Washington, DC Area Children Learn about Germany
The Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy took part once again in the Kids Euro Festival, one of the country’s largest performing arts festivals for children, which returned this fall to present more than 150 free events in and around Washington, DC, from October 15 through November 10.
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- A scene from Das Papiertheater's "A Stich in Time Saves Nine!"
- (© Goethe-Institut Washington)
Initiated in 2008, the Kids Euro Festival features talented European children’s entertainers from almost every performance genre, films for children, and a variety of workshops for both teachers and children. Germany was represented this year by multiple events, including performances by Das Papiertheater, screenings of the film Sergeant Pepper and a reading workshop featuring German fairy tales.
Textile artist Susanne Winter and sculptor Johannes Volkmann of Das Papiertheater traveled from Nuremberg, Germany, to take part in this year’s festival. They gave two performances of their play A Stitch in Time Saves Nine! (Verflixt und zugenäht) for school groups at the Maison Francaise and one public performance at the Shakespeare Theatre.
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- The tailor's wife is hard at work behind the paper screen.
- (© German Embassy, Washington, DC)
The children arrived to find the stage filled by a large sheet of blank paper. Soon, however, a story developed stitch by stitch and cut by cut as the tailor and the tailor’s wife told their story word by word. This very unique performance is performed with the help of a variety of tools which are used in the art of tailoring, a sewing machine and the creative use of lighting and projections.
For more than twelve years, Das Papiertheater has been exploring the artistic dimensions of paper; their productions with paper and music, paper and word, paper and color are performed all over the world. Das Papiertheater has received multiple awards for their work, including the 2002 Bavarian Children’s Theater Award and the 2002 Audience’s Award at the Puppet Theater Festival in Tehran, Iran.
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- Each child made a unique tiger mask as part of the activity at the Goethe-Institut.
- (© German Embassy, Washington, DC)
The Goethe-Institut and the Embassy of Finland hosted screenings of the German film Sergeant Pepper by director Sandra Nettelbeck, whose 2001 film Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) garnered her international acclaim. The film tells the story of a dog named Sergeant Pepper that runs into some trouble after inheriting a fortune. He is soon befriended by the young Felix, who prefers to play by himself and wear a tiger costume, which greatly worries his parents. Through their exciting adventures, Sergeant Pepper and Felix each end up helping the other. The Goethe-Institut hosted a craft activity following the screening, in which the children were able to make their own tiger masks.
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- Children constructed and decorated lanterns as part of an event at the Palisades Library.
- (© Palisades Library)
A reading workshop hosted and conducted by the Palisades Library celebrated German fairy tales, with readings of the Grimm Brothers’ Dr. Know-All and Rumplestiltskin as well as Walter the Baker by the German-American children’s author and illustrator Eric Carle. The children then enjoyed soft pretzels and participated in a craft activity to make lanterns, which is how many German children celebrate St. Martin’s Day on November 11.
Designed for children ages four through twelve, Kids Euro Festival was staged through the cooperation of the 27 European Union embassies in Washington and more than twenty major local cultural institutions.
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