Drama convention – Developing role
In drama, teachers and students make a careful selection of conventions with the purpose of structuring the drama for meaning. Many of these conventions help to build belief in the drama and in the participants’ roles.
This page details drama conventions that can be used to develop role including:
- Whole-group role play
- Blanket role
- Mantle of the expert
- Found objects
- Role on the wall
- Hot seating
- Circular role
- Collective character
Whole-group role play
Images 1, 3, 9
In this convention, all the participants are in role together in an imagined setting and at the same time. The drama is unscripted and improvised. The participants shape the drama as it is in progress. This convention can be particularly effective when the teacher works within the action alongside the students. During whole-group role play, students frequently take on blanket roles alongside the teacher in role. Images 1, 3, and 9 show whole-group role-play contexts with different teaching purposes.
Blanket role
Students taking part in classroom drama at levels 1–3 will often take on a group or blanket role, particularly in the context of whole-group role-play. In blanket role, all the participants take on the same role, for example, as villagers, visiting experts, and so on. Blanket roles are a non-threatening introduction to drama work for younger students. Working collectively to develop ideas can boost the students’ confidence and give them positive experiences to build on.
Mantle of the expert
Image 1
In this convention, members of the group take on roles endowed with specialist knowledge relevant to the drama context. In image 1, the students are scientists and historians with expertise on aspects of late-nineteenth-century coal mining on the West Coast of New Zealand. In these roles, they provide information and advice to the teacher in role as the curator of a West Coast museum. To read more about this convention in the context of a process drama, see poster 3 using conventions in process drama: The miner’s wedding.
Found objects
Image 1
In this convention, the drama is inspired by objects that students find within their environment. These objects suggest a particular role and situation in the drama.
In image 1, the students in role as scientists and historians examine a glove and other objects in order to develop the role of the person who once owned the objects. Focusing on these objects, the students and teacher together negotiate and draw conclusions about this central role.
This convention is covered in some depth in the level 3 drama exemplar The Lost Bag (image 2 on poster 1).
Role on the wall
Image 2
In this convention, an important character is represented in outline “on the wall” (usually on a large piece of paper) and labelled by the participants with words or phrases which describe the character both physically and emotionally. The group of participants can revisit the information as the drama progresses to reflect new understanding.
In image 2, the students are creating the role of a runaway called Sarah, who left her bag on a beach. Inside the bag are a number of clues about Sarah and her reasons for running away, including a diary, a letter, a compact disc, and other personal belongings.
The students use the role-on-the-wall convention to deepen their understanding of and belief in the character of Sarah before working more directly with that role. As the drama unfolds and more information is revealed, they return to the role on the wall to add the new information.
Hot seating
Image 10 poster 1, image 6 poster 3
In hot seating, members of a group question or interview someone in role (for example, as a character in a process drama or as a person from history) to elicit information and ideas about, and attitudes towards, the role.
Hot seating can be a very effective way to establish a range of perspectives on an as yet unseen role. For example, in the drama about the lost bag, the students hot seated Sarah’s parents and other significant people in her life.
Circular role
This is a useful strategy for teachers who have not used teacher in role before. In this convention, groups of students choose roles as particular characters. The teacher in role as a central character improvises with each group in turn, linking the characters and getting a variety of responses to a common concern. For an example of circular role, see pages 35–38 of Playing Our Stories.
Collective character
In this convention, a group of students improvise a single character; any one of the students can speak as that character. This convention also allows a large group to be involved in creating a dialogue, in which two subgroups take responsibility for two separate characters talking together. For an example of collective character, see the level 3 exemplar Gargoyles.