As part of our planned project, a joint play will be developed. The basis for this is Shakespeare's “The Merchant of Venice”. It is planned that the play will be transferred to a modern language and setting and that it will be designed and carried out together with all partners. The focus of attention lies on the following aspects: racism, exclusion, integration, promoting solidarity, tolerance and openness. The necessity of the project on the one hand lies in conveying the European idea to young people and protecting society from exclusion and on the other hand in promoting openness, tolerance and integration. Overall, the focus is on the establishment and expansion of the key qualification “European competence”. European competence, in our project, is defined as the qualification which promotes openness, tolerance and acceptance towards other cultures, religions, political views, sexual identities, gender equality and individual lifestyles. The European idea is to be placed special emphasis on. Particularly with regard to the still current challenges of integrating refugees in Europe, both in schools and in society, a necessity for education among students becomes obvious. For this reason, the student groups should consist of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. In addition, at present there is an increasingly anti-democratic development noticeable in Europe. The proposed project is intended to counter this development by reducing fear of contact, barriers and prejudices. At the same time, tolerance and openness towards other cultures, religions, political views and individual lifestyles will be promoted by the play itself as well as by the process of setting up the play. Since all partner schools are faced with the difficulty of a very heterogeneous student body, it can be expected that participation in the project will result in tangible changes among the students. Above all, these changes in behavior should contribute to a democratic and harmonious coexistence. In addition to strengthening European solidarity, the main aim of the project is to reduce prejudices. In the foreground are on the one hand the sensitization of young people to racism and exclusion as well as strengthening and development of tolerance. On the other hand, we need to dismantle barriers and take away fears. The focus is on the development of a holistic key qualification “European competence“. Phase 1 will be devoted to the subject area "Limits and Exclusion". For this purpose, each partner schools will develop their individual experiences with borders and exclusion and describe them in the context of the first project meeting, which will take place in Berlin. Goals are not only the representation of individual experiences, but also thoughts and ideas on how borders and exclusion can be overcome. In these ideas, all partner countries are considered. In phase 2, the setting of the play is to be framed. The partner schools will work together on what the costumes and the set could look like. For this purpose, a tour of the theater in Barcelona will take place. The aim of this project phase should be to find out how the play can be set in a modern context. Phase 3 focuses on the light and sound installation. It should be noted that both, light and sound, should produce dramatic effects. The partners' task is to develop special effects designed for the play. In phase 4, the marketing concept and trailer are to be developed. To this end, the partners develop various ideas together and consider how and where marketing should be placed. In phase 5, the catering for the evening of the performance will be framed. Again, this will be done jointly by the students involved. Also, individual sections should be practiced during phases 3 to 5 and, if possible, performed in front of an audience. The final performance is to take place in phase 6. In this phase, remaining coordination problems will be solved together. In phase 7, in addition to evaluating the project, guidelines for the implementation of such projects are to be worked out. Furthermore, options should be worked out on how the content developed can be used for schools in a way that is relevant to teaching. In general, it can be said that all activities are always under the focus of European cooperation and that the individual project goals are always promoted through the cooperation of the students, the confrontations with one another and the process of joint decision-making. The project puts emphasis on the development of the key skill “European competence”.
As part of the project a joint play based on Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" was developed. The piece was transferred to a modern language and setting and was planned and carried out together with all partners. The focus was on the following topics: racism, exclusion, integration, promotion of cohesion, tolerance and openness. Since there were travel restrictions at the start of the project due to the pandemic, the project was carried out online for the time being. Initially, the students dealt with the topic of "borders and exclusion". In doing so, they drew on their own experience and jointly developed strategies to overcome. Based on these results, the students prepared the script that focusses on the topic of homophobia. Based on this, disguises were worked on and a suitable place for the performance was sought. Furthermore, the students developed a suitable marketing concept, which consisted of a trailer, flyer and poster. A light and sound concept suitable for the performance was then developed. Furthermore, the students developed a proposal for catering. The final of the project was the joint performance during the last project meeting. The students got to know each other intensively during the joint project meetings, which were mainly used for rehearsals. Through the previous cooperation, the accompanying teachers could not detect any fear of contact. Communication was always respectful and profitable. In addition, the students themselves made adjustments in the script so that they were often confronted with the topics of tolerance, acceptance and openness themselves. Project results include a script, a trailer, a poster and flyer design, a presentation with background images and matching sounds and mask designs. The long-term benefit is highly appreciated as each school with these materials is able to perform the play again at its own school. Furthermore, the designs for the poster and the flyer as well as the masks serve as a template for other implementations of the piece in class. This can be linked to the topics of borders and exclusion, homophobia, tolerance, openness, friendship, cohesion or bullying. Overall, the project had an effect on the individual competence development of the students as they dealt with socio-critical topics and got involved in other cultures through international cooperation. It was observed that numerous friendships between the students have developed since they are still in touch with each other. They have learned to accept other views on critical topics and, thanks to the promotion of individual openness and tolerance, to work out solutions together. The ultimate goal – the expansion and training of individual European competence –could thus be achieved.