ATENEA has been implemented with the scope of fostering European cooperation between different partners (and relevant stakeholders) in adult learning (migrant integration, intergenerational learning, social inclusion) through specific innovative pedagogical approaches using the "Autobiographical Theatre". ATENEA was born out of a good practice: “Autobiographical Theatre”, which was carried out with adults with mental health disease in Àmbit Association (now Project leader) in Spain. Domingo Ferrandis's opera "UN MUNDO APARTE ADENTRO DEL MUNDO" (A world apart inside of the world) developed in collaboration with Àmbit Association, and the process followed to compose, draft and perform the play, have been used as a foundation to develop a methodology that ATENEA project has shared with organizations from several EU countries (each of them working with different groups of vulnerable people. After sharing the methodology, each one of the groups has developed and performed its own piece of autobiographical theatre (in a process involving professionals and also their respective groups of vulnerable people), first in their respective local community and them in the first international festival of autobiographical theatre held in Spain in June 2022. The Project is connected with the idea of Autobiographical Theatre, designed to recover and integrate vulnerable and excluded people, thus increasing their personal and social skills and, above all, improving their quality of life. The project has addressed the problem at a transnational level through a team of partners that complement each other towards spreading innovative methods to face the vulnerability. Together, we have rethought teaching and adult learning strategies with the Autobiographical theatre approach, allows us to rediscover the expressive and communicative possibilities that dramatic art has. In a nutshell, ATENEA has promoted and scaled up Ambit's good practice developing it together with international partners: ENTRI (Lithuania), K.A.NE. (Greece), DRPDNM, (Slovenia), Les Cultures (Italy) and EMYF (Germany). ATENEA has promoted social inclusion through actions that have helped address diversity and promote ownership of shared values, gender equality, and non-discrimination through non-formal educational and training paths. ATENEA has engaged 25 therapist and five different groups of vulnerable people: Women facing social and geographical obstacles; long-term unemployed people; People with mental diseases; Asylum seekers/refugees; Women from disadvantaged neighborhoods and Former inmates. Participants have implemented 7 local workshops and 4 international pilot training workshops (LTTA), they have also taken part in the first international festival of autobiographical theatre that took place in Spain in June 2022., where all the autobiographical pieces developed were performed. Educational models are sometimes thought from the methods and processes, but leave the beneficiary part aside. ATENEA, on the contrary, has relied on the experience of people with disabilities, who were in vulnerable conditions, and involved them in the creative, aesthetical and performative process, something that can address the feeling of exclusion and vulnerability. Project implementation has been directly affected by COVID-19 pandemic, meeting in person for the first LTTAS was impossible due to travel restrictions. To cope with this, a series of online workshops were delivered by Domingo Ferrandis, and used to provide the foundations of the training. Once travelling was possible, the LTTAS-trainings have addressed the key parts of autobiographical theatre (Trust building in Valencia, Writing in Kalamata, Greece, Aesthetics in Lecco, Italy, and Performing in Valencia). The experiences lived during these workshops have been put in paper in the Atenea Magazine, a document that contains not only what participants have lived through ther journey but also the various steps of methodology of Autobiographical Theatre, something that remains available for anyone interested in applying it.
ATENEA’s goal was to boost cooperation between partners and stakeholders interested in adult education by using innovative pedagogical approaches. It was also to accompany vulnerable groups in their quest for reparation, recovery and reintegration, to help them in developing a life project and reaching their dreams of finding a job and living an autonomous life, for this would allow them to be happily integrated in society. From the social side, the goal was to identify vulnerabilities, and from the fictional side, to portray risks that might seem far from us but that are very real, just like COVD. The value and social impact of Autobiographical Theatre is that it portrays the strong link between vulnerability and social inclusion, creating a culture capable of fighting vulnerability by putting the urgent on the spotlight (the affected person is the one that tells the story). It’s a kind of meta-theatre where actor and character share the stigma. At the same time, it ensures that the community won’t close its eyes towards the subject, because theatre is a pleasure and a form of entertainment that puts the audience in a receptive mood, and this allows to address the uncomfortable and the tabu.
ATENEA is about using autobiographical theatre to address vulnerability, to avoid stigma and to boost social inclusion. It was created by director Domingo Ferrandis with a twofold methodology: “Dramatherapy and Autobiographical Theatre”, and tested with the theatre group of Àmbit to address the triple stigma of mental health, drugs and prison. Dramatherapy was meant to create artistic impression, exposing stories, feelings and thoughts, while the autobiographical play was meant to raise awareness, to inspire and to educate society on these issues. The success of this good practice inspired Domingo to apply it to other groups of vulnerable people, trying to underline the need to transform the perception and the discriminatory attitudes towards such vulnerable groups. Today, that motivation is ATENEA, that has turned 6 types of vulnerabilities into 6 scenic performances in 6 countries: Lithuania, Italy, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and Spain. These were also performed in the International Festival of Autobiographical Theatre (Valencia, June 2022), where audience, theatre companies (actors and actresses) and project partners could debate about how to overcome the barriers that prevent individuals from having a normal and beautiful life.