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CHAPTER ONE: LIVING THROUGH DRAMA
forms without guidance or theory in structuring them "has inadvertently led
to this bits and pieces approach to teaching drama for a whole generation of
students”.'# In his latest book Davis points at drama being represented in
a number of policy documents and curricula by just a few of these conventions
rather than anything related to many of the complex artistic and educational
forms that are part of a developed drama education practice.’** Fleming
expresses similar concerns regarding the use of some conventions.
Thought tracking can be overused. [...] It can easily become anti-theatre.
Because theatre works through external actions and that is the beauty of theatre.
I know there is soliloquy, that is one form that can be said to employ a form of
thought tracking. But thought tracking became universal in drama lessons — in
my experience — everyone was expressing their thoughts. But one of the points
of drama is that the reason the actions get depth is that we don’t hear the inner
thoughts."
In the same interview he recounts taking a visitor to Dorothy Heathcote “and
at one point she said ‘I hate hot seating, it is not at all the subtle thing it
should be.’ I think she was commenting on the conventions approach when
it is used too mechanically”!** explains Fleming. Concentrating on just
the forms of dramatic engagement, as is the case with the conventions, can
easily lead to disassociation of form and content, there being no recognition
of the interdependence between the two. The forms can also be used in
completely decontextualized manner, losing one of the central aspects of
drama of understanding problems through situations in their context.
Whilethese points refer to the possible problems related to the oversimplified
use of the conventions approach, Neelands’ own practice shows that these
forms can be used to create complex thinking and engagement in a variety
of subjects. They aim at creating an experiential engagement with problems
or events for the participants. The difference with LTD is their reliance on
a Brechtian distancing in the learning they aim to produce. As Davis explains
the “use of conventions invariably leads to a distanced reflective mode
rather than the direct engagement producing the metaxis effect advocated
by Bolton”.’*” The emphasis in the conventions approach seems to be on
a rational exploration of the situation, rather than being in it and forming it
from within.
183 Davis: Edward Bond and Drama in Education, 65.
Davis: Imagining the Real.
Fleming: Interview.
186 Ibid.
87 Davis: Imagining the Real, 45.
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