The Malta Drama Centre was set up in 1979 as an extended creativity service. It is run by the Department of Adult Education and Further Studies in the Ministry of Education.

Managed by theatre animator and director Mario Azzopardi, it has an inclusive social policy that gives everybody the opportunity to be creative. That is why anybody can attend classes and students pay a derisory fee for tuition, which is only Lm18 a year; there are also easy terms for families with a low income. Private theatre schools charge some Lm300. Consisting of 18 courses, the Drama Centre tries to give a different slant to mainstream lessons such as dance, classical theatre and the various disciplines of theatre performance from drama to music theatre. Far from being formal, the main idea is to provide non-orthodox learning. These classes bring together people from different social backgrounds and ages, with parents and children attending the same singing lesson.

But the Drama Centre doesn’t only offer drama training; it is also socially committed, as its logo attests. Inspired by Boal, the Brazilian theatre director who had experimented with interactive theatre (the oppressed or forum theatre), the Drama Centre teaches social theatre. It explores problematic issues in the social life of a community, which it illustrates through classes like theatre for personality, drama therapy and community theatre. This kind of theatre is perhaps a way to battle injustice and give a voice to every minority in society

It is the policy of the Drama Centre to use theatre as a tool for the arts to help socio-cultural participation. With the community theatre, the Drama Centre tries to reach peripheral communities such as the elderly, marginalised young people, refugees and people in jail. This theatre can be seen as adding to the social capital of a community as it develops the skills, community spirit, artistic sensibilities and self-expression through public debates. The goal of Community theatre is to involve the public; it provides the opportunity for individuals to perform because no formal theatrical experience or particular skills are needed, only sensitivity to social issues. It also gives people the satisfaction of being part of an active, social and artistic community.

In association with Care Malta, the centre developed a pilot project involving four nursing homes in Cospicua, Zejtun, Mosta and Rabat (Malta) to interact with old people. The centre invites the elderly to take part in reminiscence theatre and give interactive performances with references to their past and present lives. In this way they are being entertained and stimulating and sharing their memories at the same time.

Another aspect of the community theatre developed by the centre is its work with prisoners. Young prisoners who are following a rehabilitation programme in centres can attend theatre classes, which can help them make a fresh start. It is well known that theatre can be used as a therapeutic tool, especially with drug users. By meeting new people, exploring new ideas, being creative, expressing their feelings and accepting discipline, theatre helps them move on in life. The young prisoner suggests a theme such as an overdose, or the relationship between a drug user and his family or recovering from addiction, which he has to perform in the middle of a circle made by others participants, following the instructions of a narrator. Usually, the drama group has a lot of motivation and all actors fit in their role. The staff members of the drama centre help the audience get into the play and open the debate. One of the staff members noted that both residents and staff members enjoyed themselves and there was a good atmosphere. According to Charles Miceli, head of Caritas Harm Reduction Project, “Exploring fields where we can cooperate with the Malta Drama Centre is a stimulating experience for us and we hope that this is only the beginning.”

Because refugees have an inalienable right endorsed by international conventions to promote their culture, the Malta Drama Centre held workshops for refugees during the year to help them put on a performance, a tribute to the creative power of the Africans who ended up on Maltese shores and also to combat prejudice and false impressions. The Congolese performers gave a glimpse of their culture with dances, drama and songs. The performances were so successful that a repeat performance was held. It was a concrete statement about the cultural rights of black immigrants and the centre’s contribution towards creating a social, integrating bridge with these vulnerable people.

Mario Azzopardi laid stress on social commitment and foreign exchange. It is the centre’s current policy to involve as many foreign tutor-directors as possible in order to give its students a diversity of styles and techniques. The Drama Centre, thanks to the GRUNDTVIG programme, is also committed to projects overseas. This programme develops the mobility of adults in the European Union through education training. In the past two years the Drama Centre has developed many projects with others countries, such as Italy, Romany, Finland, Austria, Poland, and Greece. The principle is that a group of students goes to one of the countries involved in the project to study a social aspect of the country and write a script inspired by their research in a particular subject when they return. Foreign students do the same in Malta. For instance, this year Maltese students went to Latvia to study social political issues. They had a very fruitful experience examining feminist issues in that country. Several issues were explored, including prostitution in the capital and the emigration of young women to European countries like Holland and Germany to practise prostitution. But the most pressing problem seems to be domestic violence. So the script will deal with that issue. They go back to Latvia next year to present the social play.

All the social commitments of the Drama Centre are testimony to Mario Azzopardi’s efforts to make culture more accessible to everybody. Authors like Bertold Brecht are used by Mario Azzopardi to motivate spectators to take a critical look at our societies. Convinced of the social benefits of theatre, he tries to encourage the younger generation to take an interest in the arts by making culture more appealing and totally committed to theatre. Theatre after all is perhaps the last subversive way in which we can express ourselves freely. Or, as printed on the T-shirts of students at the Drama Centre, we can consider “theatre as a rehearsal for life”.

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