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CHAPTER ONE: LIVING THROUGH DRAMA Gavin Bolton In his Introduction to a collection of Boltons essential writings Davis summarises Bolton’s life-long concerns as defining “the relationship of drama to play; the cognitive/affective nature of the experience; the relationship of children’s play, dramatic playing and theatre; and helping children to understand the social world around them and their relationship to it”.’”! Bolton defines his own work as “a re-interpretation of Heathcote’s methodology that has taken ‘Living through’ Drama in a direction never intended by her and perhaps, from her point of view, off-target, if not misguided”.’” One of the crucial elements of Bolton’s work is related to the nature of the ‘being’, the quality of living through that his drama aims for. I will examine two of his lesson plans to try and find the connections and dissimilarities with Heathcote’s work. One of the lessons is a drama based on Arthur Miller’s The Crucible investigating the witch hunt of Salem with adolescents or trainee teachers, the other one is about the nativity for six-seven year old children. Crisis and Awe Bolton’s Crucible drama develops into a central scene in which the seventeenth century puritan community is confronted by their priest who found out that some of the teenagers from the village had been dancing naked in the forest. The whole group improvisation in the church evolves into offering the adolescents of the village the power of pointing at anyone to blame them for luring them into this ‘sin. The unfolding crisis links many social and individual elements together. On the one hand, there is the generational aspect, children can decide about the fate of adults. This also becomes a political question, people who were powerless suddenly come to decide about others’ lives and death. Manipulation also plays an important role in the situation, not only among the teenagers, but also on behalf of the Priest and the parents. The possibility of this breaking into hysteria is almost programmed into the conditions. There is a strong ideological element as well in the situation, opening questions about the contradictions of faith and belief. Bolton explains that he looked for a “pivotal scene which would portray the period, while at the same time capturing the sense of potential power over parents lying within the hands of their off-springs”.’”? The richness of problems encoded within this situation is especially important because the participants of the drama have to deal with them 21 David Davis: Introduction, in David Davis (ed.) Gavin Bolton: The Essential Writings, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2010, xv. 2 Bolton: Acting in Classroom Drama, 217. 13 Bolton: Acting Classroom Drama, 222. +36 +
