Week 2: Drama

Week 2 already – wow, time seems to pass by very quickly. It brings a tear to my eye to know that we are in fact half way through the drama ‘art-strand’ of this unit; it is a shame that we are not able to study this for the entire semester. I am learning SO much..!!

In the first half of our drama tutorials we continued to look at ‘The Green Children’ through participating in a range of drama activities. Homework from last week involved creating a character of a person from the village of where the ‘green children’ were located. In our tutorials, we were to ‘put on’ the role of our character. We were instructed to move around the drama studio as that character would, then FREEZE! Creating a still image, we were invited to speak our thoughts or feelings about the green children to a ‘villager’ next to us. After a short moment of conversing, we were asked to continue moving around the studio, then, FREEZE again! Next, we were told to have a ‘gossip’ session about the green children discovery. This drama strategy is classified as ‘thought-tracking’. I believe that it is a useful activity for the classroom as it is non-threatening; we were only required to talk and act in front of one person. Moreover, it slows the action down, enabling student’s to reflect on events, take on the mindset of another persona and establish what the character would be thinking or feeling at a specific moment in time. In essence, thought-tracking is useful preparation for improvisation.

After this activity, we were told to keep on the role of our characters, and come along to a ‘town meeting’. Four village members facilitated the discussion; a mayor, farmer, doctor and witch. Members of the public stated their opinions or asked questions in response to the arrival of the green children. It was a great, fun activity, and the points raised were very interesting. In response to the town meeting, we were instructed to write down our thoughts and feelings from the perspective of our character. As Robyn has reiterated in our lectures, a written representation facilitates a deepened understanding. Below is an extract of what my character, a child named “Poppy”:

“My Pa found the two ‘green children’ while he was out for a walk with a friend. That was a few weeks ago. Sadly the boy died, but the girl now lives with my family. It was very strange at first; the girl acted odd and couldn't speak properly. She was shy and I would often feel uncomfortable around her. But we have gotten to know one another; we now really get along as if we are sisters. We play and chat, and have fun with the other village children too. I’ve always wanted a sister, so I am very happy that Pa found her. But I feel very sorry for too, the way the town people talk about her makes me sad. They don't understand what she has gone through; they probably haven’t even gotten to know her yet. And I don't want her to be kicked out of the village, it’s not fair because she hasn't done anything wrong...”

In our lectures this week, as well as the second half of our tutorials, we examined ‘Reader’s Theatre’. According to the NSW Creative Arts Syllabus, Reader’s Theatre is defined as ‘rehearsed reading for an audience’ and encompasses ‘drama conventions [including] reading aloud, vocal expression, silent pauses and a direct actor-audience relationship’ (NSW BOS, 2000). The main point that I took away from the lecture was the importance of the ‘voice’; we should emphasise the various qualities our voice when story telling, such as playing with the pace, pitch, tone, volume, accents, pauses, etc.

As an activity in our tutorial, we were asked to form groups of three or four and choose a text to practice our ‘readers theatre’ with. My group decided to choose ‘The Hairy Toe’, a traditional American tale. What a fun and grizzly text this was! We broke the poem into three sections, which were divided already by the repetitive phrase “Who’s got my hairy toe?’. We planned to read this repetitive phrase in unison. Next, we highlighted all the onomatopoeias in the text, and decided that the other two people who weren’t ‘narrating’ that section of the story would read these words. Below is text annotated:

Week 2 has now come to an end, and let’s just say, this subject is definitely inspiring me to embrace the art forms more and really explore creativity!