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OCR
CHAPTER THREE: BRINGING TOGETHER THE ÁRTISTIC AND THE EDUCATIONAL PRAXIS Situation Participants of drama lessons need to engage in fictional situations for them to be able to live through events. On a basic level situation can be understood as a set of circumstances that influence the actions of those in the event. A number of physical, social and culture conditions create the basic parameters of a situation. These can influence those in the situation, and the behaviour of people can be seen in relation to these circumstances and in relation to each other as well. From an educational perspective drama offers a unique possibility because problems need to be understood within specific contexts and this demands more complex thinking and meaning making. At the same time it is also a great challenge to create fictional situations that students are interested in entering. To make it possible for participants to ‘live through’ a fictional event setting up the circumstances, the situation they enter in roles is crucial. In the drama lesson examples analysed we saw different possibilities of setting up situations. In one example Heathcote worked on participants being able to imagine the tangible elements of the situation, the feeling of the rope in the hand, or the wetness of the deck. In another example O’Neill used Teacher in Role and placed the problem that was at the centre of the situation as the first step. Bolton concentrated on socio-cultural elements of the situation like superstitions, or the contrast between what is shown to the community and what are the real relations within a family as crucial constituents. Davis identifies setting and contextualising the situation as a central element of the living through approach. He collects the key components of a drama event in a process drama; he is not writing about Bondian Drama Event in this case. Davis summarises these components as the following: An event with strong implications for the participants and heightened tension in a context which has a pre-text with roles (not characters) embodying an attitude to an other or others — pursuing counter-objectives — slowing down time — under the pressure of constraints — the event revealing and focusing layers of meaning (sub-text) through dramatic action, objects, images, body language and words, especially the language register (immediately available meanings as part of the story to complex layers of more hidden meanings sub-text and plot).*” (Emphasis in original) Davis discusses all the highlighted components in detail in his book, giving perhaps the most complex and concise account of what constituents create a powerful situation in process drama. Davis states that the same elements that are the basis of the art form of drama need to be used in a process “8 Davis: Imagining the Real, 66. + 136 +
