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FACILITATING "BEING" IN THE SITUATION — STRUCTURES USED IN LTD AND BONDIAN DRAMA
which the dominant underlying cultural narratives are exposed in some
way, creating a gap in meaning. Perhaps this would be the unigue aspect of
a Bondian LTD.
For this to be possible in fictional situations the classroom drama needs to
be planned in a way that provides four different functions.
a) It needs to be engaging enough for the group so that they are motivated
to enter it and be involved in the making of it.
b) Ihe meta-text of the situation needs to contain elements or expressions
of dominant cultural narratives that can surface and be reflected on
from within the story.
c) Ihe fiction needs to have a powerful angle of connection with
the participants’ actual social context so that the metaxis function steps
into operation.
d) An awareness of the central dilemmas and the aim of creating gaps for
other participants and those watching.
This last element was missing from Davis’s Child Abuse drama analysed
earlier. 1 now move to look at the role of the facilitator and the tools and
structures that can be used by her.
FACILITATING ‘BEING’ IN THE SITUATION
— STRUCTURES USED IN LTD AND BONDIAN DRAMA
Not only the participants take on several functions in the process of ‘making’
living through drama but the facilitator as well needs to rely on several skills,
but most importantly different structures and devices in the planning of
her drama. Fleming reflects eloquently on the role of the facilitator when he
says that “one of the significant insights of drama education theorists was to
recognise that children are unlikely to create drama of any depth on their
own. [...] It could be argued that one of the ultimate goals of drama teaching
should be precisely that pupils should be able to create drama of depth on
their own”.*?°
The conscious use of the components of the art form by the participants can
lead to making the facilitator redundant. The aim of my research is to find out
how far I can go in creating the possibility for participants to make drama of
depth that disturbs usual outcomes, exploring hidden layers of the situation on
their own. I see the element of participants doing this ‘on their own’ as offering
new advances in the field of LTD, incorporating Davis’ drama that facilitates
‘being’ without the teacher in role“ which itself builds on Bolton’s LTD.*#®
486 Fleming: Teaching drama in Primary and Secondary, 83.
487 Bolton: Acting in Classroom Drama, 220.
88 Davis: Imagining the Real, 4.
* 131°