Guguta Municipal Puppet Theater tour in Basarabeasca with 175 children discussing about online information and communication

On 15 November, around 130 students of Nicolae Gogol High School in Basarabeasca and 45 children of Antoska Kindergaten No 1 in the same town, both schools teaching in Russian, watched PikPok.online@guguta, a show from the repertoire of the Guguta Municipal Puppet Theater. The theatrical performance aimed to tell children about the risks of Internet and to improve their knowledge on how they could manage unpleasant situations related to information and communication on the Internet so that they could feel protected and safe. The show is the last of the series of shows planned by the Guguta Theater team jointly with the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) in 2024.

The Nicolae Gogol High School in Basarabeasca was full of bustle. After they found out that the puppet theater was coming to their school with a free performance, the students were bursting with excitement. As we later learned, the show was a discovery and a first experience for many of them, as they had never had the opportunity to go to a children’s theater before.

“Raise your hands those of you who have a social media account. And now, raise your hands only those who know the rules to follow when communicating with someone on the Internet”, Gabriela Lungu, the theater manager said, challenging the children to a discussion.

“You’re just a click away from making a lot of exciting and useful discoveries. But you’re also a click away from ending up in awkward or even dangerous situations. Life online is as unpredictable as real life. When you’re online, you can come across ill-minded people who can lie, and steal, and manipulate you. Except that you can never see or recognize them behind your gadget’s screen. Surfing the virtual environment is full of mystery and risk. It is only through vigilance, courage, intelligence, good manners and common sense that you’ll be able to find ways to get out of a sensitive situation”, Gabriela Lungu explained.

The actress invited the children to watch the show and return to discussions afterwards.  And she was not wrong. After watching the play, the little spectators were even eagerer to share their impressions about what they saw.

Eva Nicolaeva, 2nd grade student: “The Wolf wanted to be the most popular guy on PikPok, so he shot a few videos and posted them to get a lot subscribers, except the videos were fake, so he ended up lonely. He didn’t win anything. He hurt himself and his friends. What he did didn’t do him any good”.

Artiom Savreev, 2nd grade student: “I wish Guguta was one of the show’s characters. Guguta is a good character and he would have definitely protected Rica. And he wouldn’t have let the Wolf mess around. Me, I’m friends with everyone in our class. Sometimes we make jokes on one another, but in the end we make up and apologize”.

Elvira Bostanji, 5th grade student: “The show reminded me that the truth always comes out in the end. I have a TikTok account but I post only real things there – sequences from my dances and other activities. I understand there are mean people online. Sometimes people can hurt you or write you something bad. I try not to take it personally. But it’s best when they apologize. I understand that’s not the most important thing, but sometimes it’s hard to get over things like that. In the end, it can turn into fighting”.

Alisa Dodica, 5th grade student: “I realized that sometimes it’s really difficult to tell lies from the truth on the Internet. If the video’s poorly edited you can notice, for instance, that some frames have not been properly overlapped or something. But when it’s done professionally it’s pretty hard to tell. That’s why it’s best to question everything and double check using multiple sources rather than believing what we see for the first time. There is also a lot of anonymous information around the Internet which can be false”.

Ecaterina Galaci, 3rd grade student: “I have a YouTube account and I post real information on my channel: videos about pets and other important moments in my life. I didn’t like the way the Wolf wanted to deceive his fans using fake videos. I’ll analyze this together with my mom”.

Matvei Bestricean, 4th grade student: “I’m going to discuss the show’s message with my parents too. The moral of the show is simple: if you made a mistake don’t be afraid to admit it. You can lie to the audience you have, but you can also post honest content so that people will believe you. I have TikTok and YouTube accounts, but I mostly prefer Instagram. I love football and I post a lot of sports-related content in my accounts”.

Nikita Cabaculac, 4th grade student: “I’m on Instagram too, but I don’t post anything there yet. I just watch other people’s posts. Like my friend, I’m into sports most of all”.

At the end of the discussion, Nelea Sarova, Deputy Director of Education, thanked the Guguta Municipal Puppet Theater actors for coming with a free show for children. “Today’s a real holiday for us. We were so lucky to have you here. Even when we go to the city, the kids don’t really get to see the theater. Capital resident kids are privileged in many respects. Those living in smaller towns are often left behind by all. We wish we had as many nice moments as this as possible”, the high school Deputy Director for Education concluded.

The Guguta theater team’s second stop was at the Antosca Kindergarten.

In this institution, meeting the actors and the show’s characters was a big day for the children too. For 45 minutes, while the show lasted, the children didn’t take their eyes off the characters, applauding and singing along. The actors thanked the little spectators for their emotions and took pictures with them. “We’re extremely glad that you came to us. Thank you for the educational story. The children had fun and I think they will remember these moments for a long time”, Natalia Suhina from the preschool institution’s management told us at parting.

PikPok.online@guguta is an adaptation of the educational fairytale titled “A Click of Fangs or the Manipulative Wolf” written by media researcher Solvita Denisa Liepniece from Latvia.

The show lasts for 45 minutes and is included in the repertoire of the “Guguta” Theater both in Russian and Romanian. In partnership with the Independent Journalism Center, the “Guguta” Theater launched the  Romanian version of the PikPok.online@guguță show in November 2022, and the Russian one in February 2023.

The show an educational and entertaining story intended for kindergarten children and primary school pupils. The play helps the little ones comprehend how the online environment functions and encourages them to analyze what they see or hear, especially on social media.

The PikPok.online@guguta show tour is organized within the framework of the project “Media Education and Literacy and Optimisation of Newsrooms” (MELON).