Those Blue Days Erasmus Project

Project Title

Those Blue Days

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project “Those blue days” consists of the preparation and representation of a multilingual play – Spanish, English, and French – with actors and collaborators from the María Rosa Molas School in Zaragoza (Spain) and Comberton College (United Kingdom). The characters in the play communicate interchangeably in French, English, or Spanish, according to the language used by the characters that appear in the plot in the narrated historical circumstance.

Set in Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, the play features the Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who recently exiled to France in 1939. It recalls his first trip to the city of River Seine in 1900, the meeting with Oscar Wilde, and the impact of the Dreyfus Case on French society at that time. The script represents the situation of the ideal speaker in a time and a place- the France of the early twentieth century and the cradle of the artistic and literary avant-gardes in Europe – which have incarnated the European spirit in an excellent way. Thus, for example, Antonio Machado communicates in the play in Spanish, his mother tongue, and in French; Oscar Wilde, in English and French. The dialogues between Antonio Machado and Oscar Wilde, therefore, take place in French. Rubén Darío, a character who also appears in the play, and who spoke all three languages, communicates with Oscar Wilde in English and with Antonio Machado in Spanish. That is, the characters communicate in fiction just as they most likely did in reality.
The objectives of our project are:
– Stimulate the communication skills and linguistic skills of our students, not only through the representation of a trilingual play but above all through its preparation, meeting, and dialogue with the students and teachers involved in the project.
– Promote personal autonomy, the spirit of initiative and collaboration, overcoming linguistic obstacles.
– Approach the literary tradition of the country itself from some biographical episodes of the writers that appear in the plot, and detect relationships or characteristics, themes, and interests common to the authors of the early twentieth century on European soil (Modernism, Symbolism, Vanguards).
– Reflect on the role of Europe as a cultural framework prior to any political reality in which the vital and intellectual adventures of the authors involved in the plot unfold.
– Remember the victims of intolerance that each of the main characters involved in the plot represents: xenophobia and anti-Semitism (Colonel Dreyfus), those marginalized by their sexual condition (Oscar Wilde), exiles because of their political ideas (Antonio Machado)

With this project, we also seek the study of literature and history represented in each of the main characters (Antonio Machado, Oscar Wilde, Colonel Dreyfus). In this way, students access the knowledge of other literary traditions that are not usually observed in the curriculum of each country. In both schools (Rosa Molas, and Comberton College) we will develop as a preparatory element for the theatrical representation a didactic unit about Antonio Machado and Oscar Wilde, and in a later phase, during the performance of the play in Spain and the United Kingdom, we will carry out a literary route through Soria, an eminently “manchediana” city (=from Antonio Machado), and through Oxford, closely linked to Oscar Wilde.

Students between 13 and 15 years of Year 9 and Year 10 from Comberton Village College and 4th ESO from Colegio MMRosa Molas are invited to be part of the theatrical cast and of the technical and management team, giving them the opportunity to develop their language skills and show their skills and interests beyond the classroom space and time. The virtual sessions through Skype and the eTwinning platform will allow us to share the study of the work that we will carry out in parallel in both centers, as well as the planning of tests of the work and the exercise of the linguistic skills of the participants. Students will write an online journal of the project to work on their language skills and develop their capacity for reflection and analysis. They will be encouraged to experiment with the different languages ​​that are part of this project (Spanish, English, French) as well as the different artistic disciplines (painting, illustration, photography, etc.). These newspapers will testify to the effort and the journey of the project and will allow them to analyze their own linguistic evolution.

Project Website

http://aquellosdiasazules.wordpress.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 35301 Eur

Project Coordinator

Colegio Madre M Rosa Molas Consolación Hermanas de Ntra Sra de la Provincia España Norte & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Cam Academy Trust