Section one
Framing the drama
Theme: Sometimes expressed in words such as “ This drama is about the way young people have different dreams to older people,” or “How people deal with conflict of traditions in an immigrant family.” To express your theme in one word , say “Love” or” Change”, which does not really give the reader the same view of your intentions as it has a very broad focus. These words might be better described as the subject. A well-written theme gives the reader a snapshot of the sorts of human questions that might be in the writer’s mind ,which the characters will flesh out in the action of the drama. This embodiment makes the theme concrete for the pupils.
Underlying question : This develops directly out of the theme, so if we take the idea of older and younger people’s dreams, the Underlying question might be "Where do dreams come from"? What are the influences on a person’s dreams? ? How do dreams affect people’s behaviour? These questions all have the human at their heart. They develop the theme and one could almost see a scene coming out of each question, as there is a sense of the person in each of the questions above. You may use underlying questions to develop two sides of a debate. In a story of Miss Muffet, the questions might be what are the rights of people?[Should she have sat under that tree?] What are the rights of insects? [Should he make his web wherever he likes?]. These underlying questions suggest dramatic action, as above. One may work back from the dramatic questions to the underlying questions and then the theme or vice versa, if that is easier for you. Either way , one is linked directly to the other.
Source and stimulus: The source of your story may be theme like the Cost of Justice, and if so then you need an aesthetic or symbolic stimulus to bring debate to life. This usually is a poem, short story, novel, picture, musical piece, or a combination of any of these above, which
[a] Capture the imagination.
[b] Give a sense of the theme, and provoke many open questions.
[c] Has sensory appeal and lures the reader into a situation. Typically, this will focus on a person or family, often similar to the pupils in age, to facilitate empathic engagement. The place and time suggested may be utterly different to the present, though not always, especially as the class increases in age.
[d] Have sense of a person’s world, including people mentioned and unmentioned. People in the picture and those absent from it. Voices we hear and those yet unheard? Secrets to be revealed, in short a stimulus or source should be evocative for you ,then you can pass on the sense of excitement to the pupils. If the picture is being used for the sake of it, move on and choose a source, which speaks to you. We all like teaching thing s we like ourselves.
[e] Suggests tensions which may be interesting to explore. NB Emotions such as sadness are not tensions. It is the different human reaction to sad events, which cause tensions for ourselves and those around us. A sad event for someone may be release of tension for someone else in the story. For instance, emigration may be sad for those leaving, but it may be a positive for some. It is the use of the contrasts within an event that we discuss the argument from both sides. These contrasts create the tension for the pupils. The value of this is that the pupil engages with the theme and underlying questions through the contrasting characters and situations.
[f] Suggest an event which cause a life change for someone.
[g] This stimulus, or a summary of it, must be included with your assignment to help the lecturer understand your intentions.
Section Two
Focusing the drama
Place: The sense of place can ground the pupils and support their going into role. To develop a sense of Place one may think of using the five senses to create total sense of identity for the place and help pupils to suspend their disbelief and accept the fiction of place and time. Not all places will be significant but some will. Think of the concentric circles. The outside circle is the galaxy, then the universe, the world, the continent, the country, the county, the town, street, house, room. The significant ones in Ann Frank were the country, street, house, and attic room.
Existing tension of place might exist where the ownership of the land is contested. This may be significant if our main character is associated with one contested side or the other.
Time: Think of concentric circles. The outer circle contains the millennium; next circle the century, next the decade, then the year, season, month, day, and time of day. Not all of these will be significant, but some will. E.g. 1944 winter for Anne Frank.
Roles: Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey is responsible for looking after the welfare of her charges, even if it means coming into confrontation with Ms. Trunchbull. Like wise the Dursleys are responsible for Happy Potter’s life, but they do not do it well, this providing useful tensions, which we can explore in a process drama. Think of responsibility. Who in Humpty Dumpty’s life has responsibility for each of the jobs, which help look after Humpty and his friends? These will fall into the private and public spheres. Roles in the private sphere will include Parents, siblings, relatives, neighbours, helpers in the home, or farm. Visitors, The public sphere will include roes, which influence the main character. Examples of these may include guardian type roles in education, health, employment, government, religion, commerce, military, legal, social, historical. Each of these roles above will have a clear responsibility. Often their responsibility may be the source of linking your themes, character, and situation. For example, Cinderella meets a friendly servant who is responsible for delivering the invitation to the ball and is answerable to the queen . Does the servant tell Cinders that or bring them straight to the queen? How does the servant balance her conflicting loyalties to her friend Cinders and her boss, the queen? The pupil in role as the servant is put into a push /pull tension which explores this theme in a concrete way.
Other types of role that may influence the main character might be animals, imaginary heroes, or friends; even the trees and spirits of the river can have a role in children’s drama. Think of the Wizard of Oz.
Again using the concentric circle model, the central circle will be the main role, followed by family, neighbours, associates, social carers, state officials, and religious ministers, military or other.
Moments: Your drama will normally aim for a climax moment. This includes a decision made by the character; certainly, it will be a moment of significant physical, mental, or moral change for them. However, for this to work at any depth, the pupils must be invested in a number of steps along the way so that they will take responsibility for the actions of their characters. Typically, these will include moments of pretext and context. Pretext is defined here as the situation that pertained up to the start of your drama, the back story if you will. Context includes the influences and pressures on the place, time, and roles. The pretext is set by exercises in place, time, and previous history of events, which lead up to your opening. In this we understand why events happened in the way they did. The next stage is to develop the story through action. For this we need people and in drama, these are called the roles. A role may be typical and functional, e.g. the nurse, the doctor. It becomes a character over the life of the drama by being fleshed out fully beyond its functional responsibilities. Not all roles will become characters in your drama. Some will remain as types. The main roles, however , will develop into three-dimensional roles, beyond stereotype, by the addition of both teacher in role and pupil in role experiences. Here we see the various roles and how they influence the main character. This is done through action in role by the pupils and teacher, which creates empathy for the main role. The purpose of which is to invest the children so much that they will want to care about what happens to the character. Many dramas rise or fall on the amount of investment that is put into the drama in this way. The main moment will then be situated or book ended by other scenes, which develop the roles and themes in ways, which build belief in the characters and their situation.
Briefing. How to create the interest in the pupils. How to invest them in the improvisation. A necessary ingredient is tension, which is put in by the teacher, not the pupils. The tension is usually a push/pull conflict, which may be external or internal; if external then the main role is conflicted by a choice of accepting present reality or taking gamble and going on by making an alternative. There is an unknown element about this choice, however which may ironically be to his detriment, or good.
If internal, the role may be morally conflicted, but a choice of commercial gain over loyalty. Alternatively, he may be conflicted in doing an activity the absolute best he can because the king may choose him to be his personal guard if he does it well. However there are other people thinking the same thing as we speak. This tension usually depends on the qualities of the role.
Focus: This briefing will provide sharp focus the pupils on the task in hand. It must be clearly expressed in terms of “desired outcome.” This conflict of desired outcome provides very useful tensions, which provide the energy for autonomous engagement in the improvisation. Done well, it means that the teacher can hand over creative power to the pupils and simply watch the events unfold. Each pupil must have his or her own desired outcome. They need to know where they are going if they are going to get there. You provide the map, they make the journey.
Assessment: The three strands of the curriculum are
Making and exploring drama
Co-operation and communication in drama
Reflecting on drama
There should be one objective per lesson per strand. However, it is meet to note that these objectives, like all objectives must be evidence based. We must be able to assess that each pupil has achieved the stated objective in that particular lesson. This can be an educational objective, like measuring Columbus’ cabin ( Maths; Making and Exploring); a subject based objective, ( make a still image of Tiny Tim the day after Christmas); or a drama skill based objective, (carry out brief with conviction in a scene between Jack and his mum.) . Sometimes the strands will overlap, but the emphasis will suffice. For instance in the scene between Jack and his mum, the teacher is clear that whilst they must co-operate and communicate to achieve the goal, that her objective for this lesson is on Jack speaking with belief in the scene with his mother. This should clarify boundaries and make progress clearer when writing reports. Assessment is usually based on a portfolio of work kept in a folder during the year, as in art.
Section Three
Rounding off the drama
Reflection: Reflection on motives, implications, and consequences should happen regularly through discussion in role and other hot seat activities. Leave the theme in the pupils’ unconscious, which will do the work for you. To make a theme explicit can take the magic out of the drama and impede the ripple effect of authentic thinking, which is so desired in this art form. Once we say something like” So stealing is very bold isn’t it?” We deny the child the right to make up her own mind in this instance. Of course, we make it clear that we do not condone stealing, by saying that the actions refer to the story and not to our lives. It was Tom in Tom, Tom the piper’s son stole a pig, and away he ran who stole the pig and not one of us here in this classroom. Try to reflect whilst in role if possible. To talk as the family of the widow who had her pig stolen about the food implications for them is reflection, but it is done in role. This could just as easily be still image of the widow’s family three days later.
Linking: Each scene must be linked to the one before. This can be done in class by teacher telling another bit of the story, or the arrival of a message or referral to another piece of news or new character. It is important that this be thought out in advance to facilitate the maintenance of belief. An exercise given at the end of the drama such as a diary entry, picture or other empathic exercise will keep the drama narrative alive until time allows you to return to the story. This should be a drama exercise, but may also be integrated with another subject.
Finishing: This may happen sooner that you expect, should pupils change the energy or focus of the drama. Remember that it is partnership and if teacher insists on finishing a drama that has finished its shelf life, then stale food is the only fare ,and no one wants that. If the interest appears to be waning, and you feel that there is more to explore in your theme, add in another tension. A new character or new information, which confounds the present situation. If that does not work try asking the pupils” Well, I am flummoxed. I haven’t a clue what Jamie might do now…what do you think … have a chat or draw the possibilities for Jamie now. It would be great to have one realistic idea that you think might work.”
Further reading:
- Making sense of Drama by Jonothan Neelands . Esp. Ch. 9. “Planning Drama”.
- Drama- a mind of many wonders by Morgan and Saxton.
Colm Hefferon
Planning Drama
Nov09
