Option A: Collective creation (continued)

Lesson Two: Structuring the Drama

Students at the Secondary Level should have gained a good deal of experience during the middle years developing collective creations. Once the topic has been chosen, the teacher will begin to create the structure for the work.

When working with less experienced students, the teacher will create a flexible structure and, as the drama itself unfolds, will ease more ownership of the work into the students' hands.

• demonstrate an understanding of the processes and elements involved in creating works of dramatic art

More experienced students with a commitment to the topic and an understanding of the collective creation process may wish to be more actively involved in determining the initial structure of the drama. Based on their previous work, they will have opinions about the types of dramatic experiences and strategies they could use to explore their chosen topic. Lesson two may be used to brainstorm and discuss the proposed structure and initial ideas.

• demonstrate co-operative effort and a willingness to accept the ideas of others, recognizing that drama combines many individual ideas and contributions to form
a whole artistic expression

After the topic has been chosen from the theme, teachers of experienced drama students could post a list of drama strategies on the board and the students could help to determine which of the strategies they would like to incorporate. They could then brainstorm fictional scenarios within which the strategies could be employed. They might, for example, help the teacher to construct a scenario for a whole group meeting in role; suggest the situations for prepared improvisations and tableaux in small groups; provide various ideas for interviews, monologues, flash forwards or flashbacks; etc. Ideas for strategies and direction of the work will also emerge and change as the drama progresses.