Boarding School Hajime Juku x Tokyo Deathlock = A theatrical experience to learn from children!

"Anti Human Education II" by Hajime Juku Boarding School x Tokyo Deathlock was planned as one of the works participating in Magfes '20. In response to director Junnosuke Tada (head of Tokyo Deathlock)'s call to ``Let's create theater!'', teenagers at the free school have been working on a workshop for about two months since December last year. Ta.
The performance itself was canceled out of consideration for the new coronavirus infection, and a presentation was held without an audience (only those involved) on Friday, February 28th at the Kanagawa Prefectural Youth Center Studio HIKARI. However, as an outreach activity (visit service provided by an artist), we believe that the efforts leading up to the actual event are meaningful, and this time we will report on the journey leading up to the presentation.

Mr. Tada and the other children at the cram school have been working together for about three years. Up until now, they have only held workshops once a year, but this time they have once again recruited participants with the aim of creating a single theatrical production.
Rehearsals started on December 26th last year. After that, we met about once a week, mainly on weekends, and held workshops such as word games.

``The fun of theater is that it's created through a process of trial and error, and sometimes it's not completed.Rather than me teaching them something, I think about it with them and do it because it's interesting.'' "Let's take a look." (Mr. Tada)

At the workshop in early February, discussions about the framework of the "theatre" were about to begin. Apparently, the theme is related to school lessons. First, each person will list things that come to mind, such as ``the scenery in the morning,'' ``things I didn't like to experience,'' and ``things I wanted to try.'' I'm really curious about what kind of "theatre" they'll be able to perform.

``If necessary, I may create some text, but there is no flow of me creating new words and having them memorize them.The reactions of the audience will vary depending on the episode, so in that sense, I don't even know what will happen (lol)" (Tada)

The results presentation was held on February 28th (Friday). On the wall of HIKARI, the contents of the discussion divided into four teams were posted.
A team that understands children's feelings, a collective silence team, a shadowy mouth team, and a crowded train team. I have no idea what the story will be about, but the bell rings to signal the beginning of class, so I take my seat.

The morning session before class begins with ``sutra reading,'' following the custom at the cram school. Prints were also distributed to the audience seats, and everyone cheerfully chanted the Heart Sutra.

The first hour was about ``getting the child to understand how they feel.''
I laugh bitterly at the development of a teacher standing on the podium (stage) imposing his "adult theory" on the students in the classroom (audience seat), but somehow my heart aches. I reflected on myself and realized that children view adults' unreasonable behavior with harsh eyes.

I thought the child sitting next to me suddenly started talking to me, but I was surprised to find that the children from Hajime Juku who were ``actors'' were sitting with me. Rather than being an ``audience participation type'' play, there is no boundary between the stage and the audience seats, making them a harmonious one.

The second hour was ``Group Silence''.
In order to stop adults from committing unacceptable acts such as vomiting, littering, and using smartphones while walking, everyone silently surrounds the person who commits the act. That is the "Group Silence Game". So, we cleaned up the stage and the audience seats, and everyone tried the experience. I feel like I've been hit at a painful point: ``You can't do anything if other people are watching you!''

After a break, the third hour was "Kageguchi". In keeping with the theme, the audience seats were changed to surround the stage.
It's fun to say, but sad to have to say it. It makes you wonder what the children were thinking when discussing this topic.

The 4th hour is ``Crowded Train''.
During commuting hours, the occupancy rate of some trains running in the metropolitan area exceeds 150%. People say, ``Become an adult who understands people's feelings,'' but the environment of a crowded train is a situation where ``if you understand people's feelings, you can't survive.''

"Anti Human Education II" by Hajime Juku Boarding School and Tokyo Deathlock is scheduled to be performed at a different time. Any further introduction will be a spoiler, so if you find a theme that interests you, please come and see the performance!

After the results presentation, we asked the students what they thought.

``Unlike when I give a presentation at a workshop or Hajime Juku, this time I'm selling tickets and doing a performance, so the level of seriousness is different.That ``getting serious'' itself was fun.This performance was also fun. Apparently it will be held in a different format, but it means we have more time to practice, so I think that's a good thing.'' (Bibi)

``In the beginning, we were just playing things like tag and Daruma-san fell down (lol).While we were talking about how it might be surprisingly interesting to make a play about things that are familiar to us, we realized that it was time to start playing. I had no idea what was going to happen, but it was fun!” (Moeno & Fu-chan & Kazu & Akari)

《Production Notes》

How did you like this workshop?

Tada: Their repeated process of trial and error is in itself like watching a play. We only have rehearsals about once a week, but it's interesting to see how many things they think about during that time. I was impressed by the team's ability to respond to feedback from other teams about their presentations and make changes before the next one.
Even if there are troubles during the production, it's a play that includes overcoming them, so I think it's important to know what kind of experience you have during the production.
It's an audience participation type, so I want the audience to do their best as well.

What is an outreach activity?

I feel that Tada School tends to only teach the "correct" things and tends to be closed-minded. In that sense, art is about accepting that even if there are some mistakes, it's okay as is. In other words, whether it's dance or music, I think it's meaningful for artists to go and create a moment that's a little different than usual.
In theater outreach, we don't teach theater, but rather, we want to convey the idea of ``trying to express yourself.'' Even if I would normally get yelled at, if it's a play, I won't get yelled at, so I try to express exactly what I feel. For example, when a child who doesn't normally listen to what other people say performs a play where they don't listen to what others say, it turns out to be really good (lol). On the other hand, by acting out something that you are usually not good at, you may be able to understand the feelings of the person doing it.

What did you think of the results presentation?

Tada :Today, we got a good reaction from the audience to the children's throws, so I think we were able to perform better than we did during practice. Even though it was a results presentation, I was able to experience something similar to the real thing, so I think I was able to think more broadly about what I could do next time.