Volume 2 Number 8
Hi Folks,
Kim's Drama Blog
Well, here we are again and it seems like time has collapsed
upon itself! Where do the days go?
I started the week with my new placement at Edith Cowan University -
Monday mornings is my DSE4200 class - Teaching Drama 1 - the class I
have is for Graduate Diploma of Education majors in Drama
Education. Consequently the students I have are all well versed in
Theatre/Drama, many with quite a bit of performance experience. My
role seems to be to provide opportunities for them to learn the art of
Teaching Drama to secondary students. We had a great first session
and the class seems very dynamic and willing to learn. I enjoyed
the first session and will explain the activity in the next section of
this newsletter.
I also had school this week. Both my upper school classes had
assessments to complete. The Year 11 students were doing an
improvisation to demonstrate their Verbal and Non-verbal Communication
skills and the 12's were presenting excerpts from scripted scenes as
either monologues, duologues or trios. Both classes were
completing Task 1 of their respective courses. The 11's were an
interesting case, the majority of groups presented adequate
improvisations - one or two shifting into the "High" range of
the outcomes. One group however struck a real problem; one
student in the group is very self-conscious and finds improvisation a
real stretch, she virtually freezes when she has to make or accept an
offer - stepping into the unknown is a terror for her... it almost
seems a case of "learned helplessness". We've spent 4
periods a week for 4 weeks doing a range of improvisational activities,
learning the basic "improv cycle", making and accepting
offers, physical and verbal improvisation... most students are coping
quite well, however this one student still goes into shutdown when put
on the spot. One of her group members had anticipated this and
started to get very anxious about the assessment, when the first girl
froze in the improvisation, the second convulsed and raced outside
claiming she had to throw up... the rest of the class went into
what I call student crisis mode... an opportunity to disband the
required protocols and take on "helpful" roles. I asked
everyone to stay seated and continued with the class. Luckily I
acted soon enough to avert a complete breakdown of the class. We
finished the assessment session and the student outside eventually
returned. This highlighted to me the "risk-taking" that
is involved for some students in taking a Drama class. Have others
encountered this type of situation? How was it handled?
Later in the week I was back at uni to meet my "Drama as a
Process of Learning" class. These are largely
"freshmen", first year university students, and the
differences between them and the Dip Ed group were tangible.
Interestingly, while the class is twice the size the introductory
activity I presented was completed in half the time. These
students are all pre-service Primary teachers and are generalists,
meaning they are not specialising in Drama education. The energy
within the class was quite different and several indicated they really
didn't know what to expect and were a bit nervous about "doing
drama". The class has several mature aged students and as you
would expect, a lot of younger women. I can already see that this
group will need a lot more support through their introduction to
Drama.
Back at school my seniors presented a variety of scenes in the
classroom and were generally meeting satisfactory standards. A few
pushed into the realm of High and Very High, with a couple of groups
presenting knockout performances. Unfortunately, there was also
the group where one partner really hadn't done his work and starting
losing lines within the first few seconds of the scene and just got
worse... I'd anticipated this difficulty and given them a scene from
"The Crucible", hoping that at the very least they'd rent the
video and see how the scene might be performed. Needless to say,
the one student had barely read through the scene let alone gone out of
his way to ensure his partner wasn't left floundering. This type
of situation always poses challenges for group work in Drama and runs
the risk of undermining the class. School policy makes it
difficult to exclude students, and most teachers simply don't understand
the delicate dynamics that can develop within a drama class.
Trying to explain to a deputy how group performances and interdependence
is critical in a class like Drama has not really proved
successful. Most retaliatory disciplines just exacerbate matters
in my experience. It comes down to making a balanced judgement
about the performance of the student who is seemingly
"disadvantaged" in these circumstances.
The week has just flown, but I am still enjoying the relative freedom
of being able to diversify. Being part-time in school it is
interesting to sit back in the staff room and watch everyone fretting
and stressing - and realising that I was one of them last year.
This past week has seen many frayed tempers and short fuses - people
snapping at each other and side stepping each other... its a wonder
schools don't implode at times! As a virtual outsider at the
moment I find that many of the stressors do not find their way to me
because of the peripatetic nature of my employment this
year. What I am beginning to realise is that I need to find
a healthy environment in which to work in future.
I even found time to see another movie - Lost in Translation - which
I really enjoyed. It is a gentle film that you need to relax
into. It washes over you with a quiet intensity. The way the
producers and director have captured the seeming "alien
landscape" of modern Japan is nothing short of brilliant. And
the lead characters become more and more endearing as the film
progresses. Get along and see it if its still showing near
you.
Congratulations to Black Swan Theatre Company on the 2004 Teacher
Launch - which I managed to miss - yesterday afternoon. I have
heard on the grapevine that Live Acts on Stage has been very
well received in the past week - despite the rather inauspicious Opening
Night when, like Orpheus relinquishing his music, the sound system for
the show created an hour delay to the performance and audience and
actors alike were subjected to their own little taste of hell...
(please excuse my little mythological hyperbole - at least I steered
clear of "the Fates conspired"..)
Finally, and this is where I really am asking for some help and
advice. I started looking for my flights to and from Canada for
the IDEA World Congress. It seems Perth is one of the worst places
in the world to start such a journey! Have any local folk (West
Aussies), found a suitable routings and decent fare levels to be able to
get to Ottawa and be ready to leap into the Congress by the morning of
July 2?? I would rather not have to depart any earlier than June
30 - but most of the flights I've found have a 38+ hours of
transit time. Can anyone share any possibilities?
LESSON/ACTIVITY IDEA
- Introducing Drama to New Drama Teachers
I can't claim to have created this lesson, I can't even claim to
have found it. It was shown to me by Tarquam McKenna, who
suggested that it might be a good introductory activity for my first
Drama Education classes. And I have to admit he was right.
It became quite indepth with my Dip Ed class and served as an
effective introduction and icebreaker for my Primary teachers.
The lesson was actually devised by Karen Libman, and is published in Drama
Matters v.1 n.1 1996 as "Right from the Start: An
initial drama session for pre-service teachers" Karen
Libman has a quite a few pages of work available on the web -
ranging from Alexander Technique to Acting Classes and much more....
her work seems to point towards Drama as Process... I'll be
paraphrasing her work and hopefully trying to generalise a strategy
from the lesson... the lesson is available online in Drama
Matters as PDF
| ACTIVITIES |
GENERALISATION |
- Activity begins by asking students to
recall significant teachers in their lives.
- Describe the teacher to a partner (swap)
- Find new partners - take roles - one play
the teacher they heard about, the other a reporter.
- Separate into groups - teachers and
reporters - Teacher-in-Role adds complications -
stirs teachers by asking why were they interviewed - rallies
reporters by saying they are looking for Teacher of the
Year.
- Reporters meet with teachers again - this
time with greater purpose.
- Discussion with whole group about what has
happened - reflection. What has been revealed about
teaching and teaching excellence
- Participants asked to write "news
headlines" about the Teacher of the Year. All headlines
are placed in a pile in the middle of the room.
- Students form groups and choose one
headline - then they are asked to create a tableaux to
represent the accompanying photograph that will appear with
the headline in the paper.
- Tableaux are presented and
discussion/reflection follows.
|
- This could be any pre-text. Get
students to review what they already know of a topic.
- Share the knowledge with others - expand
the base. In Barrie Bennett's "Co-Operative
Learning" strategies this is called Think-Pair-Share
- In general Drama sessions you can begin
role play by exploring through role-circle - presenting
small scenarios - discovering characters - etc
- Students have opportunity to see others in
role - thus becoming audience. Duality of knowing is
created. Belief is built. Roles become
clearer. Tension is increased.
- With clarity of roles, exploration can
become more serious and with greater conviction.
- A point to reflect and to examine what is
being revealed. How is the topic being explored.
A chance to deepen the exploration and to examine the role
of the learner; why do this thing?
- Students can be asked to write in role, or
to write in response to the Drama so far. This can
be prose, poetry, song, journal, etc
- Students share the written work and in
groups can create small scenes or tableaux to represent
various aspects of the written work. This requires
collaborative effort.
- Students present the new work they have
created and discuss implications, insights, extensions etc.
|
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
"separating the hype from the reality in the current
discussion of Arts education in the K-12 classroom"
A reminder to WA teachers also that Performing Arts
Perspectives is happening soon March 10 - check the CelebrateWA
site for details.
In November 1998, Griffith University Council (Brisbane, Australia)
established the Centre for Applied Theatre Research. The mission of
the Centre is to investigate the theory and application of all
manifestations of drama and theatre in the widest range of settings:
including artistic performance, community and vocational settings;
lifelong education; and to promote their most effective application in
those settings.
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
."
-
The Handa Australian Rotary Acting Challenge. (WESTERNAUSTRALIA)
Hello everyone
This email is in way of advance notice for you. There will be a video/cd rom coming out to the schools and amateur theatre companies very soon telling you of this competition but I wanted to let you know about it now.
This competition is state wide this year. Hugh Jackman has agreed to be our patron and Lisa McCune is the person advertising the competition on the video .
This new competition is open to all 16, 17, 18 and 19 yr olds.
There are two categories. Dramatic Monologues and Musical Theatre.
Entrants will be asked to perform a 3 minute dramatic monologue from a published script.
OR
A 3 minute musical theatre piece from a published script.
The Rotary Clubs of Western Australia are going to hold heats for this competition and will come up with one finalist from every section in WA for the final.
The finals will be held at the Burswood in November.
The judging panel for the finals will include Mr Bevan Lee ( director of drama , seven network, Sydney) and the casting directors from "Home and Away", "Neighbours' and "All Saints".
The winners of both categories will receive $5000 each.
We have been fully funded for this year and we hope that the competition will go nation wide next year. Channel Seven is looking at the competition at the moment with regards to buying the rights to it.
I would urge you all to allow all of your students to compete in this competition. I know that Drama Studies students have to do a monologue for their exam, so there would be nothing wrong with them using it for this.
If you have any questions , please feel free to contact khilton@norbert.wa.edu.au
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
-
BOOKCLOSEOUTS are worth a serious look at the moment.
Some amazing
Drama and Theatre book bargains to be had!! They are also
offering extra discounts
check the site for Coupons. They have also improved their
postal service to Australia - only 3 weeks turnaround. A
brilliant way to build your professional library. Here are some examples
-
- Bodied
Spaces: Phenomenology & Performance in Contemporary Drama
- Garner, Stanton ··· Softcover ··· Qty Avail:
1
Our Price: $3.49 ··· You Save:
$13.46 (80%)
- Ibsen's
Drama: Right Action and Tragic Joy
- Theoharis, Theoharis C. ··· Softcover ···
Qty Avail: 1
Our Price: $5.99 ···
You Save: $15.96 (73%)
- Japanese
No Dramas
- Tyler, Royall ··· Softcover ··· Qty Avail:
1
Our Price: $6.99 ···
You Save: $7.96 (54%)
- Modern
Theories of Drama
-
Brandt, George W. (Edt) ··· Hardcover ···
Qty Avail: 3
Our Price: $39.99 ···
You Save: $50.01 (56%)
Kim Flintoff
Copyright © September, 2004
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IDEA
5th World Congress in Ottawa, Canada 2004 TIME
TO START BOOKING!!
