- The results have been used in our new production “Woke & Mad” (premiered 22.03.2022)
- Mihkel Seeder’s article on the contest in Õpetajate Leht:
- “VAT Teater kutsub koolinoori tähenduserroreid märkama”
- Mihkel Seeder’s article on the contest’s results and other educational activities, that accompany the play “Woke & Mad” in Õpetajate Leht: “Suurim suhtluserror on suhtluse puudumine”
Short story contest VAT AN ERROR for students
VAT Theatre is launching a new story contest for students (age 14-19) that will be used to insprie a new youth production in the fall of 2021. In cooperation with the Goethe Institute, VAT is developing a project called „Errors of Meaning “, that aims to create a new, meaningful story, focusing on the words, terms, meaning and to how easy it is to misuse them all.
Making a typo, trusting a translation program or getting carried away with the use of foreign words – these are all more than enough to cause a misunderstanding. Sometimes the results are comical, sometimes it’s embarrassing, and on rare occasions it can give way to creating a pointless conflict.
Therefore we are calling all young people to write to us about these surprising, embarrassing, funny, meaningful situations that they’ve been in or that they’ve witnessed. Of course, these situations can also be made up. We ask that you write the story down however you wish (no longer than one page) and send it to mihkel@vatteater.ee, with the title VAT AN ERROR. The writing can be accompanied by a photo, screenshot or other kinds of illustration (especially in situations where the error is due to an unfortunate autocorrect).
Admissions are open until March 1st, 2021.
The authors of the most captivating stories will be rewarded with free theatre tickets. Additionally, we will invite the authors of 6 of the most outstanding submissions to come to rehearsals so they can give their input to the production’s outcome.
RECOMMENDATION: The contest is a good fit for Estonian or literature classes. To come up with ideas, we invite you to take part in our writing workshops – story writing, playwriting, “VATinaarium” or creative writing, which are all currently happening online.
Additional information: mihkel@vatteater.ee.
THE RESULTS
The contest brought in 50 different, gripping examples on what kinds of (communication) errors youth have had to deal with. The most common examples come from the internet and careless use of foreign languages. Mental health, generational differences, distance learning and humorous mistakes caused by sloppy language use are just some of the other topics that could be found among the stories.
The three winning pieces approached the topic of the contest but from unexpected facets. Anette Puhm’s (Rapla Gymnasium, 10th grade) story gives a real-world example of how compulsive thoughts can twist a simple situation into a difficult, embarrassing one. Jane Mustrik (Võru Kreutzwald’s school, 9th grade) gave us a story about how every mistake in a life-or-death situation can turn out to be a colossal one. Mari Saffre (Tallinn German Gymnasium, 12th grade) chose a very symbolic direction to depict errors. All three winners will be incorporated in the creation of VAT’s new production “Errors of Meanings), where they can give feedback to the writers and developing the stories themselves.
The judges, with Sveta Grigorjeva (one of the authors of “Errors of Meaning”), Mari-Liis Velberg (educational activities director at VAT) and Mihkel Seeder (dramatist at VAT and co-author of “Errors of Meaning”) wished to praise the following authors as well: Elise Zinovjev (Türi middle school), Miko Saukkonen (Paide Gymnasium), Kaisa Urban and Kaspar Simulman (Tallinn’s Kivimäe middle school).
A big thank you to all the students and teachers thanks to whom we have this collection of emotional stories from across Estonia!
“Errors of Meaning”, produced in cooperation with the Goethe Institute will see daylight by the end of 2021.