Week 1: Drama

Drama? Uh-oh. This is an ‘art-strand’ that sends butterflies into my stomach!

Last summer I was asked to participate in a little skit at a holiday-club program. I played a ‘ditzy’ duck, and my preparation involved learning my lines and practicing how to ‘quack’ well. The audience was a humble size of about 80 people, mainly primary-aged girls and boys. To say I was nervous would be an understatement – I was absolutely terrified to the point where I was struggling to breathe properly! I remember wondering why I was feeling substantially more anxious than actually sitting my HSC exams…! I felt ridiculous – why on earth was I so worked up?!

This week, I have been reflecting on how I feel about drama. I definitely believe there is great importance for drama in education, as was confirmed in our introductory lecture. To try and think back to my drama experience at school: I cannot actually recall of any. I remember my parents sending me to drama lessons for a term in Year 4; unfortunately I didn't enjoy it… and that was the dismal end to my potential acting career/the sprouting of my anxiety towards acting in front of people!

I still think my attitude behind it all is very silly. I get very nervous beforehand, but once I’ve hopped on ‘stage’, it all seems fine! In fact, I quite enjoy it! But why do I get nervous? I think it’s the fact that I am ‘putting-on’ another persona, and the whole experience is something that is slightly outside of my comfort zone. This is something that I personally need to work hard on throughout the course of this semester; I am determined to extinguish these anxious feelings that I have attached to drama!

So, how did I find week one of EDMT5530 Drama?

I absolutely LOVED IT!

Firstly, I am very fond of our lecturer, Robyn Ewing. She is very gentle, yet teaches with passion and great clarity. I am fortunate enough to have her as my tutor as well, and there wasn't a moment in class where I was made to feel nervous about what we were doing as part of our class activities.

This week, we looked at the English legend of the ‘Green Children’. We initially read the short passage in the lecture, and were encouraged to come up with a series of questions that popped up into our mind as we read it. The questions that I wondered about included the following:

- Where do these children come from?

- Why were they hungry and sad? (/why ‘dazed & frightened?’)

- Why were they here? (/how did they end up here?)

- Why did the boy die?

- Why green?

- What was the girl’s relationship with the boy?

- What motivated the girl to eat the food and learn the language?

We began our tutorials with a group discussion of the various questions we each had, and were then asked to complete a drawing of an aerial map for the setting of the Green Children legend. This activity allowed for deliberation and discussion to occur within our small groups, where each individual was encouraged to participate. Below is the aerial map my group enthusiastically drew!

In today’s tutorial, Robyn also taught us about ‘sculpturing’. The sculptor, or ‘director’ in charge, ‘sculpts’ the body of their group members by physically moving the partner’s body into position, or by showing/describing the “clay” how to stand. When the “sculpture” is finished, everybody freezes (this is known as a ‘frozen image’). We did two drama activities that examined this drama concept.

Overall, the tutorial was much better than what I had hoped for! Robyn created a safe, non-threatening environment in our tutorial. We were all instructed and encouraged to participate within our small groups, but were not forced or expected to present to the wider class audience (unless we volunteered to do so). Every student appeared actively engaged in each of the drama activities, and there was a lot of laughter! The fact that we actually participated in the drama activities allowed us to know what it feels like to participate from a student’s perspective. Not only did it serve as a good means for practice, but we were able to evaluate why the drama activity was helpful, and reflect and reason as to why and how it worked.

I am definitely looking forward to what Week 2 of EDMT5530 Drama has in stall! :)