Explorations on normality. ‘Contamination’ session with David Franch iN RESiDENCE ‘Institut Escola Eixample secondary school about ‘normality/abnormality’

The 3rd-year students at the Institut Escola Eixample secondary school and the artist David Franch opened their contemporaneous creation process with a new ‘contamination’ session. It was held on 8 February in the school’s assembly hall.

The ‘contamination’ session was based on the concept of ‘normality’ and involved two sessions: a prior rehearsal session in the morning, aimed at the students and classmates from the secondary school, and another one in the afternoon for the primary and secondary school teaching staff. In both sessions the group handed out some questionnaires to the audience about being ‘normal’. The handouts were collected randomly, and the questions were answered. Then the students developed a series of improvisations based on the audience’s answers to the following questions:

- How would you describe a normal student?

- How would you describe a normal teacher?

- How would you describe a normal mother/father?

- Do you think you are normal?

- Do you have a normal life?

There were a wide variety of answers, from those who identified themselves as being normal people and having quiet lives and a good environment, to others who explained that nobody is normal, that there are no rules to tell us how to be normal, and that everyone is normal in their own way, or different in every way.

In general, the students thought both the sessions went really well. As the group explains in the blog, the first session was really useful to perform a first staging of the session, to help them overcome their stage fright, work on the improvisation, and learn what aspects they had to improve on before their presentation to the teaching staff. “It was a very meaningful experience, as we were able to understand which aspects we had to improve on in our improvisations, and reach an agreement among the group”, explained Eva Vibliani. Additionally, in this first session, the students who made up the audience also had the opportunity to give their point of view on the ‘contamination’ session. “Me and my fellow classmates experienced the performance from another perspective, being able to suggest changes and give our opinion on how they could improve”, commented Ella Whiteman.

The official ‘contamination’ session, with the teachers, was also a positive experience for the students. Some of them explained that they were able to participate in the improvisation session with more confidence, security and motivation, as Júlia Güell expressed: “Despite being nervous, it went off better than this morning’s session. We came across sure of ourselves and prepared! Even though there is a long road ahead, I think this has been a really good start.”

This is the first year that this secondary school has participated in the iN-RESiDENCE sessions. You can follow what’s happening in the sessions on David Franch’s blog, iN RESiDENCE at the Institut Escola Eixample secondary school.