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DRAMA LAUNCH OF THE EUROPEAN YEAR OF ACTIVE AGEING

Agenzija Zghazagh, within the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth and Sports, in association with the Malta Drama Centre has launched the European Year of Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity.

The year 2012 is meant to promote healthy ageing in EU countries. Healthy ageing, according to the EY2012 vision, is not just about prolonged life, but rather about ageing in good health for as long as possible. This entails, of course, collateral new realities involving families, care workers and those operating within specific social structures. Within such a context, EY2012 is also meant to enhance cooperation and solidarity between generations.

Launched as a forum-theatre project with the participation of a number of actors of different ages attending the Malta Drama Centre, a dramatised script, written by Mario Azzopardi and directed by Dorothy Singh, evolved into a performance that filled seats to capacity at the Malta Drama Centre premises in Blata l-Bajda.

Miriam Teuma, the CEO of Agenzija Zghazagh maintains that the agency�s aim is to provide means for young people to express their creative potential and engage themselves socially. To this end, the agency has embarked on a collaborative programme with the Malta Drama Centre.

The Drama Centre�s coordinator, Mario Azzopardi, explains the importance of community theatre, a genre that explores relevant issues, such as the phenomenon of ageing and longevity.

Titled Kuntrasti (Contrasts) the project celebrates the European Year of Active Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity by focusing on important demographic data and highlighting various settings including the relationship between parents and their teenage offspring, the role of grandparents, the reality of residential care for the elderly, dementia, the frustrations of bureaucratic practices and other related problems.

Socially committed drama normally requires that at the end of a performance, the audience takes on an active role by "interviewing" the characters in the play about their motives in the scenarios presented on stage.

PHOTOS INCLUDED: Scenes from the social drama, Kuntrasti