School Drama Research Articles

Dancing the Cross-Lateral: Variations on a Brain Dance Theme

ABSTRACT This article reflects on observations as a dance pedagogue, adapting Gilbert’s BrainDance to a range of learning and teaching opportunities in intergenerational classroom contexts. Initially applied in an early childhood education context, BrainDance provided a point of departure into conversations and observations with teachers on how the children moved, took risks or not, within their Early Childhood Center. Findings from the initial project inspired my adaptation of BrainDance elements into an entire lesson for undergraduate dance students, as a structure for a primary school drama class warm-up, and for a circle-based warm-up for a class of adults age 65+ in their fitness and training program. Using Schön’s praxis of reflection-on-action, this article proposes the intergenerational links that may inspire or inform dance teachers, educators, curriculum designers, or physical activity facilitators. I propose that crossing the midline, the lifespan line, parallels moving with young and old—spanning generational dance praxis.

Nilai Moral Naskah Drama Liang Karya Puthut Buchori sebagai Alternatif Bahan Ajar Drama di SMA

This research aims to describe moral values play script Liang by Puthut Buchori and moral values play script Liang by Puthut Bucori as an alternative drama teaching materials in Senior High School. This research is a descriptive qualitative. The data was collected using a reading and note taking techniques. The text were analyzed using qualitative descriptive. The result of the study show that the moral value contained in the play Liang by Puthut Buchori is the moral value of human relations with oneself, which is to remain strong even though the storm hits. The moral values of human relations with other humans, namely advising each other, loving each other, helping each other, reminding each other, being aware of mistakes that have been made, fighting for each other, and being fair. The moral value of human relations with God, namely being grateful for the blessings given by God. The moral values contained in the play Liang by PuthutBuchori are appropriate to be used as an alternative for learning drama in high school which are contained in Basic Competence 3.19 Analyzing the content and language of the drama that is read or watched.

Putting the Theatre Green Book into practice: sustainability, pedagogy and the conservatoire

Like all industries, theatre must face the challenge of transitioning to a sustainable future, and in 2021 the Theatre Green Book was created to support that transition. It is now being used widely in the UK including by the National Theatre who are committed to working to the standards of the Theatre Green Book and have included engagement with this process as a contractual commitment for all staff and freelancers. Theatre educators are responsible for not only ensuring that their shows are made sustainably, but also for embedding this way of working into curriculums. Case studies that look at the use of the Theatre Green Book in theatres are now materialising, but there is no wider research currently available about its application within drama schools. This article explores the barriers and motivators that impact the implementation of the Theatre Green Book method into UK drama schools. Four semi-structured interviews with theatre production educators and transcripts from three Theatre Green Book educator meetings were used to provide an overview of the barriers and motivators. Several key themes emerged from the data, including pressures of time, leadership and storage, and recommendations are made to address them.

Introduction to Indigenous Performance Ecologies and Ecological Power in the Global South

Human and non-human inhabitants in the global south are all gradually becoming refugees in their own local communities and the planet Earth. This is more visible in places in the extractive zone as Macarena Gomes-Barris refers to these locations, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where multinational corporations and local extraction industries continue to cause harm to indigenous people, non-human lives, cultures and places. All these activities of extraction have accelerated the climate crisis and economic poverty. This has created unimaginable ways of living, such as the consumption of polluted water, breathing contaminated air, being bathed by black soot and so on. All these ways of living are prominent in the global south and especially countries of, in the words of Paul Collier (2007), the Bottom Billion. The Bottom Billion is the number of people living in countries “caught in one, or often several of four traps, amongst mismanaged dependency on natural resources” (p. 7). The extraction of natural resources which amounts to the exploitation of the environment and ecology of local people will continue to escalate with time. This has its evidence with the massive floods in Nigeria and Bangladesh, desertification in North Africa and India, and the Hurricane tragedies in Eastern Mexico. As Sally Mackey states in one of the Ted talks at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, titled: Keeping a Sense of Place in a Disrupted World, “the excess of energy use in the North is damaging countries in the South. Lands are diminishing, places are disappearing, 86 percent of global energy is gotten from fossil fuels. With this, lands will continue to diminish, places will disappear, and populations will move” (Mackey 2017).

Semiotic Analysis of Bullying Practices in Drama School 2015: Study of Emile Durkheim's Theory of Suicide

The existence of humans as social beings is represented through the formation of social groups as an effort to maintain and develop their lives. However, instead of forming harmony and balance, humans also often commit social deviations, one of which is through bullying behavior. Bullying behavior does not only occur in the work environment but has entered the school environment. One of them is in South Korea, where bullying rates and suicide rates are both high, showing that there is a relevance between bullying rates and suicide rates. Now, this phenomenon is constructed through drama as a reflection of social reality. The focus of this research is to find out how the practice and relevance of bullying behavior and suicide cases in the 2015 school drama. The research method used is Ferdinand De Saussure's semiotic analysis method which focuses on discussing the concept of signifiers and signifieds. The data studied are pieces of dialogue, images, and sound. In this study the authors used Emile Durkheim's Suicide theory. The findings in this study are that there is a relevance between bullying practices and suicide cases. This is also exacerbated by the finding that victims of bullying often do not have adequate social groups. Because the more individuals have sufficient social groups, then this is capital in maintaining their lives from other social groups. The location of the social group greatly influences a person's decision to commit suicide. Thus, the social group has an important position for a person as part of his efforts to defend himself and maintain his self-esteem and the harmony of social relations.

The bad migrant. The crisis of democratic education and the decolonization of the curriculum in French and German school dramas

The high school drama is a popular genre in France and Germany that often portrays the integration of young migrants into society. This essay compares the French film La journée de la jupe (Skirt Day, 2009) and its German adaptation for the stage, Verrücktes Blut (Crazy Blood, 2010), in which the civic education intended to turn young migrants into model citizens and form their democratic subjectivity fails. The analysis of La journée de la jupe focuses on the republican ideal of citizenship presented in the film. As this essay will show, there is a contradiction between the racist stereotypes reproduced in the film and its plea for a new liberal republicanism that reflects the diversity of society. Verrücktes Blut is more of a critical reworking of the film rather than an adaptation. The comedy reveals the neocolonial nature of current debates on migration, in which migrants become the object of othering, thus ascribing to them the position that previously belonged to the colonized. In the film and the play, genre comes into play in opposite ways. In La journée de la jupe, the genre of the republican tragedy, on which the film is based, serves to stage the young people, who are read as migrants, as the Other of French culture. In turn, Verrücktes Blut uses the genre of the school drama to create an emphatic attitude towards the young people in the audience. Verrücktes Blut underlines the importance of decolonizing the curriculum. This analysis of the film and the play shows that a democratic education to become a republican citoyenne and citoyen or liberal citizen remains incomplete without the self-decolonization of Western society and culture.

Viacheslav Khim’iak’s acting and pedagogical creativity in the context of the developing the Ukrainian theater music and drama school

Statement of the problem. Viacheslav Antonovych Khim’iak (born in 1949) is among the renowned artists of Ternopil region. His name associates with an exceptionally fruitful period in the activity of leading theaters and theatrical universities, including the Н. Petrovsky Khmelnitsky Music and Drama Theater (now – M. Starytsky Khmelnitsky Academic Regional Music and Drama Theater), T. Shevchenko Ternopil Academic Drama Theater, S. Krushelnytska Ternopil Music School (now – S. Krushelnytska Ternopil Art Vocational College), and the Department of Theatrical Art of V. Hnatiuk Ternopil National Pedagogical University. V. A. Khim’iak acting, directing and teaching activities, which have continued from 1974 to the present time, is based primarily on his own creative experience, as well as theoretical and practical achievements of outstanding masters of the Ukrainian psychological theater school (H. Yura, S. Danchenko, B. Kozak, O. Kuzhelny, F. Stryhun, and others). In critical publications dedicated to V. Khim’iak, the issues of stage originality and pedagogical creativity, based on the specifics of his acting views, are revealed only ragmentarily (Korniienko, 1980; Sadovska & Sobutska, 2007; Vaniuha, 2019, 2020; Stelmashchuk, 2020). Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The stage and pedagogical activity of the artist has not yet become the subject of in-depth scientific research, so this article is the first attempt in this direction. The purpose of the article is to systematize, summarize, supplement, and expand the information about V. Khim’iak’s creation and his principles of educating young actors for recreating his image as an actor, director, and theatrical pedagogue, primarily using personal archival materials and interviews. V. Khim’iak’s stage pursuits are based on the creative discoveries of outstanding masters of Ukrainian and foreign theater of the 20th – early 21st centuries, his “personal” page of aesthetic, professional, methodological searches in the field of acting and directing skills, which organically continue in theatrical pedagogy. Research results and conclusion. In the main part of the article, the phases of formation and creative activity of V. Khim’iak as an actor, director, composer and theatrical pedagogue are discussed. It is noted that V. Khim’iak’s stage pursuits are based on the creative discoveries of outstanding masters of Ukrainian and foreign theater of the 20th – early 21st centuries, and on his “personal” page of aesthetic, professional, methodological searches in the field of acting and directing skills, which organically continue in theatrical pedagogy. V. Khim’iak, a talented actor who has long been searching for his path in acting and the methods of actor’s education, and ultimately found them relying on the pedagogical discoveries of the school of musical and drama theater, played over 100 roles and staged near 50 educational performances, and also nurtured an array of Ukrainian actors and theatrical educators who are successfully working both in domestic theaters and abroad today. Based on the analysis of V. Khim’iak’s creative and pedagogical activities, his contribution to the formation and development of the Ukrainian musical-dramatic theatrical school has been determined. In his own pedagogical method, the artist successfully embodied the traditions of Ukrainian acting and discoveries in the field of psychology of creativity. The experience of joint work with famous Ukrainian theater directors – A. Hashinsky, A. Bobrovsky, P. Zahrebelny, A. Horchinsky, F. Stryhun, O. Moseichuk – was of great importance for V. Khim’iak’s creative method. V. Khim’iak is recognized as the founder of the Ternopil theatrical school. His multifaceted stage and pedagogical activity and has significantly expanded the creative possibilities of acting and has become an integral part of the national theatrical culture.

From the prompt corner to the lecture theatre: Making the move from professional to academic stage manager

Following my journey from stage manager to academic I wanted to discover whether my experiences were unique. Although there has been investigation in other fields into transition experiences, there was no existing research in this area. In this article I investigate the values and identity of stage managers in academia and how these are affected by moving into academia, specifically within the context of the drama conservatoire. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach and examining data from online surveys and semi-structured interviews through content analysis, I sought and considered the views of those with similar career trajectories. Themes identified included uncertain identities, shared values, work/life balance, and tensions between theatre and academic structures. This study moves the stage manager working in the wings of drama schools to centre stage, examines their motivations and identities and encourages academic stage managers to claim their position confidently in this emerging field of study.

The Evaluation Mechanism for Auditions of the Faculty of Acting in Drama Schools in China

This research addresses the evaluation mechanisms utilized in auditions for acting programs within Chinese drama schools. By employing discourse analysis as its methodological approach, the study examines the perspectives of auditors, candidates, and relevant literature to uncover the intricacies of appearance, believability, and academic performance in the audition process. The research highlights the nuanced role of appearance, influenced by societal beauty standards, in shaping candidates' prospects. It further delves into the multifaceted discourse on believability, reflecting both its inherent qualities and potential for development through training. The study also explores the interplay between academic performance and acting, considering the value of cultural literacy and critical thinking skills. Ultimately, the research advocates for comprehensive evaluation methods that emphasize passion, authenticity, collaborative abilities, and critical thinking skills, offering valuable insights for reforming the audition process and nurturing the growth of aspiring actors.

A collective form of art: an interview with Yana Ross

In this interview with Bryce Lease, Yana Ross explores her background as a director and her approach to teaching directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius. Ross discusses her training at GITIS and the Yale School of Drama, highlighting the importance of life experience, interdisciplinary knowledge, and leadership skills in the development of a director. She emphasizes the value of understanding the theatre canon and expanding it through alternative perspectives, while also recognising the need for rigour and critical thinking in theatre training. Ross reflects on her experiences as a professor and the challenges faced by directing students, including effective communication with actors and the wider creative team. Advocating for a collaborative and inclusive approach to theatre-making, she draws on her experiences at Yale, where different disciplines interacted and collaborated.

From Hellerau to Here: Tracing the Lineage and Influence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics on the Family Tree of Theatre Pedagogy

Actor training in Western culture evolved as an oral tradition. Formal education appeared in the late-nineteenth century with the work of Konstantin Stanislavski. Despite its relatively brief history, the family tree of theatre pedagogy now consists of many contrasting branches. Several branches contain the creative and educational DNA of an approach to Western music education known as Dalcroze Eurhythmics. Emile Jaques-Dalcroze was a Swiss pianist and composer whose work at the Hellerau Institute near Dresden in Germany had a significant impact on the Modernist movements in theatre and dance, 1911–1914. Historical records show that this embodied method of music learning was disseminated by Hellerau graduates in drama schools and theatre companies around the world. This essay traces four branches on the family tree of theatre pedagogy that are directly influenced by Dalcroze Eurhythmics. These branches include the legacies of Stanislavski in Russia; Jacques Copeau and Suzanne Bing in France; Rudolph Laban and Yat Malmgren in Germany and England; and Sanford Meisner and Anne Bogart in the United States of America. This essay is written from the author’s perspective as an actor trainer and music educator in a higher education conservatoire. It offers historical contexts for contemporary pedagogies in actor training.

Exploring the Impact of Experiential Marketing on Audience Perception in Indian Performing Art Educational Institutions

This study aimed to assess the impact of experiential marketing on audience perception in Indian performing art educational institutions. For this purpose, data were collected between August 2022 to January 2023 from 311 students of the National School of Drama (NSD), Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, Kathak Kendra, and Triveni Kala Sangam. The study focused on experiential marketing strategies incorporated into digital platforms. In this study, structural equation modelling and regression analysis were employed to analyze the impact of experiential marketing on audience perception, and the results indicated a positive relationship between perception and the quality of Interactive Experiences. However, no statistically significant results were found for the relationships between Perception and Immersive Experiences and Perception and Educational Value, suggesting the need for more specific and tailored measures. The results had important implications for designers and developers of digital experiences, who might benefit from prioritizing interactivity and tailoring content to enhance user perception of immersive experiences and educational value on behalf of their educational clientele.

Evaluating Implementation Status of the National Guidelines for Covid-19 Hygiene and Sanitation in Primary Schools of Marsabit County, Kenya

Globally, erupting in late 2019 in China, COVID-19 pandemic became a monumental public health policy problem and threat to humanity of our time. As of June 13, 2021, the pandemic affected close to 176 million people and caused over 3.8 million deaths and disrupted global economies leading to loss of jobs and livelihoods. From a public health perspective, African countries like Kenya, need greater investments in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions as the first line of defence to effectively mitigate against the pandemic. The objective of this study was to identify and assess the level and status of hygiene and sanitation implementation of COVID-19 national guidelines in four schools in three sub counties of Marsabit County in northern Kenya. COVID-19The study adopted a cross sectional design and mixed method in data collection. In addition, review of secondary literature both quantitative and qualitative data were collected during October to December 2022. Data was collected through administering questionnaires targeting 284 respondents, key informant interviews and focused group discussions with selected opinion leaders. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS ver25 and univariate and bivariate statistical techniques were applied. Descriptive analysis using thematic technique was used to analyse qualitative data. The study findings observed that the current school based intervention for COVID-19 prevention included wearing of face masks (86%), practicing social distance (65%), hand washing with water (52%), and using alcohol based hand sanitizers (64%). It also revealed key factors influencing covid19 interventions: barriers to uptake included: lack of enforcement (84.2%), shortage of WASH facilities (78.9%), lack of funds (76.8%), lack of trained staff (70.4%), inadequate facilities (88.7%), lack of awareness (50.0%), poor attitude and ignorance (76.4%), accessibility (37.3%), cultural and religious factors (70.1%).This study concludes that while knowledge of transmission and prevention were found to be high; access to many of the essential support systems and WASH facilities remain a major challenge in the schools in Marsabit. These challenges were also identified from the findings of qualitative study. The study advances key recommendations notably: promotion of school-based training and sensitization of teachers and workers; increased financial support for provision of hygiene and sanitation facilities and preventive support supplies; expansion of community sensitization using radio, television, mass media and school drama clubs; and finally, enhanced financial and budgetary support from national and county governments, donors, and non-governmental organizations to implement robust WASH interventions especially in schools in the Arid and Semi-Arid regions of Kenya.

P092 Imagined Futures: How can digital storytelling empower young people with JIA to engage in ideas about health, wellbeing and transition

Abstract Background/Aims During February half-term 2022, seven young people with JIA ranging in age from 11 to 16 coalesced at the Unicorn Theatre in London to participate in a week-long series of workshops exploring filmmaking, digital storytelling, and health. Led by Creative Health PhD researcher Anna Woolf (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), and Debbie Wilson, Young People’s Project Manager from JIA-at-NRAS, the facilitators engaged the young people in a series of digitally-led practices which allowed the young people to explore their lived experiences in a creatively-led group setting. Utilising TikTok methodologies (Pomerantz, 2021) the young people created and performed content that explored themes of identity and emerging self-hood. The project enabled young people’s understanding of their JIA to be explored in relation to their hopes and fears about their future health, self-management, and ideas about transition. Methods The approach included pre-project qualitative and quantitative surveys detailing young people’s attitudes and experiences to having JIA, semi-structured interviews with the young people and thematic qualitative analysis of filmed stories. Results Young people expressed that they had never met another young person with JIA or arthritis ever before despite several of them attending the same paediatric centres such as Great Ormond Street or the Evelina hospital in London. The project coalesced young people around their collective health conditions and the use of digital mediums made space for places of powerful solidarity between young people experiencing the same health problems. Conclusion Despite young people with JIA having good relationships generally with their doctors and support from their families, the work created by them in the project showed the researcher very clearly that they need much better peer support structures, help and understanding from other adults such as teachers, and in general, more understanding and empathy from the world at large about their lived experience. Utilising TikTok, filmmaking and online creative formats such as meme-making and online journaling, the young people were clearly engaged and adeptly expert at producing creative testimony and performance which illustrated their experiences of health. Assumptions such as believing that young people struggled with their patient-doctor relationships were replaced with a real understanding of the young people’s struggles, such as learning that teachers and other adults in the world are far more problematic, oftentimes labelling them as lazy or difficult for not participating in life in ways that their fully able-bodied peers do. The researcher also learnt much more about the effects of poor mental health that JIA engenders for young people with arthritis and reflected on the need for more creative peer-led spaces to explore this. Disclosure A. Woolf: None. D. Wilson: None.

Consent-based actor training as the only way forward

In her keynote address to The Stage’s Future of Theatre conference, Principal of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central) Josette Bushell-Mingo stated that the ‘future of drama training has changed forever’ (2022). Bushell- Mingo proposed that the time has come to make ‘artistic decisions’ in ‘dialogue with the students’(ibid). This change includes safe theatre practices involving the scrutinising of embedded conscious and unconscious bias in curriculum design and pedagogical delivery. Through the development of allyship and greater staff and student awareness, all artistic behaviour can embody consent, from negotiation of touch through to power differentials. This paper shares insights from public debate and policy documentation that have led to processes of a consent-based framework for students and staff within a three-year acting program. The hope is that such processes will provide a safer space for students of acting, offering autonomy of choice of material, a safe place for all students, Indigenous approaches to creating work, practices of consent in all areas of the work, especially in intimate work, and safe approaches in the creation of a role and the stepping out of role.

The canon and the contemporary: change, challenge, conceit

The canon is widely recognised in drama school training contexts as the dramatic and practitioner texts with which actors can expect to work. The canon studied is often proscriptively - and therefore prohibitively - narrow. These two observations lead to the questioning of who, and for what industry, training actors are being prepared. Articulation of the Western bias and shortcomings of the hegemonic canon is well versed, but alternatives are often predicated on augmentation via addition. Examining and understanding the conceit by which canonical status is ascribed, achieved, and maintained, holds the answer to how the canon can be challenged and changed to allow for culture to evolve, through the plurality of stories and not regurgitation and perpetuation of those already lauded.

Dub poetry and theatre in conversation: the development of a performance-driven aesthetic

In the history of dub poetry, the relation between theatre and poetry is undeniable. The majority of the dub poets have theatrical training and have experimented with staging texts. Jean ‘Binta' Breeze, Oku Onuora, Mutabaruka, and Michael Smith, to name just a few, studied at the Jamaican School of Drama. Their training helped them to develop a style of performance that is highly expressive. Through the close reading of Micheal Smith's poem, ‘Trainer', this article argues that both the text and the performance of this text display artistic characteristics that are the result of a creative dialogue between theatre and poetry. Discussed under the coined term ‘a performance-driven aesthetic’, the article brings new light on this creative dialogue that is too often taken for granted by academic studies.

ДРАМАТИЗАЦИЯ И ТЕАТРАЛИЗОВАННАЯ ИГРА В ДЕТСКОМ САМОДЕЯТЕЛЬНОМ ТЕАТРЕ 1920-Х ГОДОВ

This article aims at examining the phenomenon of children’s theatre in Soviet Russia during the 1920s, evidencing its importance both as a pedagogical and an ideological tool. The analysis is conducted taking into consideration two key factors that influenced the development of children’s theatre at that time, namely the creation of the Unified labour school and the general success of the so called samodeiatel’nyi teatr. It is noted that it was in the early twentieth century, due to the rapid development of paedology and pedagogy in Russia and abroad, that children’s theatre became an object of serious scientific study. According to pedagogical research of the time, the use of drama in school promoted children’s learning by satisfying their natural “dramatic instinct”. Furthermore, from a propaganda point of view, the non-professional stage was seen as an ideal form of proletarian art. In both spheres great importance was attached to the theatre as a means of developing pupils’ independence, activity and creativity — basic skills for shaping a child as a new Soviet man. Pedagogical and ideological principles of children’s theatre will be examined in detail through Aleksandr Bardovskij’s work, which is particularly representative of the theoretical and practical dynamism that characterized the field in that period. Bardovskij’s work bears witness to the creative rise of children’s theatre in that era.

Jan Sawka: Theatre of Image and Metaphor

Jan Sawka: Theatre of Image and Metaphor

Conquering the Zoombies

In this piece we offer a reflexive account of our recent experiences of teaching with drama in two different online settings. Eva will recount her practice teaching trainee teachers in Switzerland and Nicky will recall her practice working with postgraduate applied theatre students in a drama school in the UK. Over and over again, we have encountered the mind-set that teaching drama online is “not possible”, or at the very least, that it is but a pale reflection of face-to-face teaching. Although we were out of our comfort zone at first, we now feel that teaching with drama online has its place in our fast-paced and increasingly technological world. Teaching and learning in digital contexts will likely remain a reality from now on, thus it is the purpose of this article to make the case for the creative potential of and indeed urgent need for online teaching that includes drama.