Volume 2 Number 10
Hi Folks,
Kim's Drama Blog
I must begin by apologising to all subscribers - I try to get this
newsletter out on a weekly basis (I also hope that I'll get
contributions from the readership) - but sometimes life conspires to get
in the way. I've been through rather a surreal time recently - not
all of it pleasant. I was subjected to a spate of unwanted phone
calls - sometimes around 20-30 in an evening. I have been through
the bizarre and very time consuming process of logging all the
calls, providing details to Telstra and finally involving the police to
take steps to have the caller stop. This proved to be a very
stressful experience and even though the police have intervened and
warned off the person involved there's still a tendency to jump a bit
when the phone rings. I'd love to be able to generate the same
sort of tension in a theatre audience... it was tangible!
Anyway, it seems that the calls have stopped (but I've kept the call
tracing stuff activated and the police incident report open until I'm
sure its over) and my life starts to get back to normal, such as that
is!
So, I suppose I need to catch up my activities over the past month or
so. Well, my students at university went out on their first
teaching practice - I meet them again tomorrow for the first time since
- it should prove interesting debriefing their experiences. This
first practice is a bit of a shock to the system for everyone. The
semester begins only 5 weeks before they are thrust into the classroom,
and I'm not sure all supervising teachers realise that... students
have had 15 hours of Drama Education classes and find themselves in
front of high school students! I'll bet they have learned more in
the 8 days in schools. Now they have had this experience I'm
willing to bet they now start to have a context to which they can pin
some of the theory and activities we've engaged with in class. I'm
really looking forward to hearing the war stories that always seem to
emerge after prac.
School has been on holiday for the past week - so I've been thinking
about what's in store when Term 2 starts in a week. My Year 11
class are scheduled to perform "Ghost
Play" by Rick Doble... I also need to
thank Rick for allowing us to perform his play - THANKS
RICK!! - and students have been instructed to finalise their
lines over the break and to make an effort to find some costume elements
(we don't have a proper costume facility at school - costumes are stored
in a shed with all the other equipment and resources - not an ideal
situation but better than everything being stored in the classroom as it
was for a few years before the shed became available). Students
decided they want to present the play on the big stage in the gym - this
will mean a lot of cooperation and extra effort on their part - and they
have assured me they will do the required work - I certainly hope so as
my part-time status this year limits my ability to make up the short
fall as often happened in the past. I'm finding it quite
tiring to be working in an environment where I need to do everything
myself - unfortunately other learning areas are too busy and locked into
their programs to assist with set and costume requirements. I rely
heavily on the students being willing to give up time out-of-school
hours in order to get productions off the ground. Another staff
member recently attempted "the school production" to find that
70% of the cast regularly failed to front up for rehearsals and
production meetings. My Year 12 class also missed their
opportunity for public performance because organisation and commitment
proved too much of a challenge for some - now all
performances/assessments are being done in class time in the
classroom.
A few weeks ago you may recall I presented a keynote to the
Educational Computing people ("Interfacing
Drama, the Arts and ICT" [.pdf]) and that has generated quite a
bit of interest in the idea of integrated approaches to Drama and IT -
I've had computing folk coming to me, eagerly suggesting packages and
ideas they've discovered and wondering how they can be utilised in
schools. There have been some really interesting developments and
in the Recommended Websites I'll pass on some of the stuff we've found -
the possibilities for school Drama programs are tremendously
exciting! But I honestly doubt it can be done by a lone teacher -
without a willing and enthusiastic team of teachers the possibilities
almost dissolve to nothing. Realistically, I doubt my
current teaching position in school will generate such interest.
There seems to be a real challenge for some teachers to reconcile
concepts of "student-centeredness", "teacher as
co-learner", and "integrated curriculum" with their
preconceptions of "delivery" and
"accountability". Despite the Curriculum Framework
mandating a holistic approach, the "faculty mentality" seems
to prevail.
One of my "innovations" this year is to introduce my school
to MOODLE, an online course delivery
system. With the ICT Co-ordinator we've set up a spare server at
school (an old desktop box) and installed MOODLE... it is now patched
into the internet and students are able to engage with the system from
home - I've been using it as a way to organise resource materials for my
senior students - actual classroom potential is still a bit limited in
my context - but I've managed to get a few other teachers
interested and the system is being utilised in a variety of ways across
the school. You can get an idea of the system at John
Forrest SHS MOODLE. If you'd like to see the way I've
structured my courses you'll need to contact me off list and I can give
you an access key.
I'm excited this week about the visit to Perth of Lisbeth
Goodman from SMARTLab
in the UK. Her presentation at the Bakery in Northbridge promises
to open the eyes of Drama and IT teachers as well as Electronic Arts
practitioners here in Perth. I'll pass on event details to
interested parties. It has been organised by MediaSpace
- a collaboration of electronic artists of which I'm a member.
Lisbeth's presentation really is a must for any Drama teacher in Perth
who anticipates (either positively or with trepidation) the inevitable
nexus between Drama and technology.
Other big news - this week the folk in the UK have been engaged with
the National
Drama conference at Canterbury - I was really hoping that I'd be
over there but with my teaching duties overlapping between school and
university the window of opportunity was just too narrow. I hope
it went well for all concerned. Next big even on the agenda is IDEA
in Ottawa - I've just finished paying for everything and now have a
complete itinerary worked out - what I am a little anxious about is
finalising organisational component with my co-chairs on the Special
Interest Group for Drama and New Media.
I'll be in Ottawa from June 30(pm) - July 9(am), in New York from
July 9(pm) - July 13(pm), and Hong Kong from July 15(pm) - July 19(pm) -
if anyone wants to catch up please drop me a line - I'd love to meet and
have coffee with some of the Drama-Ed folk. In New York I'm hoping
to get to see a couple of the shows in the Lincoln Center festival...
any OFF-OFF BROADWAY shows interest me as well... as David Bowie
stated on Parkinson last night - "musical
theatre doesn't really do it for me and most musical theatre in New York
and London is just...well.. crap" - Go
David!! my sentiments couldn't have been expressed better!
Anyway, I suspect that is enough of a catch up for the time being -
and I'm yet to have breakfast and I still have a few more sections of
this newsletter to complete. Remember:
I'm always keen to have your contributions featured here instead of my
ramblings.
LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA
proof
(prõõf)
n.
- The evidence or argument
that compels the mind to accept an assertion as true.
-
- The validation of a
proposition by application of specified rules, as of induction
or deduction, to assumptions, axioms, and sequentially derived
conclusions.
- A statement or
argument used in such a validation.
Mathematics and Theatre – two ways of knowing
that owe a lot of their popularity and currency to the way the Ancient
Greeks dealt with them. And
interestingly two ways of knowing that still exist despite the passage
of time. In their own way each sought to explain and point to “truth”.
Mathematics attempts the objective logical path and theatre
seems to many to choose the subjective emotional way.
Simon Singh
at the Strange Behaviour symposium discusses how after more than 2000
years the ideas of the ancient Greeks are largely dismissed – “What
the Greeks said about medicine we laugh at. What the Greeks said about
the four elements we laugh at; what they said about mathematics is
still true today.” And
yet somehow it is also the Aristotelian approach to theatre still has
currency. The “elements
of drama” as articulated by Aristotle “plot, character,
thought, music, spectacle, and diction” are still deemed the
least controversial basis of drama.
“Modern
mathematics is nearly characterized by the use of rigorous proofs.
This practice, the result of literally thousands of years of
refinement, has brought to mathematics a clarity and reliability
unmatched by any other science. But it also makes mathematics slow and
difficult; it is arguably the most disciplined of human intellectual
activities.”
It might be argued by many that the practice of theatre
as we know it is the antithesis of such a discipline as mathematics.
And yet there seems to be a growing enthusiasm in recent years
to bring mathematics and theatre together – both on the stage and in
film. I am reminded of A
Beautiful Mind, Fermat’s Last Tango,
and recent works by Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn (Copenhagen)
and others. Even in
reality television show “Survivor”, mathematics has been
referred to by way of Nash’s
Non-cooperative Game Theory,
which also scores a brief mention in Auburn’s play.
David Auburn, in “Proof”, attempts to
align the two ways of knowing and the title conflates both the subject
of the play and its purpose. The
play in itself seeks to be “proof” of its own premise.
That in turn raises the spectre of Gödel's Incompleteness
Theorem,
which postulates that “no
logical representation exists that can prove its own constancy”.
Seemingly, then Auburn is attempting the impossible, or
illogical, to be the proof and to explain the proof.
Gödel has shown us that this type of “meta”
position is illusory at best, and perhaps that is the strength of
theatrical storytelling, to allude to the metaphors that might make us
aware of that order of knowing that is currently beyond our perceptual
position. So, how can a
play like Proof encourage us to explore other ways of examining
the human condition?
How then will the subject and form of the play
inform a study framed within Drama and Theatre?
There is also the question of how “truthful”
does the mathematics need to be?
It is questioned by mathematicians that it is some how a
cop-out to “cheat” on the mathematical aspects of the play.
According
to the Sophie Germain web page
the largest known Germain prime is currently 2540041185 · 2114729-1
(discovered in 2003) not 92,305 x 216,998 + 1
as stated by Catherine in the play - although this may be Auburn’s
attempt to date the action of the play.
I tend to think that Auburn has attempted to use
the logical structure of mathematical proof to overlay the dramatic
structures within the first act of his play.
This is quite evident in the opening act where each scene has a
rather simplistic logical sequence embedded in the exchanges of
dialogue. In improvised drama in many classrooms this type of
intellectual rigour is deemed as secondary, if not irrelevant,
compared to the “creative experience”.
To my mind this is a weakness in the poor application of drama,
if drama is to “prove” itself then it needs to be able to
accommodate other ways of thinking and other ways of knowing without
diminishing them.
Perhaps Auburn seeks to draw some similarities
between practitioners of the two “disciplines”?
Both mathematics and theatre have their notable eccentrics -
both are accredited with higher than average incidence of mental
illness, another theme of Proof.
Alternatively, there are some who suggest “It
cleverly intersects the intangibles of relationships with the utter
certainties of arithmetic.”
Perhaps the capacity to live with ambiguity is the contrasting
aspect that Auburn wants to tackle; perhaps we are asked to examine
our lives and realise that human existence is not as obviously
rule-bound as mathematics would have us believe. Although current developments in Consciousness Studies
suggest that the seeming mayhem and unpredictability of human life is
illusory and that it is our generally unwillingness to look at our
biochemistry and neurology that obscures the “fact” that our lives
may be just as predictable as any mathematical formula.
Perhaps
“absurdity” as we know it in the theatre is really about the ways
we delude ourselves about the meaning of our lives.
When
Catherine claims authorship of the notebook is this a commentary on
the frailty and fear of the human condition, or is it a condemnation
of some natural egoism? Is
the proof demanded somehow a denial of the need for trust?
Is trust, or faith, central to our existence; in which case,
does Proof look to much older and contentious issues that
manifest themselves in such episodes as the infamous Scopes Monkey
Trial, or in the daily grind every time we ask to be believed?
Improvisation Exercise
Split the class into pairs.
Designate A & B.
A is to think of two statements about their life
– one is a statement of fact (something that has actually
occurred and can be verified), the other is a statement of pure
fabrication. The true
statement may be something that seems highly unlikely, or completely
mundane. The fabricated
statement can also be something that seems entirely possible, or
something completely impossible.
The pair are to improvise a discussion around
that begins – “You’ll never believe this, but one day….”.
A is to be as convincing as possible in the delivery of
both facts, and use whatever evidence springs to mind to support the
statement. B is to
be sceptical of both statements and is to press for “proof”, to
look for holes in the story, to try to undo and identify the
fabrication.
There are interesting experiences to be had when A
is required to convince B of the veracity of the
statements. Actors should
identify the processes they engage in to generate evidence.
How do they go about the process of convincing someone else
about the truth of a statement?
(Is this the same as mathematical proof?)
Students can be asked to consider situations in
real life where “proof” is important.
Law courts, relationships, employment, education, etc all
spring to mind. In
what ways is the burden of proof actually a burden?
Students should devise a scene that relies on
“proof” to generate dramatic tension. What is the nature of
“truth” in this scene? Are
“truth” and “proof” the same thing?
Can students relate this to the “proof” that
Catherine seeks in the play? What
“proof” does she want Hal to provide?
How important is the “mathematical proof” that seems to be
at the core of the play? What
are the generalisations that we make from interpreting the play?
How do we reconcile the need for proof with subjective human
experience, is the proof of my senses all I need to establish the
truth of my life? In
which case, how does Robert’s writing on the cold night challenge
the argument for subjectivity?
Further perspectives
Complete Review
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/usplays/auburnd1.htm
This site has a collection of material and a great list of links to
reviews and Proof
references. A summary of newspaper responses and a review of its
own.
Proof:
a Symposium
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/faculty/berger/proof/
This conference was organized in conjunction with the Broadway opening
of David Auburn's play Proof.
Primary resources are streaming video in Real format.
Osserman Interviews David Auburn, author of Proof
http://www.maa.org/features/proof.html
Part of the Mathematical Association of America website.
Interesting perspective.
CNN Article on Proof
http://www.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Arts/10/27/parker.mary.louise/
This article has a some streaming audio - David Auburn speaks about
the idea for
Proof.
Proof on
film
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/030922.proof.shtml
It seems that the University of Chicago was used last year as the
location to shoot the film version. Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony
Hopkins - guess it'll get a release sometime.
News, Reviews & Articles on David Auburn
http://authors.surfwax.com/files/David_Auburn_Book.html
AMS Review [.pdf] (American Mathematical Society
journal "Notices")
http://www.ams.org/notices/200009/rev-bayer.pdf
A substantial discussion of the Broadway production but some fairly
indepth discussion on the play and the maths.
An interesting adjunct is the article about Osserman and his comments
on maths in cultural activity recently.
http://www.ams.org/notices/200305/comm-jpbm.pdf
Pulitzer Prize interview from Jim Lehrer "Newshour"
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june01/auburn_04-20.html
In the third of a series of conversations with this year's Pulitzer
Prize winners, Terence Smith talks with David Auburn about his winning
play, "Proof." Includes video and audio streams and a
transcript.
“Theoretical Mathematics: Toward A Cultural Synthesis Of
Mathematics And Theoretical Physics” Arthur Jaffe And Frank
Quinn. Appeared in Bulletin
Of The American Mathematical Society Volume 29, Number 1, July
1993, Pages 1-13
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
The activity above also provides some interesting websites but those
below relate to materials that might allow exciting integration of
technology in Drama Education.
KeyStroke
is a Multi-user Cross Media Synthesizer developed at the Waag
Labs of the Society for Old and New Media that allows multiple players
to generate, synthesize and process images, sounds and text together
in realtime, within a shared virtual workspace. Check out the
interactive overview http://www.keyworx.org/digital_sketch/tutorial.mov
Linker
is a non-commercial piece of software, available free as a download
from the internet. It is experimental and the work of people who like
to make technologies for their own purposes and then share them.
Tool
for creating user-generated animated states. Try it, create some
animations...
The PLAY research studio investigates and invents the future of
human-computer interaction. As computers become more and more a part of
everyday life, the previous view of computers as strictly a
work-oriented tool will change
Applied, visual, performance artists and designers are using
digital technologies for new processes, virtual materials, exhibition,
performance and creative strategies. A culture of cross-disciplinary
material and digital process is evolving through a range of
departments in creative education. This challenges commentary and
understanding about hybrid practices that integrate physical, virtual
and screen based making.
The recently released Version 3 of CmapTools (http://cmap.ihmc.us)
takes concept mapping to a new level, providing a powerful means for
collaboratively creating, organizing, evaluating, and sharing
knowledge models distributed on a growing collection of servers
throughout the world, or on your private server.
PROFESSIONAL NEWS
PLEASE ADVISE OF ANY UPCOMING
PROFESSIONAL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES AND I WILL LIST THEM HERE
13th - 17th April 2004
University of Canterbury
This innovative, international Conference sets out to provide an
important forum for drama educators, researchers and practitioners to
come together and consider drama practice in relation to recent brain
research and thinking for learning. This Conference will be of
interest to not only drama educators but to all educators with an
interest in actively developing a pedagogical and aesthetic
understanding of drama.
From Michael Anderson: " let you know about
a symposium to be held at the University of Sydney on the 21st and
22nd of May 2004. The symposium called Dialogues and
Differences in Arts Education will feature workshops and papers on
the connections and linkages between art forms and discuss notions of
integration in arts education research and practice. We are excited to
announce that Associate Professor Judith McLean has agreed to
be one of the keynote presenters. If you are able we would love you to
attend and present a workshop or a paper. The call for papers and
registration information is contained in the attached flyer which is
in PDF format. If you cannot access this attachment please refer to
the website www.edfac.usyd.edu.au/profdev
."
I'm advised by Kerri Hilton that this is going ahead
and that there has been a name change and some new ideas about how it
will run.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
-
BOOKCLOSEOUTS are
still my hot pick at the moment. Careful searching will reveal
many bargains.
It's been brought to my attention that there are some great videos
available via Amazon.
Kim Flintoff
Copyright © September, 2004
free hit counter
IDEA
5th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada 2004 TIME
TO START BOOKING!!
Uta
Hagen's Acting Class:The Videos (2002)
Simon
Callow: Acting in Restoration Comedy (2000)