“TEATRINO”:
A CRITICAL ELEMENT OF DON BOSCO'S PEDAGOGY
Michele Novelli
In order to present what is most important about “Teatrino” in Don Bosco's educational system in just a few pages, we have had recourse to the excellent study by Fr Saverio Stagnoli (“Don Bosco e il teatro educativo salesiano”) which cannot be found in the Congregation's libraries because it was never published by Salesian publishers, and only appeared as an article in the journal “Eco degli Oratori” (1967-68).
It is a basic work on the question of Don Bosco's “Teatrino”, by a competent author, meticulous researcher and enthusiast of the educational tool that Don Bosco himself considered indispensable.
In his preface he summarises his research process thus: “We wanted to engage in research on the beginnings of Salesian theatrical activity at the Oratory in Turin (chapter 3), its development in the first college-boarding school (chapter 5) and its expansion; as well as that group of settings (chapter 7), noting how Don Bosco had intervened concretely through his direct educational activity, writing theatre scripts himself (chapter 4) and drawing up a small book of rules (chapter 6). and so he recognised the need... for a convenient introduction to set the scene, one which would outline some features of the history of youth theatre for educational purposes up till halfway through the 19th century, and sum up Don Bosco's educational system, in which the Salesian theatre came about and is still expressed (chapter 2). So in natural rapport with this introduction, we arrive at conclusions which emphasise how the tradition merged with Don Bosco educational theatre (chapter 8) and what is new and characteristic about it for history and life (chapter 9).
... What has urged me to write this is the realisation that there is no systematic and sufficiently complete work available on the topic, along with the hope that from this documentation other research can be taken up which can go more deeply and properly into the matter. But what has determined and encouraged me most, is the intimate belief, which has been gradually confirmed, that there is a profound relationship between theatre and education, between youth theatre and education of the young.
Fr Saverio's note of the lack of earlier studies on Don Bosco's “Teatrino” continues to be valid, since not even after him has further research been done, except perhaps for Fr Marco Bongioanni's intention to produce 4 volumes on Don Bosco's personality as a: “Communicator Educator”; it was left incomplete because of his untimely death, meaning he only completed the first two 1. Una ‘personalità teatrale’ - 2. Nel ‘gioco drammatico’, and the remaining two never went to press: 3. Nel ‘teatro giovanile’ and 4. Nella ‘drammaturgia musicale’.
This leads us to say that Fr Stagnoli was really the last one to take up the question of Don Bosco's theatrical charism. We could say of him: “Après moi, le déluge”, since it is 45 years since he carried out his research. At the time he was writing (end of the 1960s, in chap. 7) he could say with satisfaction: “In Italy despite every kind of difficulty. there is still the "largest youth theatre group in Europe" because "there are around 2,500 young actors and 40,000 collaborators: UNESCO delegates were surprised to hear of these figures. and we should note that this theatrical activity in general, and by youth in particular was to be found prevalently in Salesian settings. This was said authoritatively, though implicitly, by, Anton Giulio Bragaglia in 1952 and confirmed by statistics found in "Teatro dei Giovani". A more recent calculation leads to an average of some 700 Salesian performances on a single Sunday”.
Today we note that after “Espressione Giovani” closed (1984, L.D.C. journal which came out of the enthusiasm of Salesian at Arese, which kept up the tradition introduced by Don Bosco - in 1885- through his “Letture drammatiche” and followed, for a century, by an incredible range of publications and journals), we have spent more than thirty years in a bubble which has frozen that immense legacy, other than for a handful of personal efforts of a nostalgic nature’.
An entire generation, or perhaps two, of young Salesians and young leaders have lost contact with that tradition and are amazed to hear stories from their 'elders' of the magnificent times when they were on stage every Sunday, when the superiors (as the kids at school called the Salesians) had them reciting or acting and did the same with them.
If this document at least succeeds somewhat in firing people up again, as was the case in the first Oratory at Valdocco and for the hundred years that followed, we will have contributed to the Rector Major's pressing call to ‘return to Don Bosco’ and be faithful to him.
The following considerations are addressed to recent generations, those to whom we have not handed this particular testimony of fidelity to the origins, and who are, at least most of them, not preapred to today in this basic element of our charism for education. We address those who are not aware of the extraordinary relevance of Don Bosc's educational thinking concerning the use of theatre, and are corrupted by less-than-Salesian ideas suggesting, for example, that liturgy is a serious matter and we cannot introduce ‘theatre’ into liturgical celebrations, or that we should not waste time at school by tackling ‘theatre', or that catechetics has little to do with dialogues and sketches, that it is better to listen to music than to make music, and that if we have to recite, then anything is fine so long as the kids like it.
The idea behind “Teatrino” for Don Bosco, permeates all his educational activity; it is a style of pedagogical relationship with young people. Therefore we are not so much called to ‘make theatre’ in special places or for big occasions, but it is instead almost something we wear, a ‘state of mind’ the Salesian educator adopts in whatever he does as an educator. Each of the young Salesians and young leaders is destined for a specific role in the broad field of our mission, and the style which he is called to employ at school, in the oratory, with catechetics, for young people who are left out, in the missionary or vocational area, needs to take advantage of “Teatrino” as a substratum of any formation or education approach
Don Bosco's communications style was that of the dramatist. He did not stop at passing on ideas and content but wanted to be in tune with feelings, on the same emotional wavelength as youngsters. So he deliberately gave a theatrical style to his relationships of a communicational and pedagogical nature with others. His was a dramatic charism, an attractive and winning personality, strongly interested in dialogue. Fr Bongioanni tells us: “He dialogued a lot, giving a theatrical touch to his relationships with simple people and the young so he would be understood and could communicate with them. It was this kind of temperament that led John Bosco to do gymnastics, play the clown, in order to dramatise and communicate the simple catechetics he had learned from his parish priest and his mother” (Giochiamo a teatro, LDC, p. 35).
Martina Crivello points out in an article in the Italian Salesian Bulletin (January 2008): “through these kinds of popular, country-style theatrics, John leanred to communicate with his young friends and get them involved in an atmosphere of festivity, celebrating values that he felt called to pass on and share with young people following a plan from Providence on high. He did this since that dream when he was nine marked his life so radically. For people, especially the boys he would meet in the Piedmontese Capital as a young priest, he employed a kind of theatre that was strictly connected with his own life, with his venture into education where he put all of himself into things. The theatrical style of his communication got people involved and was able to channel not so much ideas as feelings and authentic values”. His youthful apprenticeship in this would later lead him to put a stamp on his Oratory as a grand dramatic 'game' where theatre and music were its soul.
Nobody- pretends that all the Salesians would have the same capacity as Don Bosco in this: it would be impossible. He was unique. Just the same, for anyone who does not have this nature, this educative detail of dramatic communication can be nurtured over the years of formation and one cannot really do without the tools that make this kind of educational communication work: theatre and music. They are not picked up just through theory, but they can become natural through experience, being ‘Salesians like Don Bosco’. We cannot ignore or just throw out Don Bosco conviction: “Theatre, if comedies are well chosen, is a school of morality, good social life, and even of holiness” (Fr Barberis' diary). And then there is the famous ‘Good Christians and upright citizens", also attributed to “Teatrino”. We may be surprised at the reference to holiness (our first and absolute aim) also achievable through theatre? How come we have relegated theatre to the attic for more than thirty years, as if it were redundant in education??
In that conversation with Fr Barberis, we hear Don Bosco saying: “The happiness wrought by these little theatrical moments made some decide to stay in the Congregation”. Amongst the reasons for the current drop in vocations we should not hesitate to add this one too, amongst many others. As we might also suspect that there is a direct and mutual relationship between the decline in the number of Brothers (Coadjutors) and the abandonment of “Teatrino” given that they were formidable supporters and key figures in it.
Dialogue as a style: Don Bosco's characteristic way of communicating. According to G. Bonetti (Cinque lustri dell’Oratorio or in English - now out of print -"Don Bosco's Apostolate") we read that on Sundays and feast days there was “instruction or a sermon in the evening in dialogue form. Good Fr Borel, mixing in with the boys, would play the penitent or student and would come up with questions and answers that were so interesting that it kept everyone attentive and laughing, while Don Bosco, from up front, would instruct or moralise according to need”. On other occasions “Don Bosco would come into church pretending either to be a businessman, or a wild young lad forced by his mother to come and listen to the sermon, or someone the Rector had invited to the Oratory, or a friend who had brought some of his mates along... Don Bosco would come down the aisle like a street-vendor shouting: ‘Torroni, torroni, who wants to buy torroni?...”
I ask myself why these kinds of things today have been relegated to the class of deprecated forms of communication, especially when we know that our ‘ex cathedra’ catechesis doesn't grab people, bores them, and has little effect. This is what we mean when we are talking about Don Bosco's dramatic character. If the aim is to get through to the youngster, dialogue is the best way, therefore Don Bosco made constant use of it, in any area or situation.
We are amazed at the ‘Eight Dialogues on the Metric Decimal System’ that he wrote when Piedmont changed its system of measurements. We admire them as brilliant intuition, but I don't think it ever occurred to anyone to repeat the experience at an identical moment such as the introduction of the Euro in place of national monetary systems.
“Also the so-called ‘Good Night’, Fr Stagnoli says, “very often took on, especially in the early Oratory days, a dialogue form, usually improvised, sometimes prepared beforehand”. But also when Don Bosco told stories about the day, or narrated his dreams, whoever reads them “is faced with dramatic scenes that are not only surprising for their variety and flexibility, but begins to understand how his youthful audience, that would sometimes hear these things told in episodes night after night, and involved them, were not listening to a story but seeing something real; this brought about conversions, radical changes of conduct and good resolutions”. In a statement of this kind, we find the most eloquent definition of educational theatre, not just the on-stage type, but something that happens in any situation of educational rapport.
Even in his letters Don Bosco used sometimes employ the dialogue form. To Canon Pietro Giuseppe De Gaudenzi he sent this letter on Christmas Eve 1851: “Din-din-din - Servant: Who is it? - B. Don Bosco needs to talk to you... - S. I'll go immediately and bring him in... - Arc. Dear Don Bosco, what breath of fresh air has brought you here? Are you well? Come and sit down.. - B. Everything's ok. I had a good trip...” and on it went until the end.
We can get lost trying to draw up a list of Don Bosco's writings that take on dialogue form in his literary style, as if it were a stage backdrop. We can take his major works (Bible history, Conversion of a Waldensian, Who is Don Ambrogio?, The Catholic Companion, Basics of the Catholic Religion, Arithmetic and the Metric System made Simple...) and then go to the many shorter works written for the Catholic Readings.
Dialogue is a style that his Salesians incarnated to the point that many of the passages from Lemoyne's Biographical Memoirs make great use of it (the famous encounter with Bartholomew Garelli) and others, like Francesia, transferred to the many theatrical works that they were brilliant writers of.
Chapter 2 in Fr Stagnoli's work is entitled: “Don Bosco's educational system as a climate for his youthful theatre”. In fact one cannot talk of “Teatrino” as an element in itself of Don Bosco's educational approach, without locating it as part of the broader panorama of his entire system of pedagogy.
In the part where he picks out salient points in the system, Fr Stagnoli speaks at greater length (paragraph 3) of the “Expressions of preventive loving kindness and the theatre”, where he develops a discussion on cheerfulness in family spirit: “Cheerfulness not as a methodological accessory, or means, expedient for accepting what is of substance”, but a deep need of family life and of a state of Grace. Cheerfulness that above all show up spontaneously in the playground (“I am happy to see you enjoy yourselves, play, that you are cheerful; this is a way to be holy like St Aloysius, so long as you don't commit sin” - M.B. XI,231). It is easy to go from the playground to other kinds of cheerfulness: theatre, music, singing, outings (“We give them plenty of room to jump, run, have fun; gymnastics, music, little theatre, outings are very effective means for obtaining discipline, and are good for morality and health” he wrote in his small work on the Preventive System).
We can deduce from this the central that that Don Bosco wanted music and theatre to play in his Oratory to create the family spirit essential for education. Fr Ceria's biography says: “Whoever does not understand at least those who lived in the Oratory at the time, would have no idea of the enthusiasm that dominated there for everything musical” (Annali, p. 697). This (‘dominating enthusiasm’) of Ceria's perhaps sounds exaggerated today. But many of us who grew up in that atmosphere, even at the distance of a hundred years, are not surprised by a statement that left its mark on our formation as Salesians. The testimony of boys whom we got to act is explicit and sincere: “I have never enjoyed myself so much” and the prestige of the theatre animator grew along with the familiarity that came from the experience.
We have been using this term “Teatrino” abundantly so far (even in the title): for many it might seem a lesser word to be using about Don Bosco's theatrical experience if in fact we are trying to magnify that experience. For Don Bosco “Teatrino” was never just a surrogate, as if the boys had to make do with some kind of minor theatre. He needed to give it a character which would distinguish it from other kinds of contemporary theatre which did not correspond to his insight: using theatre as a characteristic feature of his educational goals.
Either theatre is educational (therefore “Teatrino”) or there is no sense in having comedies and dramas (theatre) that do not achieve that end. Something not easy to believe including for those who, after the early years of the Oratory at Valdocco and when Don Bosco ha delegated control of theatrical activities to others, continued on with theatre but deviating from the purity of intent of those early days. At a meeting of Rectors of the first boarding schools (in 1871) Don Bosco complained: “I see that here amongst us things are not as they should be and like they were in early times. There is no more ‘Teatrino’ but real theatre”.
To consolidate his thinking he wrote “Rules for Teatrino” (which went to two editions), recommendations and letters, but above all he tried his hand at writing some scripts as examples for subsequent performance.
So what were the features of “Teatrino”, as Don Bosco wanted them? And how can we join these to the requirements that come from rapid changes in society, especially the world young people live in? We can reformulate them, drawing from those Rules and from suggestions and episodes in the Saint's life.
Don Bosco's theatre begins with the idea that it is an educational medium for developing the youngsters' personalities. So it is not just a simple pastime, but channels content, values, teachings that will remain impressed on youngsters' minds. Don Bosco described his “Teatrino” as moral, meaning (with a 19th century word that sounds rather strident today) that the script would have content that educators can hand on to young people. He controlled the scripts rigidly, personally at the beginning, then by recommending who should exert this vigilance, and complaining when they let things go that did not pass on good values. And as if spoken recommendations were not sufficient, he put them in writing (in the Rules for “Teatrino”) as part of the Rectors' tasks: “Keep a close eye on the Rules we have set up for teatrino, and remember that it has to serve for amusement and education of the boys whom Divine Providence sends to our houses”. We could ask ourselves what importance we give today to “Teatrino” if this direction has fallen into disuse. Even more so, it shows us the importance that Don Bosco attached to “Teatrino” when he told Rectors that they: “were invited to send the provincial drama texts as examples of the rules laid down. They should collect all the ones they know, examine the ones referred to, keep them if ok and make any due corrections”. We could imagine that provincials have other things to think about today than thinking about what plays and music to keep; but the fact is that in the Congregation today there is no single place preserving the thousands and thousands of theatrical items produced over the years: there is a huge legacy just lost in a thousand little streams, if they did not end up in the bin.
In the Rules for “Teatrino” (1877) Don Bosco put in an explicit paragraph on ‘Adapted material’ detailing what he believed should be banned: “You should exclude tragedies, dramas, comedies and farces of a cruel, vindictive, immoral nature unless the plot actually deals with correcting or emending these things... Duels, pistols or rifles, violent threats, atrocious acts should never be part of teatrino. God's name should never be taken in vain; only as a prayer or for teaching; and less so cursing.. You should also avoid words which, said elsewhere, would be judged as uncivil or too blatant".
Article 5 of the Rule was no less clear: “See that scripts are pleasant and help amuse, enjoy, but that they are also instructive, moral, short”. It is an effort for us today to create a synthesis between the religious and social, political, cultural setting. For Don Bosco instead the two planes are wedded together so that one was no less important than the other; they were absolutely equal. His youngsters did not suffer the schizophrenia between the sacred and profane; these dualisms didn't exist. Moral education was a complete, global education. No one could therefore accuse Don Bosco of promoting pietistic, moralising theatre.
In the contemporary case, educational theatre is even more effective if there is a “Formation plan” (which might translate 'moral' into today's terms) for the whole community and that people looking after theatre then translate into performances.
For Don Bosco the script does not need to be a “straight jacket” hemming the youngsters in. They need creative space, beginning with adaptations to scripts, and the way they are acted; all perfectly coordinated and in tune with the performance. There needs to be creativity in scenery, costumes, all the basic requirements, using “simple materials”, recycled, re-adapted, re-used.
There should be no “business” expenses (hired costumes, commissioned stage sets) but everything should come from volunteer work, using free assistance from mums, dads, grandparents... The only expense should be the raw material like nails, hammer, paints... bricolage and “do-it-yourself” are the watchwords.
This does not prevent the final product from being effective, or something that professionals would not be envious of. If any investment is made it should be in the area of “Services” for good lighting or adequate sound.
Between spectators and young actors, the major effort (if not the exclusive one) should be for the advantage of the latter. Before satisfying the spectators, Don Bosco's “Teatrino” was there to put youngsters at centre stage in educational terms.
Each young person involved, then, is of central interest to the educator coordinating things. An adult is necessary, not necessarily an expert in the technical side of things, but as the educator. Over the long time it takes to get a performance up and running, this daily contact with the youngsters aims at creating an educational relationship which is the only reasons for being there with them.
Comforted by this positive and constructive relationship, youngsters are freed from things that constrain them, their fears and doubts and are accepted for the best that each one can offer. Very often they discover hidden qualities.
Don Bosco's "Teatrino" is extremely relevant to pedagogy today. Fr Marco Bongioanni writes: "Ample freedom is implicit in Don Bosco's theatre, but along with a gradual, deep need for discipline, aimed at building up the man and the Christian in the youngster. It is the nail on which he can hang his entire life".
For Don Bosco theatre was not for those who were afraid of work, of for the privileged ones, or people who were full of themselves, or just to create a gang. “Teatrino” plays its part in the Educative Community involving the young players. The communal side (entire oratory, parish, school) leads the actor not to do things for him or herself, but for the whole setting.
Beginning with the theme of the performance (chosen in accordance with the educational plan), the day of performance (Community feast day), involving where possible other groups, theatre becomes an opportunity for bringing the whole community together.
At Don Bosco's Oratory they put on comedies, farces, academies, dialogues, musicals and even dramas in Latin and other languages. There are many genres today and every genre is ok. But a priority given to Musical theatre seems to be one most adapted to sensitivities of young people today. Finally, given development of technology, educational theatre can take advantage of so many media (projection, recording, images…).
If Don Bosco's “Teatrino” was especially known fro being “educational”, the leader should not “choose” who to educate or who not; the theatre experience is open to everyone who chooses it. The leader entrusts tasks to whoever can do them best, acting or technical support.
The script, then, is chosen on the basis of who can take part, how many there are, and not vice versa. Roles can be added to or reduced, characters changed, adapted to the character of the young players. These determine how the practice sessions go: the script then becomes a script which adapts to the group putting on the performance. One of the most worthwhile experiences is something put on by using all components of the Educative Community: it becomes a privileged medium for building up harmony amongst groups.
The previous consideration offers us a way of concluding by noting one of the most effective and important values of Salesian theatre: communion. It is no accident that boys and teachers at Arese (the most effective and brilliant of theatrical experiences in modern times) chose to call their first publication of testimonies: “Theatre, a factor in communion”. Describing one of their preparations, they concluded: “There are no more barriers: once again theatre has created ‘communion’, fellowship, everyone involved: the miracle has happened again”.
Communion happens not just amongst the actors (“Educating young people to theatre together, you educate them to society, cooperation, working as a group, all basic needs of young people” those from Arese say, in the introduction to their book), but it cements an entire community around the play, sharing common aims and hidden harmonies. They quote Saint-Exupéry to make their point: “If you want them to be brothers, get them to build a tower. If you want them to hate each other, throw them grain”. In our case, preparing a community performance is just like building a tower, where every individual is asked to contribute a brick. We often think that building community and communion happens by way of tools like meetings, with their infinite waste of words, or eating around the table. These are small tools, and often irrelevant. Anyone who has experienced the results from putting on a performance involving all the groups in the parish, or every class at school, will do it again every year, because there is no better way to create a sense of belonging, build family, generate mutual empathy.
The foregoing remarks, brief compared to the number of possible topics to be dealt with, have a triple aim.
The first is to demonstrate that “Teatrino”, as Don Bosco wanted it, is an integral part of his charism. To a journalist (25 April 1884, in Rome) who asked him what his educational system was, Don Bosco replied: “Very simple: give young people full freedom to speak about the things they like most. The point is to discover in them seeds of good dispositions and try to develop them. And since everyone takes pleasure only in what he is able to do, I take this principle and my boys work not only actively, but with love”. There is no doubt that youngsters really like music and theatre where they find a chance to express themselves and play a part in their own education. This is why Don Bosco wanted music and theatre to be privileged tools of education. Not using them, or even just minimising their charismatic value is a basic mistake we make in our mission. Rediscovering Don Bosco, today, means also discovering the decisive impact that music and theatre have always had in the preventive system.
There is no doubt that today we see a revival of interest in theatre amongst young people. But it is still a worry that Don Bosco had to complain about his own times: “There is no more ‘Teatrino’, just real theatre”. The way Don Bosco outlined “Teatrino” is gradually being contaminated by commercial products offered by the media. Without generalising, we can quote the wonderful example of teachers at Arese (the best performances, around the 90s, of how Don Bosco wanted “Teatrino”) to be, and the postnovitiate experience at Nave (for 30 years young Salesians have come together to put on a performance based on the Rector Major's Strenna). These are examples to be followed, to be made known and to be included in formation plans for new Salesians and leaders in the Salesian Youth Movement.
Finally, all this is only possible with the convinced involvement of Salesian institutions. There needs to be rethinking from the top first of all, concerning the long absence of useful directives and adequate financing, and then by taking the tiller in hand again to foster development of initiatives to reactive this aspect of the charism. No less a factor would be the renewed interest on the part of our Publishers in having another look at the bright history in Italy, not only in the Salesian world, but also as a service to the whole national panorama of Youth Ministry. And if it is necessary to update and modernise efforts, using the computer network is one way to be taken into serious consideration for rendering a charismatic service to the legacy left us by Don Bosco and by so many of his competent followers in this field. The charism is a gift received (like the talents of the Gospel) that cannot be hidden or jealously guarded within a strict circle, but it has to flourish, that is has to be given to everyone