Think Green Live Clean

Photo Credit: Nic McPhee

Who doesn’t love a good trip to the theatre?  I recently came across a document that outlined a different kind of educational form of theatre called “Green Drama”.  The program is a training course that is intended to educate people about how to make positive environmental choices.  Their concept is fairly simple:

Environmental Education + Drama = Green Drama

The goal of environmental education is to use drama skills in order to educate and change a person’s behavior.  Green Drama is focused on hitting 5 main areas of the environment: Awareness, Attitudes, Sensitivity, Skills, and Participation.  One of the most appealing qualities of Green Drama is that it is not a stereotypical theatre/audience relationship.  All of the games and activities are completely interactive, improvisational, creative, and are based on experience, so everyone is involved and having fun!  The group works to build environmental skills of the younger generation, working on topics such as good sustainability, shopping habits, waste management, and many more.  The groups range from 8 to 25 people and the program runs continuously for 1.5 to 2 hours.

I think that Green Drama training course would be a fantastic thing to start incorporating into the American school systems.  As children, I’m sure we have all experienced school assemblies that were not very memorable.  However, I think there is a huge possibility that if this program is done correctly, then the participants will learn a lot and have a lot of fun doing it.  If kids can have fun experiencing environmental education in a very enjoyable way, then our younger generations will have the lessons of environmental awareness engrained into their head for years to come.  Be on your lookout for Green Drama!  It may be making its way to a community near you!

To download the PDF, I simply Googled “Green Drama”

Green Drama: Influencing Choices and European Youth Work Training Course

Hyvärilä Youth Centre, Nurmes

Metsäkartano Youth Centre, Rautavaara

Finland