Developing role
Developing a role through process drama
The heart of process drama is engagement with an imagined world. In this form of drama, students develop and play roles that are not intended for public performance. Students may play more than one role in the process drama, enabling them to explore situations from more than one point of view. They may also develop one role in depth. By exploring the history of a character, they can understand (and enact) how that character might behave in a particular situation.
Image 8, poster 2
Teachers may also take on roles in process drama. The convention of teacher in role is an effective dramatic and teaching strategy. When in role with their students, the teacher can use the role to create tension. They can also model suspension of disbelief and the use of drama techniques (voice, use of body, and movement) to show character.
Teachers can use the convention of teacher in role to change their usual classroom status from controller of the action to that of a participant in the action or an observer. This can be a challenging but rewarding experience for teachers. While in role, you are able to watch your students and see how committed they are to their own roles. When the teacher is in role, it gives students opportunities to take leadership roles in the drama and to make key decisions for themselves. It also shows students how you value the process and are committed to it.
In an adaptation of the drama Evacuation, developed by Joss Bennathan, a year 9 teacher worked with a class of twenty-eight students to create the roles of children evacuated from London during the Second World War and of their Scottish billet families. During one term of drama, the class had been difficult to focus and manage.
In an extension to the initial drama, the students in role were asked to organise a church picnic to bring the evacuated children together for the first time since they had arrived in the village. The setting was to be the grounds of the village manor house.
The teacher allocated a series of tasks to different groups of students. Students in role as adults prepared a morning tea, planned games for the children, and organised the space for the picnic. With “adult” supervision, the other students in role as the evacuated children prepared items to perform at the picnic.
During whole-class improvisation of the picnic, students in role as the local laird and priest played host. The teacher took on the role of a photographer for the village weekly news. The teacher was able to move among the students, observing their work in role and taking photographs, which were later used in a reflection task.
Control was effectively handed to the students, and the class worked independently, in a focused and sustained manner, on their thirty-minute improvisation.
For sources of units of work suitable for secondary students, go to the Resources section for poster 2.