Yunus Emre InstituteYunus Emre Institute London organised Karagöz & Hacivat workshops which took place in the 3-day training program TaPS Perspectives 2022, organised by ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association).
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Yunus Emre Institute London took part in the TaPS festival (Theatre arts Performance Symposium) with the Karagöz & Hacivat Project! From the 8th to the 10th of October 2022, the festival hosted a series of workshops for international students enrolled in the IB theatre programme at Conway Hall in London. The TaPS festival is run by the International School Theatre Association (ISTA) which provides global learning opportunities through theatre. The intensive training programme includes 5 branches: collaboratively creating original theatre, IB diploma perspective, staging play text, and exploring world theatre traditions.
Over 90 theatre students from many different countries such as America, Italy, United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland participated in the TaPS Perspectives 2022, at Conway Hall. These shows are brought to life by award-winning theatre actress Ada Burke who trained at the prestigious Bursa Karagöz and Hacivat Museum, and delivers Karagöz & Hacivat workshops for over 90 international theatre students to contribute to exploring world theatre traditions.
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Ada Burke, our specially trained Karagöz & Hacivat performer, focused on centuries-old performance conventions from the Turkish shadow play tradition. In the first half of the workshop, students were introduced to a brief history of Turkish shadow play and observed some puppets from Karagöz & Hacivat plays. Students were given acetate films on which they could draw and paint their own Karagöz and Hacivat figures. They then made their own puppets using fishlines and rods.
After finishing the puppets, students discussed and explored the characteristics of Karagöz and Hacivat, discovered their voice and movement on stage, and at the end of the workshop, they performed a Muhavere (a dialogue) from a traditional play using real (leather made) Karagöz and Hacivat puppets.
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Alongside Yunus Emre Institute London’s wider aims of cross-cultural dialogue, the Institute’s involvement in the festival is part of ‘𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗴ö𝘇 & 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁’ which is an educational project launched to promote Turkish culture and establish a bridge between students from different cultural backgrounds.
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At the end of the workshops, the students stated that Karagöz & Hacivat provided the most educational and entertaining training, and that they were excited to experience the shadow play behind the scenes for the first time, even though they had played on stage before. They specifically highlighted that they were fascinated by the amount of effort it takes to play the puppets and follow a text, while using a different tone for each character, and added that it is admirable that traditional Karagöz & Hacivat actors perform many different tasks at the same time. The students left the workshop with their own Karagöz and Hacivat puppets after enjoying the opportunity to modernise Karagöz and Hacivat’s bickering and add their own dialogues.
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On the final day of the event, the managers stated that the Karagöz & Hacivat shadow play fits their curriculum perfectly and that they are eager to collaborate with Yunus Emre Institute London. The workshops received very positive feedback from all theatre students, who stated that they would be very keen on focusing their research projects on Karagöz and Hacivat. Many international schools extended invitations to future workshops, and new lines of communication were established.
About the Karagöz & Hacivat Shadow Play Project:
Karagöz & Hacivat Shadow Play is an educational project launched by Yunus Emre Institute London in 2018, aiming to promote an understanding and appreciation of Turkish culture whilst establishing a bridge between students coming from different cultural backgrounds. Within the scope of the project, over 30 plays in both English and Turkish languages have been performed for children in primary and secondary schools, various cultural institutions and museums in the UK.
For more information on the event and to explore similar upcoming events, please visit Yunus Emre Institute London Website: https://yeelondon.org.uk/ or email londra@yee.org.tr.