"Mala Frida", from the Zagreb City Theatre "Zar ptica" taught us today that it is not true that a black cat brings bad luck and that girls do not like to play football. And she dispelled a series of misconceptions. She also taught us that friends are the ones who love us just because they love us, not because they feel sorry for us, and that it is not nice to twist the truth.
In the splendor of colors and musical tones, we walked through the life story of the wonderful Frida Kahlo. The children were delighted with the play and talked with the actors for a long time after the performance. The children liked all the actors, especially those who played the monkey and the cat, but the tiny and petite actress Amanda Prenkaj, who played Frida with inspiration, enchanted everyone the most.
After the performance, Ms Prenkaj spoke about prejudices and how children can be taught kindness and virtue in the theater, how an actor in a children's theater - in today’s world - keeps that special grain of responsibility, which is necessary for performing in front of children, but also what kind of stories we have to tell the kids in the theater so that they grow up to be good people.
How do children learn to destroy prejudices in children's theater from an early age?
It was a pleasure to show that with this performance "Little Frida", on the example of a person who really lived and felt strong prejudices on her own skin. Jelena and Anica wrote a piece about what we all experienced in our lives. We have all experienced some prejudice against us or had prejudice against others, so this is a timeless topic and I am very happy that we had the opportunity to stage it in our theater. I have a feeling that this play reaches children’s little, beautiful hearts and that it is something they will remember for a lifetime.
And how do children learn kindness in the theater?
They learn when they watch good plays, when they watch something that is sincere, well thought out. Children's problems should be approached very seriously, and all the problems they have are very serious. In this performance we did not approach them with insincerity. It was very important for Jelena and Anica to show what lies do to people, what happens when we are jealous, superficial. It is very important to show such stories to children in a very clear, simple, understandable way. Such clear stories can awaken empathy in them, and when the theater is empathetic, it naturally attracts that goodness.
Where does the theater draw empathy when our societies, both Serbian and Croatian, are almost absolutely lacking empathy?
I think that it is not only a trend in Serbia and Croatia, but that it is a trend produced by technology and capitalism everywhere.
Aren't they just an excuse?
Well, they certainly become an excuse. But the fact is that children today, while watching the news on their mobile phones, they value them all the same. The current runner-up at the Eurovision Song Contest, Baby Lasagna, has the same value as one Frida Kahlo. Everything, therefore, has the same value. Someone who dumped a bucket of ice on his head has the same value as a scientist who talks about an important health topic. As a child, I wasn’t aware of so many different pieces of information, or our parents protected us, and today you don't know what your child is watching on a mobile phone. We are constantly bombarded and the children then protects themselves from those emotions, because they are helpless and grow apathetic. When these emotions become overwhelming, there is not much to do.
Can we do anything about it?
We can teach children to act locally. In a small environment, in their own alley, in a micro environment, because they cannot influence globally. But here where they are, helping a neighbor to buy milk if he can't, some small things like that that encourage empathy.
In that micro world of children's theater, how is the ardor of the artist's responsibility towards what they do for children preserved? How is work ethics preserved?
By keeping the child in you. You must be aware of the child in you and not neglect it, that the voice of something innocent and primal creative remains in you. When you keep the child in you, then you cannot be irresponsible. You see things with a child's eyes, you have to be careful and responsible, you have to be careful how you approach things.
What kind of stories should be told to children in the theater?
Definitely stories that remind us of empathy and those that stimulate our imagination. I haven’t said anything new, because someone already said it, but every play, whether for children or adults, shouldn't tell us what to think. I think that is the most important thing, that we leave it to the children. Specifically, with "Little Frida", every child will find something for themselves, which corresponds to them and will be able to learn some value. In my opinion, that is the most important thing. We must not teach. We have to watch out for that. We know what topics we have to deal with - friendship, empathy, etc., as long as we don't tell them what to think. It is the death of theater. It's not the place for that. Theater must open imagination and worlds.
Snežana Miletić