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APPENDICES
I am glad that David made it clear in his book how much investment
living through needs. To build that belief in the fiction. I think the danger is,
paradoxically, because it is in some ways the ultimate pupil centred drama,
but it can become too teacher centred. I think it can bring too much emphasis
on structure, again this is paradoxical, because I juxtapose structure with
experience. By experience I mean the quality of the experience the learners
are having in the drama. 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.
So there is an example in David’s book, and he says at the end, he worries that
it is manipulative. And I think that is one of the dangers of living through that
it takes a very strong structure to get the parameters of the outcome that you
want, even when you are not exactly pre-determining the outcome.
The other problem that I have with is that it relies on blurring the boundaries
between the real person and the role. We know that if I assume a role the real
person doesn’t go away, the real person is there. But 1am more inclined to see
the aesthetic elements of drama working through the unreality, this is make¬
believe. And I think living through challenges that a bit. If I act in this way in
the drama I have to think about would I have done the same thing. So if I kill
you in a living through drama it makes me think about myself killing you.
In the theatre I wouldnt have that worry.
AB: Is that because there is too much responsibility pushed over to
the participants about the content, the events, what happens?
ME: Yes. Which makes me sound negative and I dont mean to sound negatíve,
it’s just about advantages and disadvantages.
The key word is reflection I suppose, and the criticism about the other work
and probably about the kind of drama I have been advocating is, that it is too
reflective and not immediate enough like living through is. But on the other
hand, there is the metaxis element in living through. We still recognise that
there is an aesthetic, artistic form. The way the reflection that belongs to
living through drama and reflection that belongs to other kinds of drama
that are perhaps more traditionally theatre oriented, for that want of a better
word, it is not clear for me how they are distinguished. That is a question.
AB: Would you count Bolton’s Salem as a living through drama?
MF: Yes.
AB: There is a clear situation and there are events unfolding with
the participants influencing them.
MF: Well, they don’t know what’s going to happen.
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