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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 teacherin-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. 176 177 178 179 18 Ss 18 182 +.55 s
