Focus on drama - drama workshop as a tool in reading

Instructor, Nov-Dec, 1999 by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm

When I asked my seventh-grade student Marvin what he was seeing as he read, he answered, "See? Man, I see nothing but words!" Unfortunately, Marvin has a lot of company. Although expert readers enter into stories, follow the action in those stories, relate to characters, and see settings, all in great detail, reluctant readers do few if any of these things.

I realize we sometimes ask students to respond to unfamiliar readings without providing the help they need to experience these texts meaningfully. Enter drama! It is one of the most powerful tools available to enable students to live through and see what they are reading, giving even reluctant readers a concrete experience upon which to reflect.

Drama is a genre written for the purpose of performance. However, Dorothy Heathcote, the founder of modern educational drama, differentiates it from theater. While theater is a scripted performance, drama can happen whenever you put yourself in someone else's shoes or in something else's position (I've done activities in which the kids were electric charges, genes, musical notes, or articles of clothing). Like all forms of play, drama is a natural way to learn. In this workshop, we'll explore strategies for reading and writing dramatic texts, as well as give students a chance to experience drama in action.

Big Conflict = Big Suspense

All drama, like the most interesting times in anyone's life, is about important conflicts and the characters' successful or unsuccessful approach to and resolution of these conflicts.

The basic problem-solving pattern in a drama is conflict + consequences = tension + suspense. Ask students to imagine a situation in which there is a big conflict between characters touched off, for instance, by:

* A lie;

* Breaking something;

* Being surprised;

* A careless, hurtful remark;

* Giving something up;

* Being left somewhere;

* An accusation;

* A bully;

* A punishment;

* Seeing a group of people you dislike;

* A close game.

Have each child write a scene describing a conflict. He or she should then pass it on to another student to write the next scene, and so on. Ask each youngster to add a related problem or exaggerate the situation. As they do, the suspense should become greater. Have students pass on each piece four times, with the fourth and final classmate attempting to resolve the problem.

Set Directions Create the Scene

For a play to become real to an audience, the actors must know where they are and what surrounds them. Set directions supply this vital information. Likewise, readers of a drama must imagine a complete "story world" based on information within set directions.

Share the initial set directions for a play, such as those from The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the Moon Marigolds, by Paul Zindel (Bantam, 1972):

"A room of wood which was once a vegetable stored - and a point of debarkation for a horse-drawn wagon to bring its wares to a small town. . . . Objects which respectable people usually hide in closets are scattered about the main room: newspapers; magazines; dishes; empty bottles; clothes; suitcases; last week's sheets. . . . The window, which was formerly the front of the vegetable store, is now mostly covered with old newspapers so that passersby cannot see in. A bit of the clear glass remains at the top - but drab, lifeless drapes line the sides of the window."

Ask: What atmosphere has been created? What might happen here? Have each student create a mural background for a set design on butcher paper, or make a diorama for one using a shoebox.

Stage Directions Elicit Character

Share aloud a sampling of stage directions from the beginnings of different plays, such as "The Odd Couple," from The Collected Plays of Neil Simon (New American Library, 1989), below:

FELIX comes out of the kitchen carrying a tray with a steaming dish of spaghetti. As he crosses behind OSCAR to the table, he smells it "deliciously" and passes it close to OSCAR to make sure OSCAR smells the fantastic dish he's missing. As FELIX sits and begins to eat, OSCAR takes a can of aerosol spray from the bar and circling the table sprays all about FELIX, puts the can down next to him, and goes back to his newspaper.

Challenge students: What have we learned about each character? What adjectives would describe them? Walk across the room as you think each character would. Count to 10 as you think each would. Block the scene in pairs by playing out these actions in several different ways. What actions and gestures will best convey Felix and Oscar's personality conflicts in ways the audience can see and relate to?

Multimedia Resources

For Teachers

Imagining to Learn: Inquiry, Ethics, and Integration Through Drama, by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Brian Edmiston (Heinemann, 1998). An introduction to teaching reading, writing, and learning through various drama strategies.

You Gotto BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading With Young Adolescents, by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm (Teachers College Press, 1997). Skills that expert, adolescent readers use as they read and how to use drama and art to support reluctant readers.