Oldal 54 [54]
OCR
BEING IN THE SITUATION — THREE RE-INTERPRETATIONS OF LTD responsibility for creating the fiction, Bolton and Davis used different forms to build towards the improvisations. Making it possible for participants to see their problems resonate in the stories was an important part of the structures. Interestingly, the awareness of creating theatre seemed to enhance being in the improvisations as well. Heathcote built belief in the fiction by moving the narrative from imagining it to enacting it, relying on the senses in the process, but also developing an awareness of “guards signalling power”. The two together helped the boys in the Stool Pigeon drama to be in the situation. Bolton relies in these examples on an awareness of the ‘as if’ of drama, and also on a consciousness of signs and meaning, while O’Neill uses different modes of spectatorship besides other forms to create a sense of theatre. Davis offers participants the aim and the devices to use drama as a form of meaning making, first as part of creating a scene, but then using the same elements in their improvisation. The drama lessons examined here did not aim to resolve the situation, or solve the problems brought up in them, which also reflects a theatre based approach. The notion of ‘making a play’ rather than simply playing offers great freedom in the use of theatre devices from Bond’s work in my research. The question of how to enhance this awareness of making theatre, what tools to use to create these possibilities, and how explicitly to do it are important questions explored in my research. UNDERSTANDING CREATED: The analysis of different approaches to reflection shows that creating metaxis rather than self-spectatorship seems closer to the aims Bond pursues in his work, due to the distancing aspect of the latter. Davis explains that in self-spectatorship the introspection is in two stages: “I do something and I am monitoring what I do”.’”! He states that he aims for metaxis in his work, because “the implication of being in two states at the same time [...] enables the two states to be fought out internally”.’” Self-spectatorship can imply a more rational and often verbal reflection, as seen in The Dreamer, while this is not the case with metaxis. The nature of the understanding aimed for and the length of improvisations are connected. As I have been examining written description of lessons it is not clear how long the ‘being’ continues in the different examples. I have quoted Bolton noting Heathcote’s distrust of leaving participants to “improvisational playmaking beyond five minutes”,!# while the improvisation in the Crucible drama is planned as an extended one, including breaking up into small groups as families within the same process. Davis and O’Neill also rely on longer improvisations. This approach seems closer to my aims. 170 Bolton: Acting in Classroom Drama, 221. Davis: Imagining the Real, 52. 172 Ibid. 173 Bolton: Acting in Classroom Drama, 180. 171 +53»
