experiences in the training and in Aszód Reformatory

I was one of the participants on the project “PlayBack to school” held in Budapest, Hungary in end-August beginning –September 2015.

In my experience I have some other projects where I participated, and with this time distance, now I can say that this was the most organized project I have took part so far. During the whole project, every day was so well planed, from the morning coffee until the closing activities after the dinner. I really like that every hour of the dynamic days we had, was fulfilled with interesting activities, so the time just went by.

All of the activities we had during the 8 days of the project led to an amazing experience and useful skill we all gained at the end of the project.

On the project, I had a chance to meet many people with diversity backgrounds. Here I first want to mention people who were big part of the activities we had during the days. People who came to show us their skills and to share with us their stories. Now when I look back at those days I see that all activities were so well planed, so at the end they led us to the magnificent finish of the project.

Theatrical group that came to show us their skills with the Playback Theater had a huge contribution on my personal improvement when it comes to methods of Playback Theater we were learning. It was also amazing to meet youngsters who came to share their stories and to bring us closer to the problems many of us could find themselves in and to learn us how to approach to those problems. Because approaching to the problem sometimes may be more difficult then the problem itself. All of this, as I mentioned, made us more prepared for the final day of the project or for its goal – visiting the youngsters from Reformatory and spend a day with them, while trying to approach to them and to make them more open to talk about their problems, to arouse theirs self-esteem and to help them reintegrate in the society.

Getting a chance to spend some hours with these youngsters form the Reformatory is unlike the experiences I had so far in my life. An experience I keep telling my friends about. At the Reformatory, during those hours spent with these youngsters, we, the participants on the project, worked as a group. We planed our routine, the games we were going to present, Playback Theater methods we were going to introduce and invite the youngsters to take an active part, and at the end, we were very proud that all went fine. I felt so proud of our group that we manage to animate the youngster to take an active part in all of this, that we as a group manage to bound with them, that we managed to gain their trust so they felt free to tell us their personal and touching stories.

As a result of all of the days spent in practicing theatrical methods, meeting people who came to teach us and to show us, to share their experience, we had 8 kids whom we mange to make a day better, to motivate them to stay positive about life and all of the problems they are facing and to bring them hope for better life. For that, I felt very happy, very proud and very satisfied.

Some of the methods we learnt on the project I find very useful in every days life. From all of the methods I especially appreciate those which learnt me how to bond with people, how to gain their trust, how to relax them when they fell stressful, and because of that I consider this project as very big win for my personal and social life.

At the end of this summary, I really like to mention all of the participants on the project, which I find very dedicated and motivated during the whole project. With most of them I am still in contact, for we manage to find a way to bound on different levels and because on different reasons and similar experiences. As it is common, one cannot find the same language with every one, but I am proud of the group as whole and on myself that we had very pleasant 8 days on the project, shared good energy, that we motivated each other’s and supported when was needed. This is one of many reasons I mentioned before, why I fell this was life-changing experience for me.

As conclusion, I would like to add that in my opinion, all of this that we as a group, and then me as an individual, experienced was because of the project coordinators who did an excellent job leading us through this experience. With their help, we manage to learn all the methods of Playback Theatre and then how to use and implement them. First, we participants practiced among us, and then we use them in interaction with youngsters from the Reformatory. However, the most significant job that they did, in my opinion, is to train us to be more open with each others, to gain each other’s trust, to feel free to open to each others, to share stories and to bond very close. It is because of them that the energy during the whole project was perfectly calm, inspirational and trustworthy.   ( Ana from Macedonia,  28 years old)