This invitation was also accepted by Theater Requisit and its director Nora Steagner, who are highly regarded in the prevention landscape of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and performed an improvisational play. The special thing about the ensemble: all of the performers, apart from Steagner, were former addicts.
The Requisit association only accepts former addicts who have been clean for at least three months, explained Nora Steagner, a graduate in theater education. In the improvisational play, the students were able to influence the performed scenes by specifying themes and moods and adding sentences. The result was a successful and exciting interplay, which basically had nothing to do with addiction at all and was received very positively by the pupils.
After the play, discussions took place in several small groups with pupils, teachers and actors. The discussions were professionally supported by representatives of the RAK, Harald Pillny, Head of Addiction Counseling at the Caritas Association, Sabine Moser, Melissa Becker, Julia Dreher and Sebastian Herzig from the Idar-Oberstein Youth Welfare Office, Thomas Reichert from the Diakonisches Werk des Kirchenkreises Obere Nahe and the team from the School Psychology Service.
Nora Steagner justified the approach to the play by saying that the pupils should lose their inhibitions about the subsequent discussion groups. This created an atmosphere of trust and the participants opened up about the taboo subject of addiction. Social education workers Melissa Becker and Julia Dreher from the decentralized youth work department agreed with this approach and added: "The best way to gain access to young people is to act at eye level." According to Nora Steagner, this raises awareness of the topic of addiction in a special way.
And so the discussion rounds really got down to business: causes and addiction processes were discussed in a protected setting. The actors permanently employed by Theater Requisit are specially trained for these discussions in order to talk to the pupils about the first signs of addiction and ways out. Theater Requisit is also a stabilizing pillar for the former addicts themselves. "An addiction and the way out is like playing the fingers on a keyboard. Instead of an all-or-nothing mentality, it is important to convey that there will always be highs, lows and everything in between on the way out of addiction. Relapses are part of the process." Steagner emphasized the importance of motivating conversations, reinforcing previously learned coping strategies and pointing out existing resources.
In addition to the pupils, the teachers also took part in a discussion with the theater director. Actress Katja, who has been with the theater for several years, talked about her personal experiences. Traumatic events in her childhood led to addiction. She has since come to terms with and reflected on her story through therapy. In order to minimize the risk of relapse, she joined Theater Requisit and left her old environment.
"When we talk about addiction prevention, many people immediately think of bans and pointing fingers," explained Sabine Moser and Sebastian Herzig from the City Youth Welfare Office, who also run the 'Tom & Lisa' alcohol prevention workshops in the city. The two educators summed up the event by saying that there is another way to teach young people how to have fun, enjoy life and gain new perspectives as the best recipe against drugs and too much alcohol. The core aspects of the HaLT (Hart am Limit) alcohol prevention program, which is run by the Idar-Oberstein Youth Welfare Office, are also risk management rather than prohibition.
"The event met with great interest among our students. It was a great theater experience for many young people and their knowledge about addiction increased. It is particularly remarkable that we even received positive feedback from the students themselves," explained the two school social workers Katja Siebert and Petra Gerth.
The pupils were given a reflection sheet after the event. Due to the very positive feedback from the students, the organizers are considering offering several events with Theater Requisit in Idar-Oberstein next year. The event took place in cooperation with the State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Care and was funded by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Transformation and Digitization.