Working Within The Drama
When the structuring of the work is complete, the teacher is prepared to begin the drama with the students.
Students who have previous experience working in dramas will readily agree to suspend their disbelief, accept the "as if" (the fiction) and assume roles comfortably within the work. If the students are not experienced in working this way, the teacher must make it clear that the situation they are about to enter is a fictional one. The students are being asked to join the teacher in a "pretend world". In either case, most students will accept the conventions of the drama and will agree to participate in the imagined situation.
It is not necessary for students to play "drama games" or "warm-up" before beginning work in a drama. Carefully structured dramatic situations provide the tension necessary for students to engage in the work. If they choose to rehearse and perform a collective creation for an audience, warm-up exercises will then be valuable to focus their concentration and to prepare them physically and mentally.
If the teacher and students approach the work seriously and if the students are provided with a situation in which they can do the talking, responding and decision-making, it soon becomes clear that the students bring their real-life experiences and perspectives to the situation. In fact, although the dramatic situation is always clearly imaginary, the students' responses, as revealed through the ideas and feelings which they express, are usually real ones.
As the drama unfolds the teacher must ease ownership of the work into the students' hands. The idea of a carefully planned lesson being allowed to take on a life of its own might be somewhat disquieting. However, there are a number of available means by which the teacher, who is ultimately responsible for the whole work, can and must control the quality of the experience while relinquishing control of its direction, shape and meaning to the students.
A class which has had experience working in drama will have begun to understand how dramas "work". It is a bit like understanding the rules of a new game. Most students will enjoy the dramas, sense their value and want them to work. Figure 1 illustrates the functions and responsibilities of teacher and students in working through a drama together.
In order to be comfortable and participate with ease in dramatic situations, teachers and students must work within them. Teachers who have experience working in dramas will have learned that a drama cannot fail. This is not to say that control in a drama cannot be lost. For example:
If this happens, it may be that the drama requires new life or perhaps closure. In such cases, the teacher can:
If, at any time during a work, the teacher is unable to think quickly enough to accommodate unexpected responses and events that signal a change of direction for the work (a daunting situation that can befall even the most experienced drama teacher), the teacher may "buy time" in a number of ways:
Any one of these strategies and others can provide the teacher with time to re-think and re-focus the work, assuring that the students' suggestions are honoured and that the objectives continue to be met.
At any point in a drama, the work can challenge the teacher and students to choose among several possible strategies and processes. In this way, new questions and new discoveries that arise out of the students' responses and actions can be absorbed into the work. In drama there are no single right choices. Each possibility carries a unique set of challenges and experiences for the actors. As the teacher and the students become more experienced working in drama, however, they will discover first-hand the strengths and limitations of each of the strategies. They will be able to make more skilful choices among them and to both manipulate and respond more readily to use of the elements of theatre within their dramas. These abilities will enable them to express their thinking and feeling more clearly and imaginatively and to derive greater significance and enjoyment from their drama work.