Dr Lee told us that every presentation should have a role and structure in it. Most of our roles in each presentation were clear and objective. We have to think how we can affect the participants by playing and taking up different roles. Do we then act as a facilitator? teacher? or an actor?
1st group (Si Chuan's grp): Cyberwellness
- Their roles are quite vague because they are at first actors in a classroom setting. They did role playing with the use of media (Facebook) for cyberbullying issues. It was a good attempt because of the use of a media that is a favourite to students and everybody else. However, is it real or make believe? There is a blurring of reality and artificial, where participants may be confused with. Suicide might be too much where participants may not know what to do. That was the case of Lynn where she was asking 'are we suppose to do anything?'
- Their frame needs to be clear so that we know what is real and what is not. Maybe it would be better if they forum it after the FB activity so the participants know when to intervene. What they lack of is the joker, that is why the joker is important to ensure that the forum is smooth and nobody is affected.
2nd group (Maybelline's grp): Dealing with Name calling
- Very much of drama therapy instead of drama itself. It may be dangerous because people may get affected, which happened to Joanne. Are we well-equipped with skills to resolve these unforgiveness if it happens? We are not professionally trained to deal with situations where emotions get involved.
- I like the creativity of the game because it heightens the energy level and is fun. However, words to name-call others such as 'Bodoh' or 'Idiot' maybe quite hurtful insults to the participants. The outcasted may feel insulted. If we cannot handle emotional situations, it can become very ugly.
- We may not be qualified as teachers to do drama therapy.
3rd group (My group): Racism
Comments by Dr Lee: Nice exercise and is well thought. Discussion of tableau was not deep enough. We need to go deep into the core issues, because these issues are organic from their own live experiences. We need to ask, probe and identify problems, questions like:
- What is behind these issues?
- Why did it irritate us? eg why did I frown upon intermarriages?
- What is in this still image that catches your eye and why is it racist? Are those actions wrong?
- How can we understand from these issues? Why should we avoid them or make racist remarks? Are our racist remarks judgmental or bias or does it really come from bluntness? (eg, some indian smell are really intolerable, is it base on racist remark or is it the truth?)
4th group (Lloyd's grp): Working with Down syndrome
- A rather structured one linking from hot seatting to forum theatre. Hot seatting allows us to know about the characters better by asking questions about the situation, background of characters etc. Students will know the situation better.
- Lloyd acted as a joker which is easier for the group to function in the forum theatre because they know their roles clearly so the pausing and continuation can flow better during the forum. However, they must know when to stop when the situation is getting nowhere.
- Their script was good because it is a restaurant setting which is a common place that everyone goes. Perhaps one thing the students may not know is the causes and effect of down syndrome. The participants should know a little more about down syndrome and other mental illnesses. However, it may be a good way to educate students on what is down syndrome about and should they avoid such people? Should mentally illed people be considered a stigma in society? How should the society view or embrace them?
Working on classroom lessons needs to have focus, objectives that we can follow, roles, structure and frame. It has to be organized in such a way that the questions scaffold their thinking layer by layer. There has to be a framework that the facilitators can work about, where they have to know what are the boundaries that they can work until or how they can push the student's capabilities so that they give their maximum critical thinking skills. This is where we have to decide what roles we are going to take so that it creates a suitable learning environment for the students to grow and develop their skills.
Paulo Freire
Augusto Boal
Conclusion
1st group (Si Chuan's grp): Cyberwellness
- Their roles are quite vague because they are at first actors in a classroom setting. They did role playing with the use of media (Facebook) for cyberbullying issues. It was a good attempt because of the use of a media that is a favourite to students and everybody else. However, is it real or make believe? There is a blurring of reality and artificial, where participants may be confused with. Suicide might be too much where participants may not know what to do. That was the case of Lynn where she was asking 'are we suppose to do anything?'
- Their frame needs to be clear so that we know what is real and what is not. Maybe it would be better if they forum it after the FB activity so the participants know when to intervene. What they lack of is the joker, that is why the joker is important to ensure that the forum is smooth and nobody is affected.
2nd group (Maybelline's grp): Dealing with Name calling
- Very much of drama therapy instead of drama itself. It may be dangerous because people may get affected, which happened to Joanne. Are we well-equipped with skills to resolve these unforgiveness if it happens? We are not professionally trained to deal with situations where emotions get involved.
- I like the creativity of the game because it heightens the energy level and is fun. However, words to name-call others such as 'Bodoh' or 'Idiot' maybe quite hurtful insults to the participants. The outcasted may feel insulted. If we cannot handle emotional situations, it can become very ugly.
- We may not be qualified as teachers to do drama therapy.
3rd group (My group): Racism
Comments by Dr Lee: Nice exercise and is well thought. Discussion of tableau was not deep enough. We need to go deep into the core issues, because these issues are organic from their own live experiences. We need to ask, probe and identify problems, questions like:
- What is behind these issues?
- Why did it irritate us? eg why did I frown upon intermarriages?
- What is in this still image that catches your eye and why is it racist? Are those actions wrong?
- How can we understand from these issues? Why should we avoid them or make racist remarks? Are our racist remarks judgmental or bias or does it really come from bluntness? (eg, some indian smell are really intolerable, is it base on racist remark or is it the truth?)
4th group (Lloyd's grp): Working with Down syndrome
- A rather structured one linking from hot seatting to forum theatre. Hot seatting allows us to know about the characters better by asking questions about the situation, background of characters etc. Students will know the situation better.
- Lloyd acted as a joker which is easier for the group to function in the forum theatre because they know their roles clearly so the pausing and continuation can flow better during the forum. However, they must know when to stop when the situation is getting nowhere.
- Their script was good because it is a restaurant setting which is a common place that everyone goes. Perhaps one thing the students may not know is the causes and effect of down syndrome. The participants should know a little more about down syndrome and other mental illnesses. However, it may be a good way to educate students on what is down syndrome about and should they avoid such people? Should mentally illed people be considered a stigma in society? How should the society view or embrace them?
Working on classroom lessons needs to have focus, objectives that we can follow, roles, structure and frame. It has to be organized in such a way that the questions scaffold their thinking layer by layer. There has to be a framework that the facilitators can work about, where they have to know what are the boundaries that they can work until or how they can push the student's capabilities so that they give their maximum critical thinking skills. This is where we have to decide what roles we are going to take so that it creates a suitable learning environment for the students to grow and develop their skills.
Paulo Freire
Augusto Boal
Dorothy Heathcote
Conclusion
At the end of Applied theatre, I learnt alot of skills, theories,
pedagogy, drama conventions and processes that helps me to become a better
drama teacher/facilitator in my future fieldwork in schools. Ultimately, we need to have empathy and love to be able to develop understanding, forgiveness, awareness, assimilation and appreciation towards one another. All these can be
achieved through drama based on the pedagogy of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal,
where dialogue acts as a medium in creation and recreation of the world. Freire
(1970) stated that ‘The naming of the world, which is an act of creation and
re-creation, is not possible if it is not infused with love.’ (Pg 70) Without
love, we will never have the desire to have empathy towards people hence
dialogue and impact cannot exist. Without love, there is no liberation.
Furthermore, selfish desires can never be the driving force of exponential
learning because it is never about facilitators in the first place but it
should always be student-oriented. This is where we take on various roles to
induce a spirit of nurture and cultivation for the students’ learning.
Bibliography
Freire, P. (1970) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. England: Penguin group
