With the Polish partner, actors and kikki’s director
Very relaxed
Tired but happy
The girls with Giovanni and Roberto
The beautiful Kikki’s swimmingpool
Social moments
Roberto with our Polish partner
Riccardo acting as a dog
Really clever
Our wonderful Polish friends
Our actors Francesca and Cesare
Listening to the actors
Let’s learn to read
Let’s act
lessons
Laughing is health
Italian lessons
Italian is a difficult language
Happy actors
Carolina as a nurse
Angela’s dream
Angela and the snake
Acting lessons
A wonderful group
Ragusa Workshop summary
The main objective of the workshop was to participate in the course “With a Smile on Your Lips,” which has been in implementation for three years at the ASP of Ragusa in collaboration with RF Communications. The aim of the course is to start from stories of situations that actually happened during working hours that may have been experienced by health care personnel and patients with discomfort, either due to work stress or objective difficulties, and that are transformed into “lighter” situations, perhaps with a pinch of irony, through the skilful and professional contribution of professional actors who modify the story in a way that makes it funnier.
The goal is to transfer to health care workers some techniques to be able to overcome moments of stress and discomfort during their hospital Interventions. Actors write a real script that is then performed, like a real play, by the health workers themselves, who become the protagonists.
Our Polish partner, through its practitioners present at the workshop, was directly involved in the activity. It was a very hard work of continuous translation from English to Italian and vice versa to make sure that Italian and foreign participants and actors understood each other and that the partner could acquire the techniques behind the good practice to be “exchanged.” The results were amazing and our Polish friends not only learned their Italian parts very well but also turned out to be very good actresses.
But let us come in detail to the description of the mobility days
Activities
They were welcomed at the Ragusa bus station by their Sicilian colleagues and taken to Kikki village in Modica, a unique facility in Europe in that it was created and dedicated entirely to people with disabilities. It is a village with bungalows, restaurant and swimming pool, stage for events, auditorium and lots of greenery. We chose this place because it allows for full immersion activities in a green and relaxing environment. They devoted the afternoon to the sea; the southern coast is one of the most beautiful in Sicily. From Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 the workshop was conducted.
First day
The first day, Saturday, was devoted to welcoming the six Polish women, workers at Stowarzyszenie Zwierzęta Ludziom.
They were welcomed at the Ragusa bus station by their Sicilian colleagues and taken to Kikki village in Modica, a unique facility in Europe in that it was created and dedicated entirely to people with disabilities. It is a village with bungalows, restaurant and swimming pool, stage for events, auditorium and lots of greenery. We chose this place because it allows for full immersion activities in a green and relaxing environment. They devoted the afternoon to the sea; the southern coast is one of the most beautiful in Sicily. From Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 the workshop was conducted.
At the same time, some Italian grammar lessons were given and some common words and phrases were transferred that they could easily use during their stay. After lunch there were social activities with a visit to the city of Modica.
Sunday
On Sunday the project coordinator, Roberta Arnone, devoted the entire morning to teaching them how to read in Italian the stories that they themselves had written in English and that concerned two situations they had actually experienced.
At the same time, some Italian grammar lessons were given and some common words and phrases were transferred that they could easily use during their stay. After lunch there were social activities with a visit to the city of Modica.
After lunch, the partner engaged in social activities together with the other operators involved in the project, and the actors began writing a script from the stories they heard, editing them and creating new stories. They also defined the protagonists and the roles to be assigned to each. The workshop was also attended by other health workers involved as “auditors” who watched the performances of the young Polish women with great enthusiasm.
Monday
On Monday, the 26th, when the actors arrived, the operators involved in the project, both Italian and Polish, read the stories to introduce them to the actors who would later have to edit them.
After lunch, the partner engaged in social activities together with the other operators involved in the project, and the actors began writing a script from the stories they heard, editing them and creating new stories. They also defined the protagonists and the roles to be assigned to each. The workshop was also attended by other health workers involved as “auditors” who watched the performances of the young Polish women with great enthusiasm.
On Tuesday the 27th roles were assigned and the whole day was devoted to rehearsals, first individual and then group rehearsals.
Tuesday
During individual rehearsals, much support was given to the Polish partner; once he was able to be autonomous in performance, the group rehearsals were moved on.
A parenthesis was placed on music. A professional musician mentioned the importance of music in theatrical performance by giving concrete examples and then accompanied the entire performance with specially created music and stacchetti. In the late afternoon, the foreigners visited the city of Ibla, historic Ragusa, a pearl of Sicilian Baroque.
On Tuesday the 27th roles were assigned and the whole day was devoted to rehearsals, first individual and then group rehearsals.
The evening ended with a final barbecue, disco and karaoke with involvement of all present, external audience and the village guests, under the banner of total social inclusion. At the end of the course activity, a satisfaction questionnaire was administered to the project participants from which an average overall satisfaction index of 90 percent was evident. All participants expressed interest, appreciation, reported that they had a lot of fun, acquired a very important technique that they could repeat in their organizational reality, and, above all, an atmosphere of friendship, socialization, and participation was created, which is the basis of the overall objectives of “Erasmus.”
Last day
On the last day, from morning to early afternoon (after lunch) there was a dress rehearsal, and at 6 p.m. the performance was staged on the village stage in the presence of an outside audience, including guests of the village, handicapped people, almost all of whom were foreigners, who were very happy to watch the play. The evening ended with a final performance by professional actors who wanted to give a tribute to all participants in the project and the evening. It should be noted that the actors in question are nationally renowned; to give an example, some are part of the cast of “Add a Place at the Table,” a play that has toured several Italian cities.
The evening ended with a final barbecue, disco and karaoke with involvement of all present, external audience and the village guests, under the banner of total social inclusion. At the end of the course activity, a satisfaction questionnaire was administered to the project participants from which an average overall satisfaction index of 90 percent was evident. All participants expressed interest, appreciation, reported that they had a lot of fun, acquired a very important technique that they could repeat in their organizational reality, and, above all, an atmosphere of friendship, socialization, and participation was created, which is the basis of the overall objectives of “Erasmus.”
