Volume 2 Number 3


Hi Folks,

Kim's Drama Blog  

Its been quite a busy week!  Only a few days now before I need to front up to school again.  I guess I only need to do the portions of the day that I'm employed to do now that I'm on a 50% teaching load.   It will be odd disappearing part way through the day (although I suspect it will be infinitely healthy for me!).   So the highlights of my week have been getting out to see DOGVILLE - I'm sure it was fairly controversial in the US but I think people miss the point if they see it only as an attack on the USA.  IT seems to me to be a careful analysis of the state of the world.  My first thoughts when watching this film were "this is SO Brechtian"... sure enough when I read Lars von Trier's production notes it is riddled with references to Brecht.  This film achieves "alienation" in a way that so many theatrical productions don't - by doing it exceptionally well, unapologetically and simply!!  I don't know how the film is rated in other countries but in Australia it is suitably rated to be able to show it to my senior students - I just hope the DVD release is in time to be able to deal with it as a teaching tool.  I thoroughly recommend this film and endorse it as a very useful teaching tool.  It is not a comforting or reassuring film... it will challenge many and in many cases upset will follow.

I am currently putting together a few educational activities for a new production of Michael Gow's "Live Acts on Stage" - this is another piece that is sure to challenge.  I suspect schools might be a little frightened to send along students because of the "mature" themes that emerge - interesting we can read about death, sadism, incest, murder, betrayal and worse in Greek Tragedy but as soon as a playwright contemporises a piece and calls a "bum" a "bum" and a "dick" a "dick" people duck for cover.  References to "flute girls" in Greek drama never seem to concern anyone but directly refer to a "blowjob" and all hell breaks loose!!  I'm always astounded by the conservatism of the school environment.

Discussion List Issues

I'd like to thank people for getting involved in the discussion list - there have been some useful discussions and several lurkers have emerged from the darkness.  Welcome one and all.  The list really depends on you and your colleagues sharing resources, views and opinions.

I also received a submission from Karen McArthur from Manjimup Senior High in Western Australia.  She sent in a comprehensive unit of work on David Williamson's "Face to Face".  This is a programme of work that will be especially useful to teachers of the WA Curriculum Council Drama Studies courses.  I thank Karen and invite everyone to be as generous!

I put out a request for information on world theatre I had from a film maker in London.  I passed on quite a collection of contacts but it seems most were too busy to be able spend a few minutes talking to the film's director - so I will be getting a call this afternoon to discuss what I know about: 

Luckily I took every odd job that came my way when I worked in the theatre!  I've been a stage manager for the National Kabuki Theatre of Japan, worked with a variety of puppet shows, met and workshopped with practitioners in other fields, and years of theatre going experience has included Vietnamese Water Puppets, Chinese Opera and so much more.   The rest I'll need to drag from memory when I dealt with them in my undergraduate studies.  It seems many Theatre and Drama courses overlook "cultural heritage" as part of their core study these days.  When I was at Murdoch University we had to do "Drama, East and West", "Drama, Society and Politics", "Drama, Ritual and Magic" - so we got a excellent grounding in more than contemporary theatre business.  While I had some disagreements with my teachers there I learned enormously from them (especially Serge Tampalini, Susan Melrose and David George).

LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA

This play is an exploration of the process involved when one partakes in community crisis conferencing. This is a process developed by David Moore, an ex academic turned policy advisor and John McDonald in the early 1990’s under the heading of Transformative Justice Australia. It is an organisation dedicated to introducing a radical new approach to conflict and justice conferencing, or community crisis counselling. This process involves a structured conversation to a community of people affected by conflict. This is designed to transform the negative emotions acssociated with conflict into positive emotions associated with cooperation.

Face-to-Face compresses all the high and low points into 1-˝ hours of powerfiul theatre. This script arose from Williamson participating in  a facilitators workshop and observing workplace conferencing. It has been described by audiences as “having a remarkably real feel to it”. The facilitator in this play, Jack Manning, also acts as commentator where he paraphrases and offers suggestions which is not strictly part of the conferencing formula but is a clever theatrical device. (The naturalistic style aids this and having this role split and one actor commentating and one being in character could use presentational elements.)  In Face to Face Jack clearly upholds the principals of the democratic process All involved get a chance to have their say, be heard and deliberate on issues without the fear of any one being tyrannical.

The play is structured so as not to maximise or minimise the conflict. This is a play where we laugh with people not at them and ultimately we feel a change for the better has occurred when our viewing is complete.

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PROFESSIONAL NEWS

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.

Whether you're looking for a job, offering a job, presenting a workshop, learning more about your craft, getting into school, or producing/watching theatre, there is no theatre convention like SETC! Nowhere else in the country can you immerse yourself in so much theatre in four opportunity-filled days!

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Kim Flintoff

Copyright © September, 2004