Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31876/er.v6i40.810
The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater
workshop
La creatividad del adolescente manifestada en el taller de teatro
Diana Luz Perez Hernandez*
Ana Rosa Avalos Ledesma*
María Isaura Morales Pulido*
Received: July 30, 2021
Approved: December 11, 2021
* PhD. Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro,
Querétaro, Mexico, diana.luz.perez@uaq.edu.mx,
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1987-2701
* PhD. Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro,
Querétaro, Mexico, avalos.educativa@gmail.com,
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8759-1891
* PhD. Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro,
Querétaro, Mexico,
maria.isaura.morales@uaq.edu.mx ,
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8759-1891
Abstract
During the period of development of adolescents, each and every
one of the processes that make them undergo constant changes, it
is necessary as an educational institution to provide a space for them
to identify with their peers, and in turn, allow them to manifest their
skills, abilities and attitudes. We propose the space of the theater
workshop as the appropriate environment for students to manifest
their creative capacity, encouraging its strengthening, to later
materialize in a staging, this can range from the generation of
dialogues for a play, the creation of characters, to the construction
of scenarios and objects that should appear in each scene. The
importance of the fact that students can learn in a meaningful way
within an artistic environment is emphasized, in addition to
contributing to the formation and consolidation of a positive self-
perception as an individual, student, artist and social subject.
Keyword:
Adolescent, theater, creativity, skills, abilities,
capacities and attitudes.
Cite this:
Pérez, D., Avalos, A., Morales,
M. (2022). Teenagers creativity
manifested through theater
workshop. Espirales. Revista
Multidisciplinaria de
investigación científica, 6(40),
37- 46
The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater workshop
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
38
Introduction
The high school student is in a stage of physical, psychological and social transition;
therefore, it is necessary that adolescents find a point of connection between those
aspects that interest them, facilitates and those that they consider fundamental for the
construction of a positive self-perception that allows them to integrate and contribute
constructively in the society to which they belong. Therefore, the question arises: What
are the benefits that high school students can obtain through the theater workshop?
The objective of this research is to use the theater workshop to influence the formation
and strengthening of the adolescent's self-perception as an individual, student, artist
and social subject. It is hypothesized that if adolescents consider the theater workshop
environment as an environment in which they can learn and, above all, have a space to
express what they have learned in a creative and innovative way, then learning in an
artistic environment provides tools that serve to form and strengthen their self-
perception as an individual, student, artist and social subject. This research seeks to
contribute, from an artistic activity, to the development of the students, through the
internalization of behavioral norms, rules of interaction, establishing their interests,
tastes, skills, attitudes; since all these factors are determining elements for the
improvement of their creative capacity.
Resumen
Durante el periodo de desarrollo de los y las adolescentes, todos y
cada uno de los procesos que lo conforman los y las someten a
constantes cambios, es necesario como institución educativa
brindar un espacio para que ellos y ellas se puedan identificar con
sus congéneres, y a su vez, se les permita manifestar sus habilidades,
capacidades y actitudes. Proponemos el espacio del taller de teatro
como el ambiente propicio para las y los estudiantes para
manifestar su capacidad creativa, propiciando su fortalecimiento,
para posteriormente materializarse en una puesta en escena, esto
puede ir desde la generación de diálogos para una obra, la creación
de los personajes, hasta la construcción de los escenarios y los
objetos que deben aparecer en cada escena. Se destaca la
importancia al hecho de que las y los estudiantes puedan aprendan
de manera significativa dentro de un entorno artístico, además de
contribuir a la formación y consolidación de una autopercepción
positiva como individuo, estudiante, artista y sujeto social.
Palabra clave:
Adolescente, teatro, creatividad, habilidades,
capacidades y actitudes.
Diana Luz Perez Hernandez, Ana Rosa Avalos Ledesma, Maria Isaura Morales Pulido
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
39
We start from the consideration of theater as a space that allows students to express
their creative capacity, allowing it to materialize in the staging, since it involves from the
creation of the dialogue for the play, the creation of the characters, the construction of
the scenery and the objects that must appear in each scene.
Describing the context in which the present work is situated, the theater workshop is
considered as an extracurricular activity within the San Juan del Río campus of the
Escuela de Bachilleres of the UAQ, whose implementation is located in the year 2010
until the end of 2019. Considering that the participating population are the students of
the same campus ranging in age from 14 to 18 years old.
It should be noted that the students are the ones who make the decision, on a voluntary
basis, to join any of the extracurricular workshops, which may be sports, cultural and/or
artistic. The students make the choice of the workshop during their high school studies,
taking into account that it is mandatory to be present in the workshop for a minimum of
two semesters (one year); however, since it is a voluntary choice, the students remain in
the chosen workshop during their entire stay in the high school (three years).
We propose theater as a space that allows the elaboration of self-realization processes
in the adolescent, given that aspects such as thinking, analyzing, reflecting and creating
are involved, providing just the right conditions for the construction of a new conscience
and in turn, a new identity for the full development of their potential, both in their
individual and social character.
For this purpose, we take up authors such as Dolores Brito-Orta & Espinosa-Tanguma
(2015) who mentioned that creativity within art is inherent to the individual and how it
transcends to spheres of science and technology. And to Campillo-Serrano et al. (2013)
with their perception of creativity as an inherent characteristic of the human being, since
the latter implements it in all the activities he/she performs. In such a way that the
students can visualize the diverse fields of application of the knowledge that is
generated in the artistic space, that is to say, to contemplate it as a multidisciplinary
environment.
In the development of self-perception, the individual's ability to not only respond to
extrinsic demands, but to address intrinsic aspects of the individual, to generate artistic
products within the theater workshop and that these have an impact on both instances
of the students, is rescued. (Gavilanes Sagñay et al., 2019) affirmed that:
The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater workshop
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
40
The starting point is to show interest, to want to know, and even to want to
experience what happens when that inspiring moment arises. Whose meaning
responds to the needs of each subject, in such a way that they can create a
space where they can express themselves, where they can show the range of
skills and abilities they bring with them. A space that allows him to express his
own understanding of the world. (p. 282)
And precisely, the understanding of the adolescent's world and his or her different ways
of making themselves known in order to achieve this unique expression, which are:
affinities, skills, abilities and interests, and their areas of opportunity; recognized as
subjective elements, involving in turn, habits, customs, attitudes and personality of
himself or herself, which they put into action for the development of a staging within
the theater.
Adding to the above statement, (Chilingaryan & Zvereva, 2017) noted that:
Creativity as a creative agent of art [...] creativity is an inherent characteristic of
the human being since it is manifested in all the activities he performs, either to
provide a faster solution or to generate a more efficient alternative, it must be
understood that art is not arbitrary, but subject to an internal need. (p. 27)
Hence, the interests, skills and abilities are born from how the objects are for the
students in the theater workshop, how they are perceiving them, what they make them
feel, what they mean to them and from this, they can build and identify themselves with
their creation in the staging. As he mentioned (Vargas, 2009) "the indissoluble aspect
of creativity to the human being can be considered as a factor present in the artistic
elaboration" (p. 26).
Materials and methods
For the methodological development of the work, the identification of the theater
workshop was established and a link is generated between the students who are part
of it, and to a certain extent, it educates them both in their tastes and about themselves,
as well as in what they can potentiate. From their own abilities and skills that we put into
practice, so that they are using creative thinking. As Ana Avalos mentions in relation to
the assignment of the characters, where students depending on their abilities and skills
were designated certain roles that their character had to fulfill within the staging in such
a way, or, the student feeling identified by the traits of the character to interpret opted
to apply for it. (kamlot, 2017, p. 345)
Diana Luz Perez Hernandez, Ana Rosa Avalos Ledesma, Maria Isaura Morales Pulido
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
41
Thus, agreeing with Muñoz & Díaz (2014)art is the human act par excellence: it makes
the potential possible and allows us to externalize it. It rescues us from a disenchanted
world and restores our desire and vitality" (p. 18). We worked on a qualitative
methodology that focused on artistic creation, which encouraged the individual to
emanate the best possible version of him or herself. By stating that within the theater
workshop an integration of its members was generated, in which individualities were
not favored, but as part of a collective, where the characters of the play were assigned
to the student who was considered the most suitable to represent it.
Thus, agreeing with Kolachi & Wajidi (2011), by stating that "art is the human act par
excellence: it makes the potential possible and allows us to externalize it. It rescues us
from a disenchanted world and restores desire and vitality" (p. 18). Artistic creation
encourages the best possible version of the individual to emanate from the individual.
By expressing that within the theater workshop an integration of its members was
generated, in which individualities were not favored, but as part of a collective, where
the characters of the play were assigned to the student who was considered the most
appropriate to represent it.
Precisely in the contemplation of the possibilities that the subject has to make a new
creation within the theater, which can go from the creation of the dialogue for the
play, the invention of the characters, to the construction of the scenarios and objects
that should appear in each scene, considering that the students are starting from their
own understanding, doubt, uncertainty and certainty of what is and what surrounds
them to generate a new staging.
Where a cognitive ability of the individual stands out as is the imagination, which
although, can be considered elementary in artistic creation, "imagination as the
faculty with which art is made and appreciated" (Hiriart, 2015, p. 28). Emphasizing
that each individual possesses the ability to imagine, to subsequently project it and/or
materialize it, if we refer to the artistic and cultural field there are endless elements
that allow us to appreciate art, such as museums, books, a painting, a photograph,
landscapes, music, dance among others In a predisposed way, Villegas (2019)He
pointed out that the most that is reached is the inventiveness that allows orders of
different realities already known, so that, when this mental attitude is generalized in
a society and in the subject himself, -isms are produced, that is to say, artistic
movements with origin and end in the most immediate 'I'.
Rescuing the tendency of the -isms, from the moment in which one of the factors of
the artistic creation rebels against the harmony of the already established and
The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater workshop
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
42
assumes the intentional direction, in such a way, that the work is creativity at the
moment that they are characterized by being innovative and experimental.
Taking up this trend of -isms as an element of inspiration for the adolescent will
sometimes allow or force him to go out of his comfort zone, so that he will be satisfied
in the construction of a mise-en-scène where he is involved.
kamlot (2017) noted that in relation to a student who was part of the theater
workshop, who performed the dialogues for the comedy plays, of which resulted with
excellent acceptance by her classmates as well as her audience (personal
communication).
kamlot (2017) who stated that:
In the twentieth century, the concept of creativity is used as the action of man
that transcends simple reception, that is, when he does not limit himself to affirm,
repeat, imitate, when he gives something of himself determined not only by
novelty and mental energy, for these aspects do not occur only in art or in the
work of artists, but also appear in the work of scholars, scientists, technicians and
organizers.
Postulating that creation as that action of inventing or composing a work, artistic or
scientific, whose originality makes it new, never seen before and with recognition of
its value by the public that conceives it and by the one that contemplates it; in both
cases, the proposal to Víquez et al. (2017) alludes to the knowledge of the individual
in the search for the self and its transcendence. Therefore, art is linked to ourselves,
and to a certain extent, it educates us, the tastes and that learning is about oneself.
From the own capacities and abilities that we put into practice, in such a way that we
are employing a creative thought.
Results
Precisely in the contemplation of the possibilities that the subject has to make a new
creation within the theater, which can go from the creation of the dialogue for the
play, the invention of the characters, to the construction of the scenarios and objects
that should appear in each scene, considering that the students are starting from their
own understanding, doubt, uncertainty and certainty of what is and what surrounds
them to generate a new staging.
Where a cognitive ability of the individual stands out as is the imagination, which
although, it can be considered elementary in artistic creation, "imagination as the
Diana Luz Perez Hernandez, Ana Rosa Avalos Ledesma, Maria Isaura Morales Pulido
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
43
faculty with which art is made and appreciated" (Hiriart, 2015, p. 28). Emphasizing
that each individual possesses the ability to imagine, to subsequently project it and/or
materialize it, if we refer to the artistic and cultural field there are endless elements
that allow us to appreciate art, such as museums, books, a painting, a photograph,
landscapes, music, dance, among others.
In a predisposed way, he pointed out that the most that is reached is the inventiveness
that allows orders of different realities already known, so that, when this mental
attitude is generalized in a society and in the subject himself, -isms are produced, that
is to say, artistic movements with origin and end in the most immediate 'I'. Rescuing
the tendency of the -isms, from the moment in which one of the factors of artistic
creation rebels against the harmony of the already established and assumes the
intentional direction, in such a way, that the work is creativity at the moment that they
are characterized by being innovative and experimental.
Taking up this trend of -isms as an element of inspiration for the adolescent will
sometimes allow or force him to leave his comfort zone, in such a way that he is
satisfied in the construction of a staging where he is involved. In relation to a student
who was part of the theater workshop, who performed the dialogues for the comedy
plays, which were very well received by her classmates and her audience (personal
communication).
(Brito-Orta & Espinosa-Tanguma, 2015)who stated that:
In the 20th century, the concept of creativity is used as the action of man that
transcends simple reception, that is, when he does not limit himself to affirm, repeat,
imitate, when he gives something of himself determined not only by novelty and
mental energy, since these aspects do not occur only in art or in the work of artists,
He described that the selection of the works that were represented was based on the
initiative of the students themselves, starting from themes that interested them or that
they wished to address, such as dating, sexuality, teenage pregnancy, femicide and
domestic violence (personal communication). Therefore, each staging responded to
the concerns and interests of the workshop members themselves, giving each work
an innovative and personalized character.
Conclusions
Understanding that art can be appreciated, enjoyed and discussed; the aspect to
highlight would be the desire for adolescents to be able to stand out from their
creations in the theater workshop, generating their own adaptations in relation to what
is close to them, to their particular vision of understanding and representing it.
The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater workshop
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 40
January - March 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 37-46
44
Therefore, the human being searches, in a very insistent way, the meaning of his life
and in his conscience there are elements that imprison him in an existential conflict: he
wants to transcend and be happy; that is why his contact with art is essential, whether
he makes it as a unique invention or he generates it from the creation of others through
imagination and implementing his creativity as it was generated in the theater
workshop.
The student, being in a moment of human development of consolidation, seeks to
build a unique and different self-perception from the rest of those around him; and in
this search for conformation, he resorts to new spaces of development and
manifestation, an environment that, undoubtedly, can be found in the theater
workshop. Affirming that the space generated in the theater workshop as an
environment that allows students to reflect, analyze, think about how to promote those
capabilities, skills, experiences that foster human development and creativity in
adolescents. To contribute to the construction of the perception of self, as well as the
influence in the different places in which the students develop.
..........................................................................................................
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