Introducing the context

The teacher presents the photograph of the miner’s wedding for investigation.

The students study the photograph in small groups and develop questions to ask about the photograph.

Each group records its questions on strips of paper for the whole class to consider.

Resources

Give one copy of the pretext photograph to each group.

Questions

• What is happening? Who is involved?
• Where and when might this be happening?
• What might have happened to create this? What might happen next?
• “I wonder why they have chosen to have their wedding photos taken there?”

Key ideas

A mining community – isolated, small, close-knit. A rural context. A basic lifestyle …

Further discussion and research are possible.

Building the community

Collective drawing/mapping

Brainstorm what buildings and activities might be found in a small mining community at the identified time, for example, a general store, stables, the police.

Agree on a setting and map the town, placing key structures and identifying geographic points.

Name the village appropriately.

Decide on symbols and signs that reflect the village and the people.

Questions

• What would people need in order to survive in such circumstances?
• How might the community be organised?
• What buildings would there be in the community?

Consider names that reflect the local environment and economy or the local community.

Building roles

Brainstorm what roles might be found in the village: “A number of other photos of this community have recently been found, showing the types of things that happened there …”.

Freeze frame

In small groups, create a freeze frame showing the people in the community. Label each freeze frame with a title, for example, “the miners at work”.

Responding to the freeze frames

The audience “reads” (identifies) what the roles are in each freeze-frame image and discusses what the people in the community are doing.

(The students could extend their freeze frames by using the conventions of thought-tapping and overheard conversations.)

Questions

(Refer back to the pretext photograph.)

• Who might this person be? What might they do in the village?
• Who might live in such a community?
• What might life be like? What family groups might there be?
• What are the differences between men’s and women’s roles in this community?

Building role and community

Discuss what happens at a wedding. Establish the context of the wedding.

Whole-group tableau

With the students, negotiate and organise the drama space, moving furniture if necessary. Place the bride and groom in the tableau, then have other roles enter the space one at a time and freeze in an action.

Overheard conversations

Within the tableau, groups of four to five students have an improvised conversation about the wedding and/or the community (five minutes for improvisation/five minutes to rehearse).

Questions

“What might the venue be for the miner’s wedding celebration? A miners’ club? Someone’s home? …”

Provide an introductory narrative about the wedding to bring the scene to life.

Move around the tableau, overhearing what conversations are happening at the wedding or enter the tableau (teacher in role) as a latecomer, moving around and eavesdropping on each group.

Reflection question

What new things did we learn about the community?

At this stage, a dance unit suited to the period of the drama could be taught to the group.

Building community history: artefacts

Tell the students that the time has shifted to today:

“Our roles have shifted, too – you are now experts in local history and technological developments. I’m a museum curator responsible for donated items and materials originating from the miner’s village.”

Mantle of the expert

Students in the role as experts interpret selected artefacts, giving details of how these would be used and of their place in the history of the community. The teacher in role records this information.

Model the process for the class with a few objects, then ask the students to work in small groups, looking at a few objects and sharing ideas, before addressing their information to the class.

Integrated work

The students could use their “expert” role notes to write a formal report as part of their English programme.

The dilemma

Tell the students they are going back in time again, not to when the photograph was taken but to the community ten years on.

Set the space up appropriately for a meeting and call the community. In role as a postal messenger, deliver urgent news about the outbreak of war.

Choose two or three appropriate roles, for example, the bride or the groom ten years on, and ask the students to investigate how each role might have reacted to the news.

Voices in the head

One student represents a character who has just heard about the outbreak of war, and the rest of the group speak aloud the thoughts that might be in the head of that character.

Conscience alley

A group of students investigate the decision-making process for one of the miners (another student), who must decide whether to go to the war.

Hot seating, one year later

The same roles investigated above are hot seated to find out their reactions now.

Writing in role

Using the information gathered by the hot seating, the students (in role as the people left in the village) write to the soldiers at the front. The villagers’ letters are distributed randomly to students in role as soldiers in the trenches. They read and reply to the letters, describing what life in the trenches is like.

Questions

What might have changed:

• for the community?
• for the mine?
• for the individuals we learned about, especially the bride and groom who got married ten years ago?

Resources

Use a visual at this point, for example, a poster recruiting volunteers for the war effort.

No distinct roles for the interviewers.

Consider how you might seat those being interviewed, for example, the groom might be placed at some distance to show that he is away at the war.

Reflection: a memorial statue for the community

Shift the time again to present-day New Zealand and a reunion for the descendants of the families who lived in this now deserted community. The descendants wish to erect a commemorative statue to represent what happened at this place and what they feel was important about the community.

In groups, the students make commemorative statues and a plaque (label) bearing a simple statement about the community.

Integrated work

As part of the English programme, photograph the statues and write a newspaper report about the reunion that includes quotes from the community.