Drama Tuesday - Once More Unto The Breach
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I am excited to report that I will be back in China once again from May 16-23 for the
9th IDEAC International Drama Education Conference, Zhuhai, China. May 18-21 2023. IDEAC, International Conference on the Application and Cooperation of Drama Education, the IDEA member.
After the break of three years – the COVID-19 disruption to all our lives – I can meet again with friends and colleagues. During this time of enforced distance, we have stayed in touch and I have presented on-line workshops and keynotes.
This conference is in Zhuhai which means flying into Hong Kong Airport and then being swept across the The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge (HZMB is a 55-kilometre (34 mi) bridge–tunnel system consisting of a series of three cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel, and four artificial islands. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fixed link in the world.)
The conference will be held in the Zhuhai Grand Theatre.
It will be wonderful to once again see IDEAC colleagues, Xiaohong晓虹 Fan范, Mr Wu and Yu Shan as well as IDEA President: Sanja Krsmanović Tasić .
For this Conference I am presenting a speech on AUSTRALIAN DRAMA CURRICULUM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION 澳大利亚戏剧课程概览, a topic of great interest given the 2022 Ministry of Education policy announcements that provide an opening door for drama in schools.
As well I am presenting a two day practical drama workshop for teachers. This process drama workshop is based on a visit I made to Xi Shi’s Hometown 西施故里 in Zhuji 2019 when I was at the IDEAC Congress in that city. I was inspired by the statues of the yarn washers and people of the village on the shores of the river. The tranquil atmosphere of the place inspired me to think about imaginatively exploring stories. This, in turn, led me to look at the story of Xi Shi as well as the traditional stories of Nü Wa.
There are two Big Ideas to this workshop:
1) we learn drama by making drama
2) we learn to teach drama by reflecting on how we make drama.
By engaging with the processes of drama, taking on roles, exploring situations and tension, time, space, and symbol, we learn to express and communicate through drama. By reflecting on the structures and strategies used in the workshop we connect with possibilities for our own drama teaching. We understand ourselves as drama makers and as drama teachers.
Twelve hours of practical workshops has been a challenge to prepare but an exciting one. I am looking forward to working with Chinese drama teachers again.
To support the workshop I have prepared notes for participants and slides [I like teaching with slides; they help the translators but, importantly, they help keep me on track]. and of course, I rely very much on the skill of my translators who are, in truth, co-teaching with me.
The theme of the workshop is summed up in the title: Thinking like a Drama Teacher.
Dramathink is a wonderful term that I happily take from Nora Morgan and Juliana Saxton, in their still inspiring book Drama: A Mind of Many Wonders (1989).
For me, Drama Thinking is making explicit for others, your thinking processes and routines. Plans for lessons are intrinsically limited to the words on the page. Drama Thinking is sharing planning choices and possibilities; it explores reasons why, taking apart the ideas, making links and connections yet staying open and flexible.
In more recent times Peter Duffy (2015) posed the question: A Reflective Practitioner’s Guide to (mis)Adventures in Drama Education – or – What Was I thinking? This is sharing what I was thinking.
This workshop draws from two StagePage publications:
Learning Drama Teaching Drama Concepts and Strategies
Drama Thinking. Thinking and Planning like a Drama Teacher.
Both are available from www.stagepage.com. au.
As always, I am happy to share my workshop notes. There’s a short version and a longer version which has a full workshop outlined interspersed with notes on key concepts included in the workshops.
I invite feedback and ideas prompted by sharing the workshop outlines.
