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CHAPTER ONE: LIVING THROUGH DRAMA naturalistic. Fleming’s response to the seemingly spontaneous improvisation of the Stool Pigeon drama is also in contrast with Neelands’ claim. In Signs and Portents, which Neelands refers to as “the most important theoretical piece of writing about drama”, Heathcote talks about using drama to slow down time, a gesture that can hardly be linked to the “contemporary face of behavioural realism in acting”’* as Neelands describes it. Much of Stanislavski’s work concentrated on actor training, as the titles of his books also suggest.” I could see no connection with Stanislavski’s work in the drama lessons I examined, for example there was no exploration of character, the improvisations were based more on situation than on character. I have also reflected on the richness of theatre concepts present in lessons, and how they vary. I think it is important to differentiate between extended improvisations and naturalistic theatre, I will be discussing questions related to this in the next chapter. In his article titled It’s all theatre Bolton sums up the relation between drama education and theatre in which he suggests that “in this coming century we re-educate practitioners to think theatre”.*°° While the article itself clarifies why Bolton sees process drama as theatre, the questions raised about the relationship of drama and theatre are central to my research, as I explore how a non-naturalistic form of theatre can be incorporated into LTD. ‘Being’ Vs ‘Acting’: Is LTD Providing the Safety of Fiction? The question concerning the safety provided to participants by the fiction they are engaged in was raised by Fleming in relation to an occasion when he facilitated Bolton’s Crucible drama discussed earlier, though with some changes to the structure. I remember the girls in the woods turned on one of the students in the room and said he was molesting them. [...] It actually became very uncomfortable in the real social context. [...] It worried me that the people were not protected into role enough, and that I didn’t set it up well enough. [...] We got over it but it was really uncomfortable as this person was a kind of an outsider in the group. There was a hint of feeling that maybe he is a child molester — not as specific as that but it was just in the air. It was almost a form of bullying.?” 20: 3 Nagy, Katalin: Emberiskola — interju Jonothan Neelands professzorral, Drdmapedagégiai Magazin, vol. 45, 2013/1, 11. 204 Neelands: Mirror, Dynamo or Lens, 146. 205 An Actor Prepares (Constantin Stanislavski: An Actor Prepares, London, Routledge, 1989.) and Building a Character (Constantin Stanislavski: Building a Character, London, Methuen, 1983.) are his most famous books. Gavin Bolton: It’s all theatre, in David Davis (ed.): Gavin Bolton: Essential Writings, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2010, 171. 207 Fleming: Interview. 20 a * 60 °
