Presenting
At levels 1–3, students will most frequently present their work in role informally to their own class for feedback that encourages them to refine their work.
Reflecting on and talking about being in role is an essential part of giving students an understanding of how drama works. The images on this and the other posters provide students with starting points for considering some of the following questions:
- How do we know when people are in role?
- What signals do people use to show when they are in role?
- What kinds of things do we need to consider when we work in role?
- What structures do we use to improvise and present in role?
Viewing themselves and others in role helps this learning process. It may sometimes be appropriate to give the students’ drama work a more formal presentation or performance, for example, presenting it at assembly or as part of a larger scale production.
Presenting in role to an audience gives students a further chance to discuss their own and others’ work and to evaluate their learning in drama.
The following images on poster 1 show students presenting either formally or informally.
Image 3
Image 3 shows a child in role in a drama called Pandora’s Box. (See Playing Our Stories, pages 46–49.) The convention being used is circular drama. The girl, a member of Pandora’s family, shows her displeasure that Pandora could consider opening the box that Zeus has left in her care. The feelings of this role are made clear through the way the student is using her body and face (and also her voice). She is presenting her role informally within a process drama, and the other participants in the drama have to “read” her role and respond to it.
Image 5
Image 5 shows a child in role as a caterpillar in a Ready to Read play (A Cardboard Box) adapted from an East African folk tale. The teacher has integrated art and drama by having the students make masks for the different roles and create a simple set to help establish the drama space.
Image 6
Image 6, poster 1
In image 6, the two pirate girls are having a whispered conversation about the identity of the innocuous-looking cook in the background. When working with School Journal plays, such as “Fearsome Fizmo” (School Journal, part 2, number 4, 2003), class teachers might like to consider having the children present to an audience of peers from another class, after sharing feedback in their own class to refine and add to their initial improvised ideas. Simple costuming, as in the image, could be added for the final presentation.
Image 7
Image 7 is from the film Whalerider. It provides an opportunity for students to consider the performance of Keisha Castle-Hughes – how she presents the inner thoughts and feelings of her character, Pai, and how she sustains an intense emotional episode (her speech at the school performance, without the hoped-for presence of her beloved Koro). Pai is a role significantly different from the actress’s own background and experiences. This image also provides a starting point for considering how film performance differs from live performance.
The level 4 exemplar The Orphan Train shows development of a role with a past and future and with characteristics different to those of the students, within a classroom setting.
Image 8
Image 8 shows the teacher in role presenting her character for students to “read” and respond to from within their roles. See Telling Our Stories pages 41–47 and the accompanying video. For more information see the key information section for poster 3.
Image 10
Image 10 shows two students presenting in role in a more formal setting (a media interview), where costume has been used to enhance the roles they are taking on. (Costume is generally not necessary in classroom drama and can sometimes be distracting and detract from the students’ ability to present their role with ease.)
Image 11
In image 11, the students present a significant moment in the drama as a freeze frame. The other students as audience direct and guide this process.