Oldal 17 [17]
INTRODUCTION
The conventions offered in Structuring Drama Work are based on forms
derived from theatre practices, but these forms are decontextualized and
made independent from the complex theories they were rooted in. Their
instrumentalisation in practice had made me feel that the interconnection
of content, underlying structures and form that creates good drama was
missing from the school of drama in education I was educated in. Finding new
possibilities of creating drama lessons more complexly connected to the art
form could offer important avenues for the whole field of drama education.
It took some time and new impulses for me to realise that even though I had
learnt drama in education from the best teacher in Hungary at the time, there
were many other ways of engaging in this exceptional artistic-educational
form; and that a theoretical rather than a methodological approach would
help in experimenting with drama and making it mean more both to myself
and the participants.
I remember being surprised by the complexity of the practice of Neelands
when I attended his full day workshops in Austria; I went back next
day when he was devising a process drama on his feet and that was even
better. Then meeting and working with Big Brum Theatre in Education
Company and understanding the work they had done with Edward Bond was
decisive in determining the direction I was interested in exploring further.
The seriousness of the problems presented to young people and the forms
offered to let them engage with those dilemmas through situations fascinated
me. The two fundamental elements of this research — Living Through
Drama and the Bondian approach — were and are constantly referred to and
experimented with in Big Brum’s theatre in education work. However, it was
Davis’s”* proposal and experiment to connect the two fields that led me to
develop my own action research.
I see the uniqueness of the Bondian approach in how it opens gaps for
the audience in which culturally set explanations need to be questioned.
As Bond’s theory and practice is created for theatre, adapting it to participatory
drama lessons is an exciting task. I see the power of Living Through Drama in
the extent it takes the participants seriously, not only in the problems, events
it engages in, but also the responsibility shared with the group in creating
the drama.
I wanted to explore the possibility of incorporating Bond’s theory and
practice into drama lessons based on a living through approach. The links
between the two have been highlighted by many” and there has been important
24 David Davis: Edward Bond and Drama in Education, in David Davis (ed.): Edward Bond and
the Dramatic Child, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2005.
°5 Konstantinos Amoiropoulos: BALANCING GAPS: An investigation of Edward Bond’s theory
and practice for drama, Ph.D. Thesis, Birmingham City University, 2013; Chris Cooper:
The Imagination in Action: Theatre in Education and its relationship to Drama in Education
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