Theatre play: Renewing Attitudes

         Objective: To get the adolescents to reflect on their attitudes towards family members and later towards society.

         The spiritist teacher must provide: copies of the theatre play to be distributed to the actors, as well as sheets and pens for the adolescents to rewrite the play.

         The spiritist teacher should initially explain that: everybody wants to be treated well and have our points of view accepted. Let's stage a play to see how sometimes we are unfair to our family members. I'll give you ten minutes to study your lines and then present it to the others.

         Participants: participants with their roles in the play; after ten minutes they’ll need to start performing. The others adolescents will watch it. Once finished, questions were raised about the play. Get them all to interact to rewrite the play by applying the following topics:

         * Treat everyone fairly.

         * Listen closely and try to understand what they are saying and feeling.

         * Consider all the facts, including the points of view that are different from yours, before taking a decision.

         * Take impartial decisions, applying the same rules to everyone.

         * Correct your mistakes.

         * Don’t take advantage of the mistakes or ignorance of others.

         * Don’t keep anything that is not yours.

         * Don’t let your personal preferences, prejudices or other inappropriate feelings interfere with decisions to be taken based on merit.

         Instructions for the Theatre Play Renewing Attitudes: choose five adolescents or ask for volunteers and give them roles in this play. When the story starts, Raul, Katya, Fatima and Janice are talking. They appear to be very sad. Marcia comes in, looking for something.

         Janice: Marcia, what you're looking for? Did you lose something?

         Marcia: Not really. I'm just looking for some sense of justice. I certainly can’t find it in my house.

         Katya: I know what you mean. There is no sense of justice in my house either.

         Raul: My sister is my problem. She torments me all the time. She is always in my room. She doesn’t leave me alone for a minute. She follows me everywhere. She even wears some of my clothes to go out! She wore my football shirt to the park yesterday!

         Katya: In my came, it’s my older brother. He can do everything. I can’t do anything. That's not fair. While he goes to the mall with his friends, I have to stay home and watch the fish swimming in my aquarium.

         Janice: Do you think this is bad? You don’t live with my parents! They are so hard work! I have to be in bed at 9:30 every night. I can’t watch TV until I finish my homework. They have to know where I am every minute of my life. I can’t speak for more than five minutes on the phone. I should be like a Tibetan monk, to them. I need some freedom!

         Fatima: …It’s horrible to endure parents, right? If my little brothers annoys me and takes my stuff, it’s fine. But if I try to do the same with them, then I get into trouble! I was locked up at home for two weeks because I hid my brother’s football in the microwave. And I didn’t even push the button to blow the ball!

         Marcia: Let's face it! Things are tough in our homes. There must be a way to get some justice in our families!