PikPok.online@guguta in Soroca: “It is a show for all ages. Parents should watch it with their children.”
This week, the tour of the Guguță Municipal Puppet Theater reached Soroca. Over 200 preschoolers from kindergarten no. 16 “Izvoraș” and students of grades 1 to 5 from the Alexandr Pushkin Theoretical Lyceum watched the play PikPok.online@guguta and learned how to protect themselves online. The events were organized by the theater team in collaboration with the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) on November 12.
The theater team made the first stop at Alexandr Pushkin Theoretical Lyceum.
“This is our 18th performance this year as part of our tour to Russian-language educational institutions in the country. It gives us great pleasure to come before you and tell you simple rules of conduct, which you may already know, but do not always respect,” Anghelina Codreanu, actress at the Guguță theater, said in her greeting speech. She urged students to carefully watch the performance and to become aware of the biggest challenges related to information technologies and the Internet.
The children were captivated by the acting, the music, and the characters, whom they wanted to see closer in the end and take pictures. “I don’t know if I will ever become an actress, but I love theater. When I was in kindergarten, I saw several plays. I remember that I was so captivated by the characters on the stage that I did not even notice who was sitting next to me,” Sofia Zamufinskaia, first grade student, told us.
Her classmate Arina Lindinboin told us she enjoyed the play a lot. “I liked absolutely everything, from start to finish. The wolf was the villain of the story, but through his behavior he taught us that it is not nice to lie. He wanted to become popular on TikTok, but lying is not the way to become famous. You can stand out by other beautiful qualities, for example, by the talent you have,” she said.
“It is a relevant play. I also have an account on TikTok and YouTube. I like to make and publish photos about Moldova. I am familiar with the rules of behavior on the Internet and try to comply with them – not to publish indecent images, texts with grammatical errors, bad words. For such posts you risk being blocked or tagged by others. Criticisms happen, and you get them, but I don’t take them to heart. I try to be fair, rational, and responsible on the Internet,” Liza Vlas, fourth grade student, told us.
Dorina Marișcoi, deputy director for education at the lyceum, thanked the Guguță Municipal Puppet Theater for the opportunity for children to watch a free performance. “Our students have strengthened their knowledge of online safety. This topic is very relevant at the moment. In the digital age there are many challenges related to social networks and the Internet. We often discuss Internet safety with students at school, but the actors today gave them a lesson about how to protect themselves online. I hope that each of them goes home with a topic that they will discuss with their parents, with other family members. This is the only way we can raise our children in safety,” the teacher concluded.
The children from kindergarten no. 16 “Izvoraș” in Soroca also listened to the story of the wolf who manipulates and the squirrel who warns him about the rules he must follow online.
Alexandru Săli, the actor who plays the wolf in the play PikPok.online@guguta, told the children not to be afraid of any of the characters in the story they were about to watch, nor to be angry with them, because all the characters will be friends in the end and the truth will win. “Friendship will win. The good wins. And that is exactly how it should be in real life.”
“The Internet is good and brings a lot of use when we know how, when, and at what time we can use it. You, children, should remember: you should not believe everything; any info, news, words must be checked,” the other actors chanted. The children sang, danced, applauded the actors, thus thanking them for the theatrical performance they enjoyed.
“It was a meaningful show. I’ve been to the theater before, but this performance was more beautiful than others. I liked the rabbit, because she was bold, friendly, liked to tell the truth and wanted others to behave the same,” Raluca Railean, age five, told us.
“I also liked the rabbit the most. The wolf gave her a flower to forgive him for telling lies. The wolf lied twice. Once he lied about being able to fly and the second time he pretended to be attacked by rabbits. But it wasn’t true. Rabbits are gentle, cute. We, children, should not tell lies, either. We must behave nicely, be kind to each other and friendly,” added her colleague Sofia Avricenco, same age.
Ludmila Nagorneac, the educator of junior class, paid attention during the performance to the reactions of the children she had around, as well as to everything that was happening on stage. At the end, we asked her if this show was understood by the children. “Yes, of course. I noticed educational moments of friendship, interpersonal relations: how to communicate with each other, how to be able to resolve some conflicts, why misunderstanding arises and why it is necessary to reconcile, resolve the conflict. The children found it interesting. I saw them excited, focused on what was happening on the stage. I liked that they have something to learn from this show,” the educator said.
“It is a show for all ages. Parents should be made aware and should watch it with the children,” said the educational supervisor Cristina Boldescu. “Nowadays, children get acquainted with technological devices at an early age; at several months old they already interact with the mobile phone. Such are the trends. But parents should not forget to limit their use time. Kindergarten children are in the period of development, and telephones spoil them, do not allow them to develop harmoniously, as they should. Unfortunately, parents notice this only when children get to school. Too frequent contacts with the mobile phone affect academic performance. These observations have been made over time. I am not saying that they should not use it at all, because we are in the age of digitization, but there must be a limit in the use of information technologies,” she said. Regarding the play PikPok.online@guguta, she noted that according to the framework plan of the educational institution, viewing of stage plays is planned in the kindergarten 1-3 times a month, depending on the age of the children. “We’ve had such shows before, but none have been as good, educational for children as this one. There were over a hundred children of all ages, and the actors were able to maintain their attention throughout the performance. If we had more educational shows of this kind, it would help us in the educational process,” Cristina Boldescu concluded.
PikPok.online@guguta is an adaptation of the educational story “A Click of Fangs or the Manipulative Wolf”, written by media researcher Solvita Denisa Liepniece from Latvia. The play has a duration of 45 minutes and is included in the repertoire of the Guguță theater, both in Russian and Romanian. In partnership with the Independent Journalism Center, the Guguță theatre launched the Romanian language version of the play PikPok.online@guguta in November 2022, and the Russian language version in February 2023.
The show is made in the form of an educational and entertaining story, and it is intended for kindergarten and primary school students. The show helps children understand how the online environment works, urging them to analyze what they see or hear, especially on social networks.
The PikPok.online@guguta show is organized within the project “Media Education and Literacy and Optimisation of Newsrooms” (MELON). This project is financially supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Moldova.
