PERF219 Chapter Notes - Chapter 29: Dorothy Heathcote
Chapter Summary
Textbook: The Applied Theatre Reader, edited by Tim Prentki
and Sheila Preston, Routledge, 2009.
Chapter 29 – Drama as a Process for Change
By Dorothy Heathcote (pp. 200-206)
- Drama must involve change
- Teachers using drama in education must be able to create situations where the
characters go through a change, and to do this need to be able to create the place
where the drama will occur.
- This environment needs to be relevant to the change and comfortable/familiar to
the participants so they will willingly and comfortably accept the change.
- These dramas must come to an end, whether they reach a full conclusion or the
situation eases but is not fully resolved.
- The teacher must be able to judge the needs of the students.
- The result of the drama could also be a new outlook of the situation or something
that leads into a new start for the characters. It can also be a new awareness of a
situation, but not necessarily an understanding.
- Actors attempt to produce change in others.
- Through times of intense emotion, we too can understand this perspective.
- To attempt this with students, the following points must be considered:
oUse human material that comes from your students’ values, beliefs,
philosophies etc.
oYou will be in the distortion.
oYou will fight to form something from the original ideas.
- In any teaching situation, there exists “the inner structure of the teaching you create
and the outer apparent look of the teaching you create.”
- When lesson planning, teachers must look at the value and purpose of their
activities.
- What people sometimes perceive teachers doing is not always what they’re
attempting to do. In teaching, everything should be done for a reason.
-“It demands the selective use of words, the selective use of gesture.”
- Drama can be used for change by making children inside the dilemma or issue
instead of just talking about it from the outside.
- Drama can bring about behavioural change, which leads into perceptive change.
- You must know why you’re doing what you’re doing.
-“Drama is about shattering the human experience into a new understanding. It uses
facts but, in addition, it fuses the new understanding all the time.”
- Children bring a variety of different roots and experiences to a classroom.
- It is a teacher’s job to grow and nurture these roots; to use them.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Textbook: the applied theatre reader, edited by tim prentki and sheila preston, routledge, 2009. Chapter 29 drama as a process for change. Teachers using drama in education must be able to create situations where the characters go through a change, and to do this need to be able to create the place where the drama will occur. This environment needs to be relevant to the change and comfortable/familiar to the participants so they will willingly and comfortably accept the change. These dramas must come to an end, whether they reach a full conclusion or the situation eases but is not fully resolved. The teacher must be able to judge the needs of the students. The result of the drama could also be a new outlook of the situation or something that leads into a new start for the characters. It can also be a new awareness of a situation, but not necessarily an understanding.
