Praktika organizuojant „The Wonders of the Possible“ festivalį

Last year, after finishing my master studies I found out about an opportunity to do Erasmus Internship in an organization in a EU country of my own choosing once again (I have done one in the past). I took that opportunity and was lucky enough to come across a promotional text about an International Theatre Arts and New Technologies Festival (Le Meraviglie del Possibile – The Wonders of the Possible which takes its name from the anthology of science fiction novels written by different authors and published in Italy) organized by Kyber teatro (which is a spin-off of L’Aquilone di Viviana theatre company) working in Sardinia, Italy. My internship there began in July of 2016.

This year Kyber teatro organized the Festival I mentioned before for the third time in a row in Cagliari and Sassari, two biggest cities of Sardinia. The main idea of the festival is to create a network of theatre art professionals, scientists, IT specialists, students for them to work together, exchange their knowledge, skills, ideas and apply new technologies in theatre art in innovative ways. During the festival various performances (this year Barzakh Isthmus by Minwal theatre company from Lebanon), installations (this year multimedia installation “Vous êtes Ici… et Ailleurs” by Matthieu Tercieux and Edouard Souillot), workshops (e.g. this year a workshop of Digital graffiti and others), lectures (this year “Contemporary Libanese theatre” and others) are being held.

I spent 6 months working with Kyber teatro and L’Aquilone di Viviana. The staff was not numerous but my colleagues and the artistic director I was working with on a daily basis were all professionals working in the field of culture and theatre for a long time. They were helpful, respectful, also hard-working and enthusiasts of what they are doing.

In these six months I learned a lot about the process of international events’ organization, was taking part in all joys, problems, crises and crises’ management processes that come up in this kind of work, had a chance to meet interesting artists and people working in the culture/education fields in Sardinia. During the period of my stay I carried out various tasks related to organization of events which include communication with artists and local partners, preparation of promotional material, looking after social media channels, translation, etc. My boss (the artistic director of the theatre) willingly taught me about the organization and its activities, history, about theatre, its’ history and philosophy, Sardinia’s culture, traditions, and of course food! This way I received a lot of cultural knowledge. By the way, my colleagues were very interested in Lithuania and its’ culture so I had a chance to work as a Lithuania’s cultural ambassador as well.

For some time I was also taking part in the acting workshop managed by the artistic director of the theatre. There I, for the first time in my life, experienced for real what it means to be on a stage as “an actor” (even if for a short time as a beginner). It helped me to change prejudices, stereotypes I had about acting and also showed in what way theatre might be used as a means to teach/learn a foreign language and how acting is a work towards self-discovery.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do an internship in Italy was to improve Italian language which I was learning before in the university and practicing last year when for a short period I was living and working in Sicily (carrying out an Erasmus internship as well). Concerning foreign languages I am a perfectionist, so I think I could have done even better but the result anyway is really great – with help and patience of my colleagues, OLS Italian course and individual efforts I improved Italian and at the end of the internship was very comfortable speaking in it, was able to understand spoken as well as written language, read, write well. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn Sardinian (yes, Sardinia has its own language which is one of its charms), but I guess you cannot always have everything at the same time!

Finally, if I have to share a word of wisdom with students who are indecisive about whether to try doing Erasmus internship or not I can only say two words: DO IT! 🙂

Thank you again for those who made this experience possible.