Drama Tuesday - The Drama Teaching Space

Spaces of learning/Spaces of Performance

 We take for granted that students understand how the elements of Space and Time are crucial building blocks for making drama. But we usually think of this in terms of the performance spaces we use – our theatres and performance venues. In this post I shift our thinking to consider that every drama room – whether it’s a purpose built space or a classroom rearranged - in the same terms as we do in making drama: the physical space,, the social space and the imagined emotional space. 

The space of performance is essentially an interaction between participants who are performers and participants who are audience. We can think of the drama teaching space as the interaction between participants – students and teacher – and the physical, social and imagined emotional space. 

I am thinking about this having read an interesting post from TheatreFolk in Canada and a new publication they have put out called Return, restore, rebound: Post-Pandemic Resource.. In that post they discuss the challenges of being a teacher who has been teaching online and remotely as they return to their physical classrooms. (https://www.theatrefolk.com/products/return-restore-rebound-post-pandemic-resource) . In particular, they set out to support the beginning teacher who is moving into the physical space of teaching for the first time after their graduation – a delayed taking up of a teaching position because of the Pandemic. 

In that resource, they pose useful questions for teachers – fresh to the space or returning to the space – reflecting on the potential of the teaching space. The physical strengths and limits as well emotional reactions to being in the space. The potential for doing things differently. 

In my work with drama teacher education students I include a module on thinking about setting our “perfect” drama teaching space (as part of a workshop on Managing Drama Teaching). At one level there is no “perfect” drama teaching space – and at another level the “perfect teaching space” is the one you are in the process of making. It is always in a state of becoming.

There are some important principles though: be organised. I have lost track of where this image comes from – the antiquated dimmer board takes it back somewhere into the dim dark past. But the notion of managing the space is important. 

The second image was something I drew after visiting a successful teacher’s space. Christina is thoroughly organised. For example, students know that if they missed a class, the can always go into the shelf where notes from each workshop are kept and find what they missed. 

The other thing about this teacher’s work, is that each student had their own portfolio which they added to systematically with each lesson. This provided both organisation of accumulating learning, it also made explicit metacognitive processes of articulating learning through writing and journal entries. (Of course, nowadays, we might not have a physical portfolio but keep a digital one). There is more to teaching drama than being able to lead a process drama. 

If you work in most secondary schools in Western Australia there is likely to be a purpose built Performing Arts Centre. They vary but are basically a workshop space of about 14 metres by 114  metres with associated dressing room/green room (that is also another teaching space). They are equipped with lighting bars and lights, sound systems. Most are carpeted. They are in. effect black box theatres. But if you are the drama teacher, most likely the only drama teacher in the school, you will wind up being responsible for a facility that costs over a million dollars to build and a school community that don’t quite understand the complexity of being responsible for it. There is the technical side – sound and lighting that requires specialised knowledge. There is the security side where there is equipment that is highly desirable that can be easily stolen or misappropriated. There is the maintenance and air conditioning and all the Occupational Health and Safety requirements when it comes to audiences and not having students push each other around on the scaffolding for the lighting. 

That’s a huge amount of financial and professional responsibility for a beginning teacher. And, sadly, so little time in a teacher education course to provide the necessary background for managing. Part of the work of drama teachers is to manage their teaching and learning space.

What are the necessary knowledge and skills to step into the drama teaching and learning space? What do you need to know to teach drama – apart from a knowledge about the art form itself?

Drama Tuesday - Batavia Children: a Process Drama Exploration

Drama Tuesday - Generosity of Spirit

Don't come to my production if you there to point score, to redirect it or to criticise it unreasoningly.

Come to enjoy, to share, to discover along with us the joy and rough magic of theatre, to understand why we are performing, to share what we are saying ( or trying to say!)

Come to share our sense of achievement, to understand what it is we can now do as a result of the process of discovery we have explored.

I am not going to apologise or pretend that it maybe couldn't ( and shouldn't ) be better. I can be critical as the next person (honest!) I try to have a real sense of what should be on the stage - but I also know that in schools we are working with theatre in an educational context - the learning is as important ( perhaps even more important ) than the production.

Having said that I don't advocate using that thinking as an easy excuse or escape clause. (My old mother, ever a realist, taught me to never apologise for what might have been or to blame someone else, but to cop it sweet whatever happens.)

There can be a lack of generosity of spirit in the barely suppressed commentary of carping criticism I sometimes overhear. This is more than just sad (or hurtful), It damages and diminishes the rest of us.

They sometimes say that the theatre is the natural resort of bitches but I question whether that ought to be the case in theatre in educational settings. If we saw or heard our students rubbishing other performers, we would do something about it, wouldn’t we! Surely we wouldn't join in. ( Which isn't to say that the application of critical frameworks as part of understanding the role of the critic isn’t part of the theatre going experience - but that is something different from the mood of picky and personalised knifery that sometimes seems to pervade the audience of our peers. )

I know that it is easier to laugh at something than to think about it; it is easier to wreck rather than to feel; it is easier to snigger than to understand. If theatre is truly to move us - and move us in more than a simple cathartic burst of emotion - to make us think and feel and, therefore, to change, then we cannot afford to rely on the easy response, to use a quick laugh at someone else’s expense as a substitute for a genuine reaction. Are we so insecure about our own work and abilities that we have to prove our worth at the expense of someone else’s work?

When I go to see someone else’s production, I try to see the production in its context. I try to see its successes and strengths. I try to find something positive to say. I try to base any comments that I make on the production - particularly in discussion with my students - focus on the specific, avoiding the personal or the cheap Jibe. I aim to make my comments balanced, clear and thoughtful. And the amazing thing I have discovered, is that it isn't so difficult to take this world view because often what I see when young people perform is wonderful, amazing and awe inspiring. so it is not effort to focus on the positive.

I am not claiming to be some plaster saint - or to say that sometimes I am not tempted to think a few cheap and nasty thoughts. But I am saying that I have learnt to bite my tongue when the carping starts. And I think we all should do that.

So, when you come to my production, come knowing what to expect. It will be the best that I can do with the talent and the resources that I have at the moment. We have set out to make a production which is the best that we can achieve at this moment in time. We are what we are. Whatever our deficiencies, we don't excuse them but then we don’t let them diminish our sense of achievement.

Drama Tuesday - Drama Teaching and the School Production

High School production of Les Miserables, 

Evora, Portugal 2017

 Scratch a little below the surface of why young people study drama in schools and almost always they’ll say they do it because they love and want to perform – to be in productions*. The allure of costumes, lights, sets, learning lines, rehearsals, stepping onto the stage in front of an audience, applause. 

I share with students an affinity for the “smell of the greasepaint and roar of the crowd” (as the song goes). Going to a school that did not offer drama as a curriculum subject when the annual production was the only drama opportunity, I grew into a love of drama from that model. But the curriculum (eventually) caught up. Drama became a part of the offerings of schools – though sometimes that is being held onto by our toenails in some schools. For some students (and for some teachers maybe) the focus of drama in the school is less the formal curriculum and more the chance to put on the play or musical. Many schools value the performance for its PR value, for presenting the school in a positive light. According the the gossip, some schools spend huge budgets on these annual extravaganzas. 

What is the role of the school production?

What is the relationship between the drama in the curriculum and the school production?

Don’t get me wrong. There can be many curriculum and co-curricular benefits from a school production. Students learn the discipline of rehearsal, the deferred rewards of working towards a shared goal. They learn about working and learning collaboratively as a member of a team. They work on the nuts and bolts of voice and movement role and characterisation. They learn lines and work on memorisation. The learnt the values of setting personal goals and achieving them. They understand the sense of personal satisfaction of achieving something challenging.

In co-curricular terms, Students from across the years and cliques can be brought together. School identity and cohesion can be fostered (in many of our productions in schools we had students and teachers working alongside each other on stage, sharing dressing rooms and the anguish and pain of learning lines).

But behind the glamour and the sweat, the focus is less on the curriculum content and more on the show. This is not just a problem for the drama teacher. I am reminded of the music students who want only the “glory” of the performance and not the hard slog of so called “classroom music”. 

We cannot overlook the issues that accompany an approach that focuses on a performance-only drama education. Competitive auditioning and casting of favourites; using professionals or outsiders to “bolster” local talent (there is a story going around of the school that spends the equivalent of one year’s teacher salary on hiring professional musicians to “sweeten” the orchestra!); choosing from a limited known repertoire – the crowd pleasers! Censorship. Relentless drilling for perfection. The production as a vehicle for the teacher’s starring role (vanity project 101). The list goes on.

Let’s put the performance schedule of drama in schools in perspective. 

Performance is important in drama education. Gone are the days when the concept of performance in the drama classroom was anathema. Unless we want to return to the days of what I sometimes call Kleenex Tissue Drama – we make drama and then throw it away barely realised, like we do with too many paper hankies!. 

At its heart, drama education is about providing students with opportunities to express ideas and share them – communicate them with and for an audience. To that end, what we do in our drama classes – our class drama – provides the foundations of knowledge and skill for effective performance. 

What is your balance of performance in drama education in schools?

Drama Tuesday - Once More unto the Breach …

…into WAAPA for production of Human Cannon by Edward Bond.

 We are in the Enright Studio at WAAPA for the production of Edward Bond’s Human Cannon by Second Year actors. 

The twelve scenes provide a sweeping portrait of social oppression, struggle during the years of the Spanish Civil War. Our focus is Agustina, mother, wife, revolutionary, symbol. At the play’s opening she is burying her dead new born unbaptised child in the face of the implacable power of Church. At the play’s closing, as she is about to face a firing squad, as she is shown the face of her daughter’s new born, she finds comfort and can smile. In between, bloody events of revolutionary savagery, acts of war, terrorism and betrayal on a foundation of love and loyalty. She becomes the human cannon aimed at the heart of inhuman cruelty.

The audience flank the acting space on two sides. We entered through a scatter of hard backed chairs, a door frame, a wooden table and minimal props; suspended from the ceiling are broken chairs. Light haze filters the lighting. Atmospheric music underscores the action.

The cast plays more than sixty roles. Sometimes generic revolutionaries or soldiers or cardboard cutout caricatures of power – Priest, Franco look alike, Vendors – sometimes named roles. The use of minimal props is noteworthy for students of drama – sticks and lumps of wood pressed  into action as rifles and guns; a piece of fabric is pummelled as kneaded bread; wagon wheels and wood are shaped into a cannon. The use of sound effects was interesting – the loading and re-loading of the cannon – over the mimed actions using improvised props. The manipulation of minimal props and the easy transitions of locations was deftly handled (though I did feel that the weaving of chairs overhead was now a tired and overused theatrical commonplace – institutionalised to the point of overuse in Billy Elliot for example).

Edward Bond continues to have a throat-hold on theatrical power. The many inheritances of Brecht are evident. Announcing the titles of each section in handwritten chalk scrawled by the actors (but spell the title of the play correctly, please); the explicit telling of the fable of the play in the opening scene; the use of shadow puppetry; each scene presenting polemic dialectical discussion of themes embodied in human interactions. The push-pull of distancing us from the horror while also engaging us with gut-level action, worked. The broader socio-political purpose is foremost: the events from the Spanish Civil War serve as a template for wider struggles. This is a primer in recognising the broad purpose of theatre. 

The production moves rapidly from scene to scene even though the sweep of words and dialogue is ever present. Not a short production (we have become so used to bite size theatre that maybe we have lost the stamina required!). There is richly evoked poetry. Agustina’s lament for her country – the long lyrical heart of the play – is powerfully evoked. It finishes with the ironical question: who could not be happy in such a land?

According to a 1987 source (Debusscher), Human Cannon is unproduced. It makes me wonder if this production is a first. It presents an interesting challenge if it is. As a vehicle for acting students, there is plenty of challenge and scope. I was uncomfortable with the accent work, which sometimes verged on cartoon or parody. But, overall, the production proved to be a a successfully managed challenge. And, sometimes, the well-intentioned movement work and Spanish clapping, was under-developed. 

The fable of the piece is powerfully captured in the story of the stone and the tree. Again, Bond’s  nimble and practised handling of his craft shows the strength of his writing as it was realised in this production.

Overall, a strong production with an interesting (and diverse) group of actors. 

There is an excellent discussion of the play’s themes and contexts in Debusscher, G. (1987).

Bibliography

Debusscher, G. (1987). Human Cannon ·: Edward Bond's Vision of the Spanish Civil War. Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 65(3), 604-618. Retrieved from https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1987_num_65_3_3598

Drama Tuesday - Stating the obvious

What is the starting point of any drama teacher education course?

A drama teacher begins with a love and knowledge of drama as a way of making meaning, expressing ideas and stories and communicating with an audience. They begin with drama in their own lives. On that basis we begin to build an understanding of drama as learning, drama as curriculum. 

Each year I begin by making drama – a collaborative process drama experience loosely called Play in an Hour – and spring boarding from that to ask drama teacher education students to reflect on their own drama learning in schools and the drama curriculum. 

In a Week 2 reflection in 2018, Leigh wrote the following.

What would be your reflection if you reflected on 1) your own experiences of drama in schools; and, 2) your drama curriculum?

Drama Tuesday - The Empty Space is calling

In Western Australia Year 12 drama students complete a Practical Examination with four parts in 20 minutes. As the Examination Guidelines stipulate, “All examination rooms will be set up in a consistent manner in terms of lighting, access to power supply for sound equipment and the placement of the markers as shown in the diagram below. Candidates are required to work within the marked performance area.” ( Drama ATAR course Practical (performance) examination requirements).

It is important to prepare and inspire students for this challenge. 

The following notes are taken from a workshop developed by the Western
Australian Youth Theatre Company and then Artistic Director, Jenny Davis, to help students orient themselves to the task.

The practical workshop had four parts and included examples of performances from students who had completed this task in the previous year. It focused on helping students develop Part 1 of the Exam – Original Solo Performance.

To help students develop their Original solo Performance, we work through three exercises that are designed to help crystallise dramatic action in the specific format and limits of the exam.

Successful original solo productions are the result of a process of making effective choices.

They need:

• Dramatic action – drama tells stories but it is not storytelling. Nor is it standup comedy. Something happens to someone.

• Dramatic tension – driving the dramatic action is something at risk, some obstacle to overcome, some conflict to bring to a point of climax.

• Characters – people in a situation

• Characters on a journey – at a turning point in their lives, at a moment of transition or discovery, where things change

• Characters we as audience care about, are interested in, fascinated (or horrified or moved by or…); people for whom we feel emotion and identification

• Embodiment using space, time and energy; these characters in the situation create dramatic action through contrasts of movement and stillness, light and darkness, loud and soft, varying pace, getting faster and slower as the action unfolds.

In the workshop participants were asked to find physical ways of showing their ideas in images.

The next stage was to develop a Thesis Statement for their idea.

A thesis statement offers a concise summary of the main point of the Original Performance. It is usually expressed in one sentence. It contains the topic and the controlling idea.

The thesis statement is developed, supported, and explained through the Original Performance. Thesis statements help organise and develop the body of the piece. They let audiences know the writer/performer’s purpose..

Adapted from From Wikipedia 

These three activities were the focus of the workshop. Participants were sent away with other possible explorations:

Exploring character traits. They explored the physicalisation of the characters in their stories. They worked from direct large opposites – boisterous/quiet; kind/cruel; trusting/suspicious. They were then asked to use observational detail that specified actions and reactions. 

Finding form and style. Participants worked with the broad categorisations of Representational and Presentational drama. They are asked to work through their Original Solo Performance as if it is completely representational. In other words, to show the action as if it is actually happening. Then they work through their idea using presentational forms and styles: abstracting movement, reducing movements to minimal, challenge actor-audience relationships, etc. 

There is a space marked out on the floor approximately four metres wide and three metres deep. The question every Year 12 Drama student must answer:

How will I fill the empty space? 

Drama Tuesday - Belonging

What does it mean to belong to a community – a guild – of drama teachers? 

In setting up the drama teaching course at Murdoch University in 2002 I involved two metaphors

• building a reporter of resources to support teaching drama on Day 1

• enrolling students in a guild or association of drama educators.

It is useful to think about why I find the concept of belonging to a group of drama educators an important foundational concept. 

It is not simply because as a graduating teacher i had impressed on me the importance of belonging. Though that is part of it. I have in professional life always been a joiner. 

This post is reflecting on the role of belonging. 

Wikipedia

Teaching drama can be isolated. Unlike, say, teaching English, in many schools, as drama teacher you are on your own because there may be only one of you in a school. 

There are many ways of belonging to a community even if you are a one person band. 

• You can establish networks and use buddy systems.

• You can be a member of a community when you are not physically located together.

• You can belong to a virtual community.

• You can belong to a corresponding community exchanging emails and snail mail and telephone calls.

• You can belong to a community by reading what others say and write and do by reading professional journals.

• You can contribute to your professional community by writing of your experiences in professional journals yourself.

• You can take responsibility for the future of the community. You can be a leader and a worker for the field. You do that from inside your drama workshop but also beyond. What you say and do with colleagues in your school, in your profession is a necessary part of contributing to the future of drama as a part of the curriculum for all students.

Belonging means that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time

Drama Victoria Facebook

One of the difficulties for productive and creative teachers is that they often reinvent their  particular wheels. Rather than efficiently re-using and re-cycling their teaching notes and resources, they make new ones each year. 

So, isn’t the issue: how do we better organise our pool of resources so that we can effectively and efficiently access them when we need to? And adapt them as our thinking about teaching drama changes, develops and grows

Using available resources better

Similarly, there seems to be a rejection of commercially published materials and textbooks. While I have never been able to use one textbook and one textbook alone, I do draw from many sources in my own teaching. But the most useful resources are people - and that brings us back to why it is necessary to have a sense of belonging.

Drama Tuesday - Space is Fundamental

Drama Tuesday - Why Drama – preparing young people for uncertain futures

 For the past few years I have been working with drama educators in China through keynotes and workshops. IDEC one of the IDEA members located in Beijing has been a wonderful collaborator on the development of interest and enthusiasm for drama teaching. There has been remarkable growth in the field. In May 2021, IDEC are staging another conference (though, of course, limited in the Coronavirus Pandemic). They asked me to talk about ho drama prepares young people for uncertain futures. 

It is useful to go back to our fundamental understandings to remind ourselves of the reasons why we teach drama. 

I share with you the recording I have just finished. Text is included below. 

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic has taught us many lessons. One of the most important is being prepared for uncertain futures. We have learnt the importance of the need to respond quickly as circumstances change. Drama teaches us about responding. Drama teaches us about improvising without pre-written scripts. Drama teaches us to focus on what it is to be human in the world.

When our students have authentic opportunities to work with the Elements of Drama, they develop their skills of enacting role and relationships, telling stories creating dramatic action and situations. They understand how tension drives dramatic action using space, and time, voice and movement and symbols, language, mood and atmosphere. The drama they learn and create and respond to develops an awareness of their world and enables them to imagine their futures. 

Drama education provides opportunities for observing and understanding people – including themselves. Through playing these roles and exploring relationships, they understand what it is to be human. This is developing  personal identity. This is a key skill for understanding and engaging with our collective uncertain futures. 

Drama education provides opportunities for trying out possibilities and exploring alternatives. In drama we can stop the action and restart it differently. We can stop the drama and reflect on what happened and what could happen next. Drama gives the chance of playing and replaying action. We can test our futures.

Drama education provides opportunities for entering the world that we live in and exploring it. These everyday stories about ordinary experiences help us understand our sense of personal, social and cultural identity.

Drama education provides opportunities for exploring the choices that we make in life – the ethical choices and the values that we need for a successful future. In learning to express and communicate ideas and feelings through stories enacted for others, our students learn to make choices and learning about becoming good people – people who care for others, show compassion and empathy and understanding. 

Drama education provides opportunities for understanding and sharing emotions. Learning to express themselves and their feelings, helps prepare for a world where it is important to show who we are to the world with honesty and authenticity.  

Drama education provides opportunities for sharing the stories of the past – the ones that have been handed to us over generations. And to understand them for the future as we hand them to our future children. 

Drama education provides opportunities for creativity and play. whatever unfolds in the future, there will continue to be the need for creativity and play. Creativity to imagine and re-imagine possibilities. Play as a context for learning. 

Drama education provides opportunities for learning together and building teams collaborating

To summarise some of the big ideas of this presentation, drama gives us opportunities to rehearse the past and present for the future.

There has been a long history of “future thinking” – thinking about the skills needed for the future. 

Writing in 2018 before the Pandemic, Stowe Boyd identified 10 Work Skills for An Uncertain Future.

I share some of this this work with you to make the point that Drama education can and does develop these skills. 

To this list we can add that drama helps us respond to the uncertain futures through developing our skills in:

• responding to people, relationships and situations - drama is action and response

• problem solving – Drama is active problem solving

• working together collaboratively for shared goals – Drama is team work

• creative and critical thinking – Through Drama we ask questions and work creatively

We are not alone in seeking to re-imagine the world of learning for uncertain futures. As we meet in 2021, UNESCO is in the midst of project of magnitude that we should pay attention to. And we need to remind the decision makers and policy makers of the role of drama in educating for the future.

The playwright Shakespeare had Hamlet provide famous advice to players in hamlet prince of Denmark. There is good advice there for us to share with our students – don’t weave your arms around too much; don’t shout your lines; Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. And at the heart of drama education is his advice 

“the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature”.

We don’t know what the future will bring – some things good, some things uncertain. But we will always have drama as a powerful way of holding the mirror up to what we see. 

Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you today. 

I am a proud advocate for the power of drama to enrich and enhance the lives of young people.I encourage you to be the voice and action of drama education in your world. It changes the lives of all who participate. 

You can find more of my thoughts and ideas at www.stagepage.com.au 

and through IDEA www.ideadrama.org 

Thank you for listening. 

Bibliography

Boyd, R. N. (1988). How to Be a Moral Realist. In G. Sayre-McCord (Ed.), Essays on Moral Realism (pp. 181-128). New York: Cornell University Press.