Role-Play as Drama

Abstract

Role-play is a form of drama and thus offers far more than simply the capacity to recreate professional interactions. The field of drama also offers an array of insights and techniques to help facilitators become more accomplished and resourceful, create atmosphere conducive to learning, bring role-play alive, and help players overcome obstacles and become more confident and competent as communicators. Three dramatic insights are particularly helpful in role-play.

The Centipede’s Dilemma encourages self-awareness in players as to their actions. Split Focus shows how to be both engaged in an interaction while remaining professionally detached and watchful. The Creep Principle points beyond surface behaviours to underlying motivations and objectives, thereby enabling players to make personal use of the research literature.

Role-play drama offers far more than simply the capacity to recreate professional interactions. The field of drama offers an array of insights, approaches, and techniques to help players buy into the world of role-play and addresses a wide range of specific issues faced by players and facilitators. Just as importantly, these techniques go a long way in giving players real access to the findings of the research literature which otherwise remain almost impossible to put into practice. The examples are here drawn from the world of medicine, but the same principles apply to healthcare, law, policing, and business.