Drama Strategies
Creative Drama/Process Drama
Activation Ideas
What do we want to create a story about? This can also be replaced with pretext. For example: A period in history or a text. Cecily O’Neill uses pretext often. | You may want to ask students what they want to create a story about. To draw out what it could be about, think of a question that they can answer. Ex: What is something you dreamed you could do but have been too afraid to do it? |
Statues | Have students line up in two lines. Name them A & B Tell A’s they will be the artist first and B’s they will be the statues. Ask A’s to walk over to B’s and ask them to show how they would like their body positioned in a way that represents an answer to their question in the form of a statue. A’s must title the statue and then share. Then switch roles. From this activity, the facilitator should be able to solicit ideas for the drama. |
Transform the space using: Tableau Sound scaping Physicalize with movement | Facilitator should have students create a still image using the theme. Students should be still and add sound to their tableau. Students add slight movement. |
Mantle of the Expert This is a Dorothy Heathcote technique that can be used to put students in the role of researchers. This is also a way to edge into the story as Dorothy Heathcote calls it. | Explore who are experts who would know about this topic. Students can take on the role of this expert. Students will research what the role is. Students will create a role signifier. Students will create a distinct physicalizing of the role. Students can report out what they learned about the topic. |
Writing in Role This is a good activity to create scenes, to look back at what could have happened and to look forward to what could happen in the story students create. This is also a way to build belief as Dorothy Heathcote calls it. | Students can take on the role of a character and write in role. Facilitator should give a prompt. For example, “I remember when…” |
Guided Imagery
Guided Walk | Students stand up and close their eyes. Students take a deep breath in and out. Students then visualize the setting of their story. Students can then partner up. Decide who is Student A and who is Student B. Student A can walk around and give Student B a tour of their setting. Then they can switch. |
Teacher in Role Dorothy Heathcote often uses a role signifier. Cecily O’Neill often pulls groups of students out to create a scene and have the other students watch. | Facilitator takes on a role of a character that will be part of the drama and participates in a scene in role. |
Discussion
Process Drama and Creative Drama use many of the same strategies, the major difference being that students drive the process drama where a facilitator makes choices and moves the drama along truly by prioritizing listening. It is mandatory that the facilitator be in the role of listening with no plan, which is difficult to do in an in-school setting where lesson plans are necessary to hand in and objectives are needed to be made. The facilitator can also incorporate theatre skill building as much or as little as they would like in that moment. Cecily O’Neill often uses the technique of narration to move the story along and to bridge together scenes and create episodes. It is important for the facilitator to add in tension as in any good story. Process Drama always involves developing social skills as well as literacy skills in addition to the content that is used.
The question often comes up if you can devise theatre using this technique. It is possible. It is necessary to weave together the beginning, middle and end of scenes created. Dorothy Heathcote also refers to not knowing where the story is going as “Man in a Mess and uses techniques such as “Questioning”, “Building Belief” and “Edging in” to draw out information from students to create the drama.
Dorothy Heathcote also uses a technique called Mantle of the Expert. Mantle of the Expert puts students in the role of the expert but to be the expert they must build the character. They can spend time researching the role and improvising scenes to really get acquainted with the role. Cecily O’Neill also puts students in the role mostly as experts not as children because typically children don’t make choices, but experts do. To truly create a process drama, we need the participants to make active choices to move the story along.
The heart of the process drama comes from the essence of play. Inherently, children play. Children imitate life or use their imagination to create new worlds. This is the heart of using drama in this way. Every good drama has tension and that becomes the role of the facilitator to add in the tension or to be the narrator and move the story along.
Resources
3 Looms Waiting. Dorothy Heathcote documentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jBNIEQrZs
Streeter, Joshua Rashon. Process Drama as Liberatory Practice. (2020). Arts Praxis Volume 7 Issue 2b.
Additional Resources
Bolton, Gavin. (1999). Acting in Classroom Drama. Portland: Calendar Islands Publisher
McCaslin, Nellie. (1999). Creative Drama in the Classroom (7th ed.). NY: Longman.
Neelands, Jonathan. (2004). Structuring Drama Work: A Handbook of Available Forms in Theatre and Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Neill, Cecily. (1995). Drama Worlds. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Spolin, Viola. (1986). Theatre Games for the Classroom. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Ward, Winifred. (1947). Playmaking with Children 2nd Ed. New York: Appleton-Century
Crofts, Inc.
Wagner, BJ. (1999). Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium. Portsmouth: Heinemann Press. Revised Ed.