Abstract
This chapter focuses on methods of personal experience in drama in education that enable imagining other, more liberating worlds. It demonstrates that working with the ‘what if’ gesture opens up the possibility of teaching through art and expressing the value of the student participation in the learning process. The chapter analyses two plays as examples of how the role of drama remains an inspiring source to address questions regarding social change and transformation. In describing these two complementary works, weaving along the theories of Paolo Freire and Augusto Boal, our role as educators is redefined and our capacity to move beyond the imaginable is changed. This change is strongly associated with the realisation of the individual through enjoyment, self-expression and self-discovery. It changes attitudes, hearts, minds and ways of seeing the world. Students embark on a journey full of introspection, evaluation and interrogation.
Working with this ‘extra dimension’ involves keeping multiple aspects of education in mind–the visual, emotional, cognitive, intentional and accidental–weighing up the possibilities that these different aspects might offer. To present these various aspects of theatre in the classroom, two different plays will be included: Things I Want to Say But Never Will, realised through a survey with students in school and consequently made into a play; and a play about bullying, Before the Bell, produced by Beat by Beat Press and performed in six segregated schools throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. This chapter which is based upon empirical research done in schools while using drama as a tool for democracy and transformation offers, I hope, an answer to the often-heard plea, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. Accordingly, the change starts within ourselves, followed by the need to inspire, enlighten and provoke seekers to explore meaning and to transform.
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Notes
- 1.
Several authors have been identified to be involved in drama in education and applied theatre in an international setting. They opened up spaces for teachers’ practices and hindered theatrical strategies used as methodologies for teaching and learning across curriculum. Specifically, leaders such as Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton in the 1970s engaged in drama in classrooms and their work was expanded into applied drama. Bolton was directly inspired by the methods of Heathcote, nevertheless invented a new form of theatre in education known as “contextual drama”. Other significant ideas of Theatre in Education can be traced in the work of Harriet Finlay -Johnson, Caldwell Cook, Peter Slade, Brian Way and Christine Redington. They made it possible to incorporate the value of drama within the education system and within the school’s curriculum.
The book Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education was published in 2011, edited by Shifra Schonmann, as an impressive volume to convey a potentially powerful role of drama in education.
- 2.
Marvin A. Carlson, Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present, Cornell University Press, 1984, New York, p. 509.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
The project was initiated by the EU info centre (EUIC) for the human rights campaign EU4 Rights 2019/2020, a project founded by the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were six different cities included in the theatre production of the play “Before the Bell’‘: Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka, Stolac, Travnik, Donji i Gornji Vakuf, Teočak. The play was translated into Bosnian and adapted for the cultural context of the country based on the sentiment of the multicultural society. The play is about signalling the importance of the effects of bullying, raising consciousness and broadening the perception of power.
- 5.
bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, Routledge, New York, 1994. p. 15.
- 6.
Mike Fleming, Liora Bresler, and John O’Toole, The Routledge International Handbook of the Arts and Education, Routledge, London and New York, 2015.
- 7.
Boal, Augusto, Theatre of the Oppressed, Pluto Press, London, 1979.
- 8.
Roger Wooster, Contemporary Theatre in Education, The University of Chicago Press, 2007.
- 9.
Johnson L., and O’Neill., (eds) Dorothy Heathcote; Collected Writings on Education and Drama, London, Hutchinson, 1984, p. 40.
- 10.
Tony Jackson, Learning Through Theatre: New Perspectives on Theatre in Education, Routledge: London and New York, 1993, p. 12.
- 11.
Schonmann, Shifra, Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education, University of Haifa, Israel, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2011, p. 32.
- 12.
‘Devising’ is a term used by Dorothy Heathcote who developed theories and practices related to the uses of drama in education. She explored the value of drama in the classroom, and initiated many theories to develop these ideas further into dramatic activities. See for further information: Betty Jane Wagner, Dorothy Heathcote Drama as a Learning Media, National Education Association of the United States, 1976.
- 13.
Nellie McCaslin, Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond, New York University, 2006. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: https://www.academia.edu/5488200/Creative_Drama_in_the_Classroom_and_Beyond
- 14.
Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., New York, 1970.
- 15.
Ibid, p. 43.
- 16.
Jan Cohen Cruz and Mady Shutzman, A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics, Routledge, New York and London, 2006, p. 1.
- 17.
Dorothy Heathcote, Collected Writings on Education and Drama, Northwestern University Press, Illinois, 1991, p. 196.
- 18.
Historically the fourth wall divided the actor from the spectator. In Boal’s practical work, participants have the opportunity to practice ways of organizing a strike, or of standing up to their employers or family members. For further information see Frances Babage’s Routledge Performance Practitioners: Augusto Boal, Routledge, New York, 2005, p. 62.
- 19.
A mediator or a teacher usually takes the role of the Joker who rules the Forum for participants, facilitates interventions, builds trust between actors and audience, and finally closes the performance. The joker may also warm up the audience before the intervention by doing a game or an exercise. He/she is in control of everything that happens during the performance and provides an overview of the Forum Theatre. Following the rules and the play, he/she can ask various questions like “What are the causes of this conflict?”, “Could this conflict be prevented and how?”, “Who was the protagonist, who was the antagonist, and who were bystanders?” This ensures that everyone understands what took place and is reminded of the story. The joker builds a dialogue with the audience through prompting questions regarding changes on different levels. A joker should never provide his opinion, nor be judgmental. If there are lots of ideas, the joker can queue the interventions up on the side of the stage so they are ready to go and try a new intervention when the last has finished. Jokers must be flexible in every way, kind of a diplomat, sensitive to how the audience feels, especially the intimidation of coming onstage.
- 20.
Betty Jane Wagner, Drama as Learning Medium, National Education Association of the United States, 1976.
- 21.
- 22.
David, A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 2015.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
- 25.
The play is based on students’ responses around the USA offering teenagers’ thoughts on various subjects. The same survey was done at Druga gimnazija Sarajevo with students answering these questions in the most intimate way, and then turning it into a play. The play had elements of singing and dance, dialogues, monologues that included very sensitive topics that reexamined various relationships that unfolded and brought a new perspective from which the audience members viewed the subject matter sharply into focus.
- 26.
- 27.
- 28.
Augusto Boal, The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy, Routledge, New York, 1995.
- 29.
Image theatre is one of the most important techniques explained in the tree of the Theatre of the Oppressed used to encourage participants to rediscover their own experiences by using images, dynamisation and transformation. The focus is on non-verbal communication inclusively regardless of language levels. It is a language in its own right. All oppression involves the body – the body holds the experiences of its oppression like fear, trauma, depression, neglect, and the possibility of these to become reflected in our everyday situation can not be avoided. This can lead to shut one down and affect aliveness and creativity making one mechanised and unwilling to interact. Many theorists therefore claim that theatre of the oppressed is a liberating tool for unlocking our potentials and finding an inner awareness in the personal and interpersonal. See for elaborated research on the importance of image theatre and its effects in applied theatre in Warren Linds and Elinor Vettraino’s chapter Playing in a House of Mirrors: Applied Theatre as a Reflective Practice, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2015. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/122600/4/Playing-in-a-house-of-mirrors.pdf
- 30.
Schonmann, Shifra, Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education, University of Haifa, Israel, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2011, p. 33.
- 31.
An important principle of the theatre of the oppressed where an image is brought to life and thereby changes into a new reality in which participants are its creators. See further information in Frances Babbage Augusto Boal: Routledge Performance Practitioners, Routledge, New York, 2004, p. 126.
- 32.
See for further information on the term https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/3/8/404990.pdf
- 33.
Boal, Augusto, Games for Actors and non-Actors, (2nd ed.) (A. Jackson, Trans.), London: Routledge, 2002.
- 34.
Freire, Paolo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., New York, 1970.
References
Babbage, F., & Boal, A. (2004). Routledge performance practitioners. Routledge.
Boal, A. (1979). Theatre of the oppressed. Pluto Press.
Boal, A. (1995). The rainbow of desire: The Boal method of theatre and therapy. Routledge.
Boal, A. (2002) Games for actors and non-actors (2nd ed.) (A. Jackson, Trans.). Routledge.
Carlson, M. A. (1984). Theories of the theatre: A historical and critical survey from the Greeks to the present. Cornell University Press.
Cruz, C., & Shutzman, M. (2006). A boal companion: Dialogues on theatre and cultural politics. Routledge.
Freire, P. (1970). The pedagogy of the oppressed. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.
Kolb, D., & Learning, E. (2015). Experience as the source of Learning and development. Pearson Education, Inc.
Schonmann, S. (2011). Key concepts in theatre/Drama education. University of Haifa/Sense Publishers.
Wooster, R. (2007). Contemporary theatre in education. Intellect.
Additional Online Sources
https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/toy/reference/theatre-of-the-oppressed-in-digital-space.7487/
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=cie_capstones
https://nothingneverhappens.org/theater-of-the-oppressed/embodiedpedagogyonline/
https://www.unicef.org/kyrgyzstan/media/1816/file/Forum%20Theater%20Manual.pdf%20.pdf
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/282/article/much-more-drama-appreciation
https://botw.org.uk/Arts/Performing_Arts/Theatre/Theatre_in_Education/
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Karahasanović-Avdibegović, I. (2023). Drama-Based Pedagogy: Theatre for Social Change in Classroom. In: Kasumagić-Kafedžić, L., Clarke-Habibi, S. (eds) Peace Pedagogies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26246-3_10
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