OCR
FIRST CYCLE from one of the participant’s reflective diaries (PRD) the images portrayed his interest loosely connected to the theme, like Star Trek, rather than anything to do with the narrative we were building. The reason behind the failure to have a deep impact with this series can be manifold: problems with sequencing, or finding the angle of connection to the material for the group, or misjudging group dynamics could all have played a role in this. Concerns related to all these elements are reflected in my reflective diary,°* I will not analyse these issues in detail here as they connect with concepts discussed elsewhere. But it was an incident from another series of drama lessons which helped in creating some insights regarding the central question of this section, of how Site A, our contemporary world, can be brought into the drama. In Children, the series based on the Bond play, I made no attempt to connect the drama with any specific contemporary issue. The burning down of the house gripped the imagination of some of the participants, one of them kept returning to it in the focus group. At one point he said that the burning house reminded him of Syria, where “terrorists come and burn houses down, Putin drops bombs”.°”” When probed further if there are any other connections between that situation and our drama he responded saying “I just said it because of the burning house, that is what they do these days, burn down houses. Blow them up”. The connection between the two worlds was made through the image of the burning house, even though I had not aimed for it consciously. One possible problem with how contemporary issues were brought into the Out of Space lessons was that the situation remained quite general, the problem was not reflected, condensed into a powerful image or situation 5% RD FI, F2, F3. 597 F Gl. 598 Ibid. + 177 +