Inclusion, Challenge and Success

An article written by Jacqueline Tordoir, the parent of a previous ISB student, and published in Dutch in the blog of education Think Tank- NIVOZ. You can check it out on this link: http://hetkind.org/?s=jacqueline+tordoir

ISB Middle School's recent production of The Jungle Book

My daughter Daniela went to the International School of Brussels. The mission of the school is: everyone included, challenged and successful.  Of the three mission components, “challenge” is the one Daniela has been covering since she was 3, when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Although her one-year intensive hospital treatment is now a distant memory, Daniela’s learning difficulties are a daily challenge.

My daughter was enrolled as a pupil in the ISB’s ‘Special Education’ programme, where she spent most of her school hours in a small class of six children. For Dutch and Drama class, she participated in lessons in the mainstream Middle School. While relishing her periods in the mainstream, she found it hard to have the label ‘special ed. kid’ attached to her and despite the wonderful guidance of her special ed. teachers, she often wondered why she couldn’t be like her peers and fully participate in the mainstream programme. The gap between the education levels at both sections is large. My daughter hovered between the two, intellectually, emotionally and socially. It was tough. Together with her teachers, we were on a continuous quest for the other two mission components: ‘inclusion’ and ‘success’.

Eventually we saw it happening: inclusion, challenge and success seamlessly rolled into one when she performed her part of ‘Wolf 3’ in the school’s The Jungle Book production. I spoke to her drama teacher to find out more about his pedagogical approach. He involved around 40 pupils in his production of The Jungle Book, 26 were stage performers. Others were involved in costumes, backstage, masks, makeup and stage design. It took 48 hours of rehearsals over four months to prepare the play, with three performances at the end. In total, the students presented their work to nearly 500 audience members.

When rehearsals started I had noticed that it took my daughter a while to get into it. She showed no particular enthusiasm for going to rehearsals. Her drama teacher confirmed that she was withdrawn and frightened to make her voice heard. She would cower in a corner rather than step forward, whisper rather than speak up or shout out. He recognised her challenge: She was the only special education student in the group and together with another child, the only one from the lowest grade, grade 7; all the others being from grade 8 up to High School grade 12.

So how did we end up with a smiling Wolf 3, beaming on stage, exclaiming that this was the best time in her life, hugging and kissing her fellow thespians while gracefully receiving compliments on the delivery of her lines and her true-to-life wolf performance throughout? Better call her drama teacher.

His key message was trust. He considered that his first task in starting off any theatre production was to work on building trust for creating what he called the “ensemble”, the group coherence and collaboration. He worked on trust by means of various exercises. His aim was to make everyone feel part of the whole, to get everyone to feel that they too have something unique to contribute to the group and that difference is not just OK, but something to be cherished. He reckoned very few children will feel entirely confident at the beginning of rehearsing for a play and likewise in this group, my daughter was not the only one to feel fear and inhibition. The group also included children who had only recently learned to speak English for instance. Through trust-building exercises, children eventually ended up trusting themselves and each other.

My daughter’s drama teacher’s next step was to create a safe environment in which children were encouraged to take risks and to reflect openly on each other’s endeavours through giving critical, non-judgmental feedback. Children thrived by sensing that none of the feedback given was personal, that each comment served the purpose of increasing their skills and the quality of the group effort as a whole. Risk-taking was cultivated by giving children exercises to stretch their imagination, asking them to perform the impossible. Everyone took part no matter how hesitant they felt about taking risks. The secret was in the approach. How can you not take a risk when you are asked to work out a way to turn yourself inside out, or to find a way of seeing the back of your own head?

Another key to this teacher’s success was creating an environment for active participation. For his productions, he saw his role as a facilitator rather than a director. He used the creative input he got from the children to build the play. There was a script, but it was flexible. ‘Children have excellent ideas, I would be mad not to take them on. The process is more important than the end-result’, he said. All children in The Jungle Book were active agents in building it, they were treated as competent partners in shaping the process and the end-product.

So where was my daughter in all this? When her teacher noticed that his trust-building exercises did not have an immediate effect, or at least not as much as was required to make her an active participant in the process, he intervened. A small push did the trick. He took her aside and told her that she needed to be brave. That without her taking action herself there would be no reaction. That she should give the others the opportunity to learn from her, from her energy, from her physicality and that they in turn could help her with their feedback and with remembering her lines and “prompt” whenever it was needed. They were messages for trust and risk-taking with a safety net supplied. It worked. The next rehearsal my daughter acted out an angry wolf. Buoyed up by the feedback she received she continued to develop her role from strength to strength. No prompting was needed at any stage….

If it’s true that “all the world’s a stage”, Carl found a way of bringing the stage into Daniela’s world and answered our quest for inclusion, challenge and success.

Jacqueline Tordoir

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Artist Toolbox: Sticky stuff

It's early in the year and you are building an ensemble in your class. Would you like to hear about an activity which you might not have heard of? Sure you would!

Well, the first activity I have for you is called the Helium Stick, and you could use it in pretty much any class or group to help build teamwork and communication.

• First, get the group to line up in two rows which face each other.
• Introduce the Helium Stick- a long, thin, lightweight pole with tennis balls stuck on the ends.
• Ask participants to point their index fingers and hold their arms out.
• Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers.  Make sure that everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.
• Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground.
• The catch: Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers.
• Reiterate to the group that if anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted. Let the task begin....
• Warning: Particularly in the early stages, the Helium Stick has a habit of mysteriously 'floating' up rather than coming down, causing much laughter.
• To be successful the group needs to calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick - easier said than done.

students working on the challenge

A success? Great!

Would you like another one? Even greater!

This next activity is a good one for partner work and can be extended into performance material as a further step.

• First, split the group into pairs. Preferably with partners they know the least.
• Give each pair two (30cm) sticks
• Students hold the sticks between their index fingers and try not to let them drop.
• They are not allowed to pinch or hold the sticks with their other digits. The pressure they put on the sticks with their index fingers should be enough.
• Challenge the students to explore the range of movements they have with these restrictions: Can they twist around? Step over the sticks? Lay down together? Balance?
• After 5 minutes of exploration, ask them to share their best 'stunt' with the group. If they're trying something particularly difficult, commend them on going all out for the glory!

• First, split the group into pairs. Preferably with partners they know the least.
• Once you have done this, if you want to take it further, ask students to practice three moves, which are combined into a routine or phrase. 
• They practice with the sticks but when they share their phrase with the group they will do it without the sticks. In performance they must still have the same concentration as if they were still using the sticks however.
• As an added twist, students can experiment with changing the length of the imaginary sticks. What happens if their stick is super tiny or really long? What happens to the phrase if the sticks shrinks or grows half way through.
• Add some interesting music and watch what happens...
• Ask the audience to feedback with their interpretations of the performances. Did the performance remind them of anything? Were there stories that emerged? A particular theme or idea?

If one or both of those activities is a new one to you then I'm happy! They certainly provided my students with some important learning moments.

And remember, if you get stuck, use a stick to get unstuck!

(Yeah, I just made that up.)

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Character alignments: a geek teacher's guide

I love Eric Molinsky's podcast Imaginary Worlds, a show about 'imaginary worlds: how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief'. It's a curious geek's guide to a deeper side of pop culture and well worth a listen if that sounds like your thing.

I just listened to the episode titled Why They Fight and was fascinated to hear how a part of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has influenced a lot of pop culture since the game was released and I realised that this system for categorising characters would be a great drama activity, so don't switch off just yet!


A big part of DnD is building your character, giving them traits, personality, history, skills etc. Alignment is a categorization of the ethical and moral perspective of a character. There are 9 types of alignment, which can be explained in various nerdy diagrams available in a quick google search.

The alignments apply to so many well-known characters from Harry Potter to The Muppets, from Batman to Animal Farm.

    

Molinsky's personal pick of characters also make a lot of sense to me and he clearly describes how they fit their alignments in the episode:

As you can see from the diagrams, so many characters fit into these alignments and it is when two characters fall into different alignments that we get great stories; see Batman vs The Joker, Captain America vs Iron Man, Harry Potter vs Lord Voldermort, Aladdin vs Jafar. 

So I'm going to use this system with my students soon and ask them to create characters for improvisations which fit into the different alignments. Let's see what happens then...!

(See also Geek & Sundry for another simple breakdown)

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GCSE Bitesize: A Mantra (but that's probably all)

Today once again, British 16 year-old's received their GCSE exam results. I remember that time in my life and now as a teacher I find myself reflecting on the value of it. With exam changes, increases in difficulty and always a controversy never far from the news, I can't help but wonder why Britain persists in holding these exams.

Nobody should denigrate the achievements of those who received their results in the past few days. The problem lies with the exam, not them. GCSEs are obsolete and have been for several years. Exams at 16 were invented when the majority of children left full-time education at that age and moved directly into the labour market.
-Peter Wilby in the Guardian

The period of time before my own exams at 16, spent cramming, revising and worrying probably didn't do a great deal for any success in my life since. Most of the things I learnt in school and remember now were things taught to me by passionate teachers in learning situations that cannot be assessed in any sanitised, three-hour long exam.

However, there was one idea from this period that has stuck with me and defines much of how I approach challenges in my life to this day and it came from the unlikely place of the BBC's free online study resource- Bitesize.

The BBC's GCSE Bitesize resource

This scheme offers students study resources which are 'broken down into manageable chunks' to try to help with the stress of studying for all their exams. Now it wasn't the program itself which helped me very much but the principle it is built on, that of the idea to break down a large, seemingly overwhelming task into small, easy-to-achieve parts. 

Now I'm sure I had come across that idea many times before that, obviously, but something about the slogan and the advertising that the BBC used in their campaigns stuck with me as a teenager. Since then I've adopted that approach whenever I feel the pressure of a large scary task, be it writing a dissertation, starting a new job or buying a house. 

Take starting a new job for example. It can be very scary when you think of the whole picture- so much to learn, new people to make good impressions on, so much to get to grips with. But if you break it down into 'manageable chunks' then it's not so bad. First step is to get on the bus and show up- easy. Then you have to walk through the door- walking's easy. Shake a hand and smile- simple. Sit through a fire-safety video- breezy. And so on... So whenever I'm feeling the pressure I just recite that mantra: 'Break It Down Into Manageable Chunks'

Nothing revolutionary, and not worth all the revision just for that, but a positive outcome for me nonetheless. 

I'm thinking about those 16 year-old's who now have their GCSEs behind them and those 15 year-old's who have it to come and I wonder why we still put them through it all... Although the BBC's catchy slogan worked with me there are clearly better ways to teach task-management skills to students and as for the rest, it's high-time the British government found a new path for secondary education.

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What I'm watching

Some of the upcoming shows in Brussels that I will be going to see:

The Common People
Jan Martens -Grip
September 15-16
desingel.be

The Common People' is a participatory project, installation and performance by choreographer Jan Martens and film director Lukas Dhont. Twenty-four duos - ordinary people - meet for the first on the scene . How they react to each other and the audience looking on? You witness how they are seeking (intimate?) Personal contact.

-I've always been interested in untrained dancers dancing and pedestrian movement as dance. It's something I have focused on in my own artistic practice and I'm proud to have participated in some projects similar to this in the past. So I'm very looking forwards to seeing The Common People and I've been interested in seeing some of Jan Martens work too.

Rain (live)
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Roasa & Ictus
October 4-7
Kaaitheatre.be

Rain (2001) is one of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's most vibrant performances and is set to Steve Reichs Music for 18 Musicians. You are gripped by a kind of madness of movement. Like a spreading fire, it jumps from one body to another, without pausing at any one person. To the pulsing notes of Steve Reich’s minimalistic music – performed live by Ictus – ten dancers surrender themselves to an irrepressible collective energy. A bubbling network of breathing and speed connects them, as does that strange camaraderie that appears only beyond the limits of exhaustion.
-Seeing the work of Anne Teresa De Keesmaeker has been on my wishlist for a while. The choreographer's scores she creates, which you can find in various books of hers, are fascinating to me. Can't wait for this!

Meanwhile
Gaëtan Rusquet
November 9-10
Kaaitheatre.be

In this apocalyptic performance Rusquet has three performers build a construction. Is it a model or in fact an installation? The actors continually have to fight against the threatened destruction of what they are building up. By playing with the scale, the role of the body changes from pure power to helplessness. Its raw materiality, physical sound and inescapable language of movement make Meanwhile a penetrating performance. The passage of time and the relationship between humans and their environment become tangible: the history of a city unfolds before your eyes.

-One of the greatest performances I've ever seen involved the perpetual building and destruction of a wall, only that time the wall was made of old beer crates. That was from a theatre company Monster Truck from Essen, Germany, who I'm not sure are still making work. But if this is anything like that I'll be transfixed. No language in the show so I'm expecting it to be a piece of performance art that has power beyond words.

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Time Wise: the products of passion

In a previous post, Time Wise I described how a group of students here at ISB had set up their own youtube channel publishing short films. Well their passion has not faded and now they have created a short film which has shown they are still dedicated to teaching themselves about the film-making artform.

The piece, titled Fragmented, is the product of a year's hard work for the group. They conceived the idea, wrote the script, set up a filming schedule, sourced equipment, scouted for locations, directed, acted and filmed all on their own time and steam.

The film is an outstanding display of what students can achieve if they are passionate and committed and I couldn't be more proud of the students for sticking to their vision even when there were many times when they were faced with many challenges along their process and nothing but their own goals to keep them from quitting. And it can now be added to their digital portfolios as an example of what they are capable of.

In the Middle School here at ISB we are about to embark on a new part of our program- a daily Personal Learning block, in which students will have an opportunity to pursue passion projects such as this. For all of us, it's a very exciting prospect because we know that students are itching to create, commence and cultivate (see Tasneem Amijee who has already worked on a passion project at ISB and the group of grade 4's who ran their own theatre production here).

Once again, I'm proud of Sam Barnett, Ricky Maggioni and the other students involved in the film and I'm buzzing about seeing many more projects realised such as this from other ISB students in the future!

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Artist Toolbox: Activities for your final class

It's the end of the year and your classes have been together for a whole bucket of time. They know each other well by now and all that rapport you built up among them in the early days has paid off. But it's coming to an end. Next year will be a new cohort, a new dynamic to build all over again.

So here's a nice little class to sum things up with a couple of simple activities. The first, I found on dramaresource.com and is an Augusto Boal exercise called There Is Only One Liar:

A psychological but fun group dynamics game from Augusto Boal. There should be no talking until the exercise is over. The group sits or stands in a circle and closes their eyes. The leader tells them that one person will be selected by a tap on the shoulder. The leader walks around the whole circle, then asks the group to open their eyes. The group members must look around and try to guess who was chosen. They are asked to remember who they decided upon but not to reveal it at this point.

The game is repeated. When everybody has finished looking round, the leader asks them, on the count of three, without talking, to point at the person they thought was chosen the first time. Everybody points. Now, they do the same again for the second time.

Afterwards, members are asked what it was that led them to choose a particular person, for example, the facial expression that person had. Then, on a signal, they are asked to put up their hands if they were touched the first time. They discover that no one was touched the first time. They are asked to do the same for the second time. The group discover that they were all touched the second time. There is only one liar – the workshop leader!

It's a great activity for challenging assumptions, even (or especially) after a year of working together.

Following this, give each student two small pieces of paper. Ask them to write a fact about themselves on each piece. The facts could be things they think many classmates would know, or something they'd be less aware of. Fold the paper, stick it in a bowl and then one-by-one the leader reads out facts. The class must then vote for who they think the fact is about by pointing their finger. If the fact is about you then you can bluff by pointing elsewhere. Anyone who gets it right is awarded a point, which they keep track of by counting on their fingers.

It tests students' knowledge of each other and reminds them that there is much they still don't know. It's both a way to summarise the year and teach them a valuable lesson. In your last few lessons before the holiday, why not give this a try?!

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Performance is...

Performance is powerful.

Performance is engaged in current issues.

Performance is thought-provoking.

Performance is brave.

Performance is about us and our place in the world.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Theatre is not..., in which I discussed a poetry-slam project that some of my students were working on. Those poems have now been slammed and the results are awesome. Here are some of the poems that came out of it-

This is brave, passionate, thought-provoking Performance at its best.

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Embodying the spirit of our school

Without doubt, ISB has a fantastic culture within its grounds. Throughout the year there are hundreds of events organised which are exciting, creative, thoughtful, generous and educational. But fewer of those events are organised only by students. 

Today, I was honoured to be part of an event conceived, organised and run entirely by six Grade 4 students. This group of girls were inspired to create a production of Peter Pan which they wanted to present to their classmates during a future lunchtime. A lofty goal perhaps, one which may not ever reach fruition and just disappear with the lure of playtime...?

Me with the cast of Peter Pan! Such talented young ladies!!

...Not for these six! Independently, they collaboratively wrote a script (online using google docs in the evenings: see image below), learned the lines for multiple characters, used their lunchtimes and weekends to rehearse, promoted the show, sold tickets and popcorn and then performed in front of a full audience of 4th and 3rd graders. 

The group's google doc in which they collaboratively wrote the script, complete with casting, stage directions and props list

They demonstrated all of the skills that we at ISB are hoping to teach them- collaboration, using digital tools, presentation skills, initiative, drive, creativity and an awareness of their ability to make change. Did I mention that they did all of this to raise money for charity??!!! In their Grade 4 classes at the moment, they are learning about access to clean water in third-world countries, so they took this opportunity to take the money from their tickets and popcorn sales to give towards a charity drive for a latrine. 

As a teacher, it is times like this that keep you energised; seeing students assimilating learning into their own independent projects. I was delighted to be able to be able to witness the students deliver on their promise of this project. I also know that Mrs Diamant, one of the Grade 4 teachers, felt the same. After the show she said her eyes had been welling up as she sat in the audience. We both know we're privileged to teach students like these.

Carolina, Danae, Emilie, Tanya, Satsuki and Emily have made their parents, their teachers and ISB very proud today. They have demonstrated that with an idea, commitment and teamwork they can do anything they set their minds to. Like Peter Pan has always known, with just a simple thought in your mind... you can fly!!!

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Leaps Of Learning: A Living Art Gallery

A major leap of learning came for me in my first ever class at university; learning which has guided me ever since. It was my opening day studying Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Manchester Metropolitan University and perhaps the teacher thought it would be just a good class for starting off the course, yet the simple premise on which it was based has become a cornerstone in my understanding of drama, art and of life.

Our teacher presented a clear and simple task to the class- to go for a walk along a re-purposed canal path and to make some basic installations using just our bodies and some empty photo frames. For the first half of the session we walked along a mile section of the path, working in groups to select locations to make 'paintings' out of. Using the backgrounds of trees, fields, streams and bankings, we made little vignettes of a range of stories and images (things like Romeo & Juliet, The Creation Of Adam, a baby in the womb, a western shootout, etc) then held up the photo frame for the audience to view the picture through. For the second half, we walked back along the route, showing and viewing the images we had all created, as if moving through an art gallery filled with living paintings.

The Salt Line in Cheshire, UK

The ISB MS production of FRAMED in 2014, a devised piece in which we used empty 

picture frames as part of the performance.

All the time we were getting to know one another, tentatively testing out ideas and discovering the different personalities in the group. Apart from being a great way for our class to break the ice and begin building an ensemble, it taught me one of my most important lessons as an artist- that everyone and everything contains multitudes.

Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

-Walt Whitman 

A tree can be a plant but also a compilation or bark, wood, sap, leaves. It can be a mix of geometric shapes, a source of food, a habitat, a playground, a network of atoms. In the context of an audience's gaze it can be a Greek pillar, a wall to hide behind, a seat, its branches the cradling arms of a mother, its trunk the stoic body of a shunned lover.

At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise . . . 

-Albert Camus 

There is a multiplicity to the world and everything in it beyond the 'illusory meanings' which we give. Up until that point, my sense of this had been vague. I knew from my science lessons that at the same time as I was Carl- a person, I was also a human made of organs, blood, bone, but I was also a collection of cells, a network of atoms.

I am now more capable of seeing things through many different lenses, when I'm making art but also in life generally. On a most basic level to see something's form as well as its content, then after that it's possible to notice many other levels of semantics.

I wonder if that teacher knows of the impact her lesson had, far beyond helping me to get to know the colleagues on my course. I wonder if she expected that lesson to be recalled time and time again as I further my understanding of making art, of living. 

As a teacher myself now, it's remembering leaps of learning like this that remind me it is not necessarily our 'important' classes, the ones in which we 'really get stuck into the material', that are the most impacting. Sometimes a simple task, presented in a gentle, easy-going way, can have a huge impact on a student's learning.

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Theatre is not...

After reading the January 2016 edition (Provocative Theatre) of Scene, a monthly Journal from ISTA, I was reminded of my slightly more 'anarchic' days as a student and contemporary theatre maker, in particular by the words from Jess Thorpe in her contribution These bridges, these walls. Discussing the value of arts practice in the context of a prison, she reminds us that
"Theatre is not just about entertainment - although it is important to find enjoyment in it.
Theatre is not about showing-off - it takes a brave person to stand up in front of others.
Theatre is not a soft option - it requires a huge amount of hard work to create something authentic.
Theatre is not a treat - from the beginning of time humans have used creativity to respond to the world around them and to reflect their experiences. It is part of who we are."

When I reflect on the role of drama here at ISB, in a school community that is by most comparisons incredibly privileged, I am always asking myself 'What impact can art have on these students' lives?' and in turn 'How can these students have an impact through art on their community and the world in general?'

I feel very lucky as a teacher, to be given the freedom and respect to choose the content of my course and also have the flexibility to make plans based of the particular interests and requirements of each group. But I also feel a responsibility to these principles of theatre/art/performance/whatever, that the things we create to be shared with the world should have other values than just entertainment.

Myself, back when I was a high-schooler devising a piece called Charity with my local youth theatre; as a student learning about the Performance Art of Marina Abramovich, Ron Athey, Stelarc and others; studying Sarah Kane, Moisés Kaufman, Pina Bausch, Goat Island; and as a theatre-maker with our company Trace Theatre, I wore the mantra of 'changing the world through art' on my sleeve. I turned my back on all forms of theatre that were escapist, masturbatory, money-grabbing or any other derogatory definition I would give and became passionate only about performance that was socially and politically engaged.

A little older and little more experienced I have since broadened my terms of validity in the art world, but I still long to see and make work that has impact. Now, I have a responsibility to make work with my students that is engaging and catches the student's attention for longer than a single 40-minute block. At the same time, it is our duty as conscientious citizens of our community (/communities) to make art that is not just for entertainment
is not stagnant or stifled
is not pretentious or entitled
is empowering, determined, passionate, considerate
is aware of and designed for the wider communities than just the drama classroom



In one of my classes right now, we are working on writing and performing Slam Poetry. It's not traditionally something you might encounter in a Drama class (but is more likely to appear in a class entitled Performance Works) and at first students were hesitant to jump into the topic. Can't we do a script? Can't we play more games? Poetry, seriously? - were some of the initial reactions to the idea. Yet, after a class chatting openly about what the students are passionate about, what angers them, what they would change in the world, etc, they eventually all warmed up to the idea.

We began the project by writing down their thoughts ('the writing's on the wall' in this case). I felt that the students were not just paying lip-service for an assessment criteria or other such nonsense, with the contributions they made to the conversation. They were genuinely passionate about the topics they suggested, as well as being reasonably well-informed about the initial arguments they might have on such subjects.

The poems the students are creating are powerful, brave, passionate and thought-provoking. Our plan is to film the Slams and share them with as many people as we can, because we believe that their work is important and should be heard. 

For the rebellious, often idealistic, mind of a teenager the thought of changing the world is not inconceivable. It is only older, with more defeats under our belts, perhaps, that many of us become more weary, more cynical.

Reading this edition of Scene and working with my students has shaken me up again, filled my energy tank with some fuel and once over reminded me of the power of art and performance.

As educators, if we can help students find their voices they will show us that are not afraid to use them; for making noise, for disrupting the peace, for speaking out.

We should look more to the passion and energy of the young. We should remind ourselves that art is not disappearing, it is not insignificant and neither are we.

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Making + Sharing

HS and MS students collaborating on a devising project with Action Hero

Of course, Making is central to a Performance course. Long gone are the sterile times of Theatre Studies, where a script is poured over again and again by students, to divine some great meaning from it. Furthermore, I'm an advocate for the messy exploration and discovery of Devising. The best drama classes bring Making to the fore-front, pushing ahead of the passive, reproductive presentation of ancient texts. Students are not practicing being actors (with a single mindset of one day going into the acting profession) but performance-makers and self-expressors, tasked with creating all aspects of the rehearsal/production process. 

In answer to the questions posed by Ashley Bayles and Ben Doxdator's post But is it making?, in my pedagogy I highly value lots of the elements of the chart, some on both sides. As Will Vreugdenhil pointed out in Making PE Better there are skills and techniques to be learnt from teacher-led instruction and student reproduction, the same is true for Performance class. 

Gemma Paintin from Action Hero devising with ISB students

It's hard to pick a single element out and raise it higher than the rest; so many are intertwined. However, if you were to hold a keyboard (or a gun) to my head, I'd be forced to pick 'Learning with head, heart & hands equally valued'. The head has to combine all the generated material that the heart has dreamed of then the body has created.This principle is core to Performance, and Art in general and encapsulates many of the key-skills that I think are improved by studying the subject.

Art involves the mind, the body and the soul, in both the creation and reception of it.

As we strive to move more towards the right side of this chart I look forward to the idea of Making bouncing around between more people's ears. But at the same time as we concentrate on Making, here at ISB and elsewhere, we are shifting much more into Making + Sharing. There will be times when our work remains personal and private, but increasingly we are asking our students to share their work online, to broadcast, perform and present in digital and physical spaces.

I am excited for Performance (performing in all it's forms including broadcasting and public speaking) to become even more embedded across all aspects of education, not just in the drama classroom. For us as teachers, its an opportunity to combine our understandings of Maker, Performer, Audience and Format as we blend disciplines and subjects together into a vision of education which more closely resembles real life. 

The beautiful chaos of making performance

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21st Century Skills From Devising

Drama matters, now as much as ever, and devising is a particularly important and powerful part of the subject. In a recent post, my colleague Alan and I talked about why Drama = Life and here I want to expand on how devising supports this. If you're not sure what devising is, or want to her some of my take on it, then I have a blog post on it here: Devising: My Favourite Definitions.

This is also in response to the blog post 21st Century Skills In The Drama Classroom
written by Lindsay Price on the fantastic Theatrefolk blog.

The Four E's

Exploration

Pic: Frantic Assembly- Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime
(words by me)

Without the relative safety of a script guiding the rehearsal process, students find themselves exploring the realms of uncertainty. Devising provides us an opportunity to develop ideas without a predefined understanding of the final performance. We can discover surprising, new ideas and themes as we go, enjoying the ever-shifting nature of the process.

There is no script for life. Unexpected events happen all the time and having a positive, open-minded approach to the unknown is important to develop.

Egality

Pic: Forced Entertainment- The Last Adventures
(words by me)

With the strict roles of playwright/director/actor/crew and their associated hierarchies becoming challenged more and more in the performing arts, we find ourselves in a field were many people can be many things. Dancers make the costumes and have an influence over the content of their work. Performers have written their own scripts and created the video trailers to promote their shows.   

The best devising promotes collaboration in a more egalitarian hierarchies. By using the right strategies and methodologies , everyone involved can have an influence on the process, production and performance of their work. 

Expression

Pic: Tanztheater Wuppertal - Vollmond
(words by me)

Performance has always been about self-expression but devising puts it at the heart of the creative process; importantly, for everyone not just the writer and director. Devising harnesses the makers personal stories, thoughts, skills and ideas and embeds them into the art. 

Experimentation

Pic: Cupola Bobber- The Field, The Mantel
(words by me)

Without a script acting as road-map, without a single vision from a director, and with a wealth of stories and ideas to rub together, experimentation is the engine through which sparks of inspiration are developed into final material. Innovators are supported by their other collaborators, who are in turn innovating themselves. Together they can dabble or dive into all manner of disciplines, styles and techniques during the course of any given process.

If Performance is the body of the theatrical art forms, then for me devising is its soul. It has been the method by which many great contemporary performance companies have made their work. Personally, it forms the core of both my artistic and teaching practices and continues to accompany me through my life.

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Devising: my favourite definitions

Devising, as a concept, is a tricky thing to pin down. Companies that devise and academics often talk in loose terms about how devising works. Alison Oddey, in her book Devising Theatre introduced it saying that "devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes, or specific stimuli that might include music, text, objects, paintings, or movement. A devised theatrical performance originates with the group while making the performance, rather than starting from a play text that someone else has written to be interpreted."

For me, as an artist and a teacher, there are three companies that have majorly influenced my understanding of devising. Goat Island and Forced Ents both have excellent resources and books which I recommend as great reading if wanting to know more about devising.

Goat Island

Unfortunately Goat island stopped making work in 2007, and their resources might be tough to get your hands on, but their little Schoolbook 2 described their process wonderfully. Replace the words Goat Island with your own class or group and this methodology can be something to aim for.

Forced Entertainment

Tim Etchells eloquently describes the process of Forced Entertainment, in his book Certain Fragments. 

Trace Theatre

This one's a bit different, in that it was a company I co-founded with four friends. We worked together for four years before heading off on our separate ways, but in this time we developed our own practice of devising; a methodology which still guides me today.

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Drama = Life: Why Drama Matters

the thoughts of two drama teachers...

Carl: In the electric blue-white glow of the computer screen, I take a look at my hands. Since the IT and typing lessons of my teenage schooling years, they have learned many new skills; how to manipulate the letters of a keyboard to create words, how to slide a mouse across the desk to control a tiny arrow, how to swipe and pinch and scroll and tap. These skills have changed my life, and allowed me to keep up with the changing world.

In the same light, I examine them more closely and I see that they have been learning other things also. My education in Drama has taught them things that no electronic machine could; they have learned how to gently handle another person's head while my ensemble carries their body as part of a team-building task, how to catch a person who has trusted me when they are falling, how to tremble and shudder and glide when I dance, how to hold tension when I want to have presence, how to stay still by my side when I am nervous.

I turn off the screen; it becomes a black mirror in which I study my face. My fingertips massage my eye sockets. These eyes, which are temporarily fatigued from staring at the vast landscape of the Web, have in other times seen such beauty on the stage. From the raw emotion of Pina Bausch's dances to the vivid compositions of Robert Wilson, from the sarcastic commentary of Forced Entertainment to the simple companionship of Cupola Bobber, my eyes have seen performances which have impacted my thoughts and my heart.

Drama matters to me, more than any other subject I have studied, because it has had the greatest impact on the skills and knowledge that I use on a daily basis and this is not just because I am a drama teacher. When I used to work in retail and when I worked in elderly care, it was the skills I had gained through Drama that were of most value to me, like understanding the power of eye-contact and being able to keep myself composed even when I was nervous. For me it was these that were the tools which helped me be successful in employment and in life.

I remember my job interviews as a recent graduate and thinking to myself- It's just another performance. Harness your nerves, just like before a show. And I got through them and for the most part I was successful in finding work. Not due the fact that I had a drama degree, but due to the communication skills and creativity I had developed during those studies. Drama also taught me to see the world and people in different ways, to have compassion and to understand that I had the capacity to make an impact.

Alan:

1970, Forest Hills Elementary School, Burlington North Carolina.

Margie Frye and her classmates performed a play using the song “The Age of Aquarius”....the moment changed my life.  I was 6 years old, watching a play at school and can still remember to this day how beautiful and impactful it was.  I was a small boy, in a very small town Southern town, and after seeing that performance I realized that the world could be beautiful and magical.  That’s why I think drama matters.  Drama matters because it allows people to dream.  It encourages thought and beauty.  It matters because it can make people think, question, feel, laugh, and cry.  Each day we become a little more enclosed in our own capsule of technology.  Theatre connects people; the cast and crew connect during the process, the audience connect with each other during the performance.  Having a shared community experience is becoming more and more important, and more and more impactful.  Ten years ago, I thought that theatre was beginning to lose its impact.  Now, I think it’s becoming more and more important.  

I truly believe the skills one develops in theatre make one a more well-rounded individual.  Theatre teaches you to be aware of the things and people around you.  I like that when my classes enter the room each day; I can quickly scan their body language, facial expressions, and energy and know how they are feeling.  I then like the fact that I feel comfortable enough, if they are having a bad day, to go over to one of them and give them a little more energy or focus.  Working in and teaching theatre taught me those skills.

The skills one develops while engaging in drama can be life changing, and to me, that’s what matters most.  Below are some core skills that employers have stated they are looking for in prospective employees.

Core Skills Most Sought After By 21st Century Employers

•  Communications Skills (listening, verbal, written). By far, the one skill mentioned most often by employers is the ability to listen, write, and speak effectively. Successful communication is critical in business.
• Analytical/Research Skills. Deals with your ability to assess a situation, seek multiple perspectives, gather more information if necessary, and identify key issues that need to be addressed. .
•  Computer/Technical Literacy. Almost all jobs now require some basic understanding of computer hardware and software, especially word processing, spreadsheets, and email.
• Flexibility/Adaptability/Managing Multiple Priorities. Deals with your ability to manage multiple assignments and tasks, set priorities, and adapt to changing conditions and work assignments.
•  Interpersonal Abilities. The ability to relate to your co-workers, inspire others to participate, and mitigate conflict with co-workers is essential given the amount of time spent at work each day.
• Leadership/Management Skills. While there is some debate about whether leadership is something people are born with, these skills deal with your ability to take charge and manage and interact/cooperate with your co-workers.
• Multicultural Sensitivity/Awareness. There is possibly no bigger issue in the workplace than diversity, and job-seekers must demonstrate a sensitivity and awareness to other people and cultures.
• Planning/Organizing. Deals with your ability to design, plan, organize, and implement projects and tasks within an allotted timeframe. Also involves goal-setting.
•  Problem-Solving/Reasoning/Creativity. Involves the ability to find solutions to problems using your creativity, reasoning, and past experiences along with the available information and resources.
• Teamwork. Because so many jobs involve working in one or more work-groups, you must have the ability to work with others in a professional manner while attempting to achieve a common goal.

[1] Source: www.quintcareers.com. Adapted from: What Do Employers Really Want? Top Skills and Values Employers Seek from Job-Seekers by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., and Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

Carl and Alan: Now we find ourselves responsible for teaching those skills to our students, that we in turn use so often. As teachers we are tasked with ensuring that they are prepared for a career in the modern world, in whichever field or fields they may choose to be in.

We are privileged that our school acknowledges the value of Drama and gives us the time, resources and support to help our students grow. As an example of our school’s belief in the power of the subject, we recently hosted a special event focused on preparing students for the rapidly changing world they are faced with. Alongside the other ‘zones’ of study that you would expect in a future-focused day of workshops (designing with robotics, learning the basics of coding, 3D printing and laser cutting), expression was also one of the key areas of focus. Our management have realised that not only do students need to be at the cutting-edge of technology, but they also need the communication skills to be able to articulate and present their ideas. They need to be able to work within a team and creatively solve problems. These are essential skills, not something that we can afford to put on the sidelines.

As a student recently put it to us, following her first ever performance, “without Drama I probably wouldn’t have realised that my voice could be as loud as other people’s”. There is no doubt that the chance to work within an ensemble, towards a performance in front of an audience, has had a big impact on that student. She has gained skills that will one day help her to get her dream job, just as those skills once did for us.

But more importantly than that, she has grown as a person and has found another way to express herself. At the end of the year, or after a performance, students often write to express their gratitude for being a part of the class or ensemble. They often say how the experience was the time when they felt the most comfortable as themselves or how they discovered that they can have an impact on the world. Although employment is of course important, it is this that makes Drama really matter.

Thanks to Alan Hayes for collaborating with me on this post and for being a fantastic mentor and colleague.

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