Critical Thinking: Theatre in another language

Episode 172: Critical Thinking: Theatre in Another Language Have you ever watched a piece of theatre in another language? Theatrefolk partners in Crime Lindsay Price and Craig Mason put on their critical thinking caps and reflect on seeing theatre in Norwegian, Icelandic, and scrap metal (you’ll have to listen in for more on that one). How are stories told physically and visually? When are stories not told well, regardless of the language gap? A great theatrical experiment! Show Notes The Drama Teacher Academy Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and Theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! All right, this is Episode 172 and you can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode172. Today, we are talking language – specifically foreign languages! Well, foreign to me, anyway. They’re not foreign to the people who live in the countries that we visited but they are not in my home language and we’re talking about seeing theatre. So, we’ve got language, foreign language, theatre. Okay, who’s put it all together? Who’s tying all the knots and a bow? Ah, you guys are so smart, yes! So, we are talking about seeing theatre in another language. Have you ever done that? Have you ever went to a show where you knew you wouldn’t be able to understand the dialogue? It’s a pretty fascinating experience, actually. It’s something that you could replicate a little bit, show your students YouTube clips of bits of movie bits from another language and see what they comprehend. That’s kind of what we’re talking about here. And so, my Theatrefolk partner-in-crime, Craig Mason, we did just that. Whenever we travel, we make it a point to go see some theatre. And so, when we were in Iceland and Norway, we saw plays in Icelandic and Norwegian – some with some very clear communicative storytelling and, well, some not. You’ll have to listen to figure those ones out. That’s our purpose here in this podcast – to talk about what these experiences were like, not just as pieces of theatre or plays but pieces of communication. How do these plays communicate physically and visually? How much of a story did we understand when we didn’t have the language? And how much does acting, relationships, and verbal technique come into the equation. It’s a whole big critical thinking mosaic – that’s a good word! Everybody’s got to put their critical thinking cap on and I’m going to say “critical thinking” one more time because then we’ve really got some 21st Century skills going on, eh, eh? We’ve got some communication, we’ve got some critical thinking, oh, it’s all good. Oh, and then, there’s one bonus section about a piece we saw in Scotland that had no dialogue – just scrap metal and music and lights. So, how did this particular piece communicate? Well, that’s something else you’re going to have to listen to find out. I can’t give it all away in the intro, can I? So, let’s get to it! LINDSAY: Hi, Craig. CRAIG: Hi, Lindsay Price. Hey, you didn’t call me by my last name. LINDSAY: I didn’t. CRAIG: I called you Lindsay Price. You called me just Craig. LINDSAY: Okay, let’s start again. CRAIG: Okay. LINDSAY: Hi, Craig Mason. CRAIG: Hi, Lindsay. LINDSAY: Oh, snap! Actually, what you’ve just done is an interesting play on the place of where we are right now/ Where are w...