Aitsona-Daitsona is promoting modern and inclusive theatre for children and tries to fill the current gap. We don’t just play for children, we want to include them in our work and work with them horizontally. Who knows more about the needs, wishes and problems of children than children themselves?
Hence, we have initiated the campaign “New Voices for Children Theatre” with the kind support of People In Need Georgia. We called on Georgian authors to write new plays for children that are dealing with the social reality of them and include their voices, ideas, problems and hopes. To achieve this, we teamed up with the LAG Upper Svaneti – ადგილობრივი განვითარების ჯგუფი ზემო სვანეთი and the initiative group “Towards New Opportunities in Akhalkalaki”, they helped us to interview local children in their regions. Based on the answers of the children, writers were asked to send in ideas for plays. Out of all draft, the two best were selected, these were by Alex Chigvinadze and Mariam Tchantchaleishvili.
Until June 2022, the two writers have time to finish their plays. They receive support by the Aitsona-Daitsona team and have meetings and talks about writing plays for and together with children with various practitioners such as Volker Ludwig – playwright founder of GRIPS Theater Berlin, the dramaturges of GRIPS Theater, Svenja Gräfen and Tamta Melashvili.
But most importantly the writers meet the children and work together with them on their ideas. Together with the Aitsona-Daitsona team, Alex Chigvinadze and Mariam Tchantchaleishivili visited the participating children in both regions, ran writing and theatre workshops with them and discussed the ideas for the plays. They then write their plays and return with the finished script to the children who will give final feedback and can play some parts themselves.
The final plays will also be presented in a staged reading at Goethe Institute Tbilisi on the 11th of June 2022 and later be included in the repertoire of Aitsona-Daitsona and are to be toured to children all over Georgia
