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CHAPTER ONE: LIVING THROUGH DRAMA
structure with experience. [...] Sometimes for the living through to work well,
it needs a kind of script that the teacher needs to write in his or her head, and
I think this is particularly so if you want an ideological dimension to it.
My understanding of Fleming’s statement is twofold. In the case of a not pre¬
structured LTD lesson Fleming is referring to the teacher writing the drama
on their feet, finding forms and a structure which the participants can inhabit
successfully and that creates a meaningful relationship between content and
aesthetic form. This demands a person with a strong artistic and pedagogical
vision, and it is useful to keep questioning whether the participants still feel if
it is their drama. When the teacher is working through a prepared structure to
create the LT moments of the drama, it can be a question ifthe participants have
enough freedom of choice, whether the situations investigated are concerns of
the teacher or the participants. This issue can be raised about other forms of
drama as well. I examine one aspect that is most connected to LTD of this
complex issue in my research; the relationship of influencing the narrative and
enjoying the drama lesson is analysed further in chapter five.
Metaxis and Reflection in LT Drama
In his afterword to Davis’ book Fleming raises the question about the manner
of reflection in LTD: “I think there is more work to be done in distinguishing
the reflection that is acknowledged as being part of metaxis in living
through drama from the reflection that is part of more distanced modes
of working”.”!° Earlier I quoted Fleming’s comments on thought-tracking,
a popular reflective convention, which can easily become anti-theatre. There
seems to be a contradiction between artistic and pedagogical aims here,
as reflection works against artistic aims in this case. Bolton differentiates
between three types of reflection: personal, universal and analogues and
proposes that “perhaps the most powerful form is the reflection that goes on
at the same time as the drama, that is from within the drama, so that as things
are happening [...] their implications and applications can be articulated
legitimately as part of the drama itself”.7!! Morgan and Saxton differentiate
between reflection ‘in role’ and ‘out of role’ which should be distinguished
from reflection in context and out of context.?!? In convention based reflective
tasks the participants would often explicitly articulate their learning from
209 Fleming: Interview.
210 Michael Fleming: Afterword, in David Davis: Imagining the Real: Towards a New Theory
Drama in Education, Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books, 2014, 169.
211 Bolton: Towards a theory, 127.
22 Morgan-Saxton: Teaching Drama, 150.
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