For the fifth (and last) kamp in our Shokkin Kamp series we were hosted by EELK Laagrikeskus Talu, which is always a lovely venue! Shokkin Kamp, in short, is a youth event where young people come together in a non-formal learning environment with sessions on a specific topic, group building activities and socialising as the main objectives.

This time our main focus was on public speaking, acting and improvisation skills. As a result, the participants created and presented their own plays.

On Saturday morning (17th of December) we arrived at the venue, settled ourselves in and played some games and energizers outside to get to know each other a bit better.

The second session started with an introduction to the topic of theater and what meaning it has to us. We discussed what skills are needed for theatre and how to develop them. Participants worked in groups creating and presenting flipcharts with their thoughts and then we played a fun improvisational game to get out of our comfort zones.

After the lunch break we dived deeper into the topic of theatre. We had an amazing session with our guest speaker Maria Shevtchuk, who shared her experience with theatre and offered some interesting tools and exercises.

In the fourth session, we discovered a tool called “Theater of the Oppressed”, where participants had to create their own plays and follow some simple rules of the game and try their hand in improvisation. In the reflection session, we shared the knowledge and emotions we got from the day.

After an intense working day, it was finally time to relax and enjoy the evening! We danced in the training room, made pancakes on fire and had a super cool sauna night. After the sauna we watched the starry sky and played some games late into the night.

On the second day, we started off with a session about public speaking and storytelling. We watched a TED talk on how to behave on the stage and catch the attention of the public you are performing for. We discovered a system of story building and telling – the hero’s journey. Participants used this system to create stories and later shared those stories with each other.

After a break we had the second session of the day. Participants were given time to start thinking about and creating their own stories and plays. Later it was time to present the final products in the Shokkin Theater on the topic of “The message”! All the plays were very creative and interesting.

After the lunch break we had a session on evaluation and feedback. We shared our last thoughts about what had happened and what we learned during the past few days, said our last goodbyes and left the venue back to Tallinn.

Thank you all for participating in the last Shokkin Kamp. It was very warm and productive few days. See you on the next Shokkin event!

#StayShokkin

“Shokkin Kamp” is a long-term solidarity project funded by the #EuropeanSolidarityCorps through Noorteagentuur.