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THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT AND A CRITIQUE OF LIVING THROUGH DRAMA
variety of sources may be introduced to be interrogated. It’s an active, urgent,
purposeful view of learning in which knowledge is to be operated on, not merely
to be taken in."
Heathcote defines MoE as "an approach to the whole curriculum""" where
learning science, maths, language, etc. can be incorporate into and motivated
by the fictional context. While Heathcote states that there is no real difference
between the two phases of her work,'”” Bolton makes distinctions between
the Heathcote’s Man in Mess and MoE periods.’ While the similarity in
techniques and forms used is apparent, the frame of being an ‘expert’
creates a distance from the problems engaged in. As discussed in the section
on the types of crises encountered in Heathcote’s LTD, the crisis in MoE
is affecting the other or the company itself, but the participants have to
understand it and deal with it in a professional manner. Distancing does not
have to mean less emotional impact, but it is a different mode of engaging with
the crisis. Davis sees the main shift in how the drama enhances the evaluation
of the participants’ principles, he sees the “lack of questioning the values in
the social context as the inherent weakness in the MOE method”.’”
The conventions approach is defined by Neelands as “a ‘laboratory theatre’
approach in which some aspect of human behaviour or experience is isolated
and selected for close exploration”.18 The conventions, the forms used in this
approach were presented in Structuring Drama Work. This describes different
conventions that can be used to build a drama lesson, varying from small
group scene making to ‘role on the wall’, the description of a character written
onto the silhouette on paper. They include strategies used in LTD like teacher¬
in-role and also ones “from post-naturalist theatres — alter-egos, Brechtian
devices, forum theatre”,!#! says Neelands. The book breaks up the conventions
into four categories, context building, narrative, poetic and reflective, many
of them, especially the reflective ones rely strongly on distancing, stepping
out of the fictions. Neelands claims that the forms described in his book
“shared in the mission to democratise drama teaching by identifying and
describing the common techniques and conventions used by great but often
mysterious drama educators”.!* Davis argues that the impact of offering just
15 Maria Gee: The contribution of drama, in Martin Fautley — Richard Hatcher — Elaine
Millard (eds.): Remaking the Curriculum: Re-engaging young people in secondary school,
Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2011, 20.
Heathcote-Bolton: Drama for learning, 16.
Davis: Dorothy Heathcote interviewed; Bethlenfalvy: A legtöbb gyerek nem tudja.
Bolton: Acting in Classroom Drama.
Davis: Imagining the Real, 58.
Neelands: Beginning drama, 64.
Ibid.
Jonothan Neelands: Prologue, in Peter O’Connor (ed.): Creating Democratic Citizenship
Through Drama Education, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2010, xvii.
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