Hi everyone!
I would like to share with you some of the wonderful things
I have learned and experienced on my quest to better understanding everything
and anything to do with the realm of the dramatic arts!
For this post, I would like to focus on improvisation.
Improvisation can be defined as “creating and performing (music, drama, or verse)
spontaneously or without preparation”, and as the definition suggests, it is
not something that is limited to just drama. Improvisation can be used in
music, comedy, and many other endeavors, illustrating that it is not about the product, rather it is about the process. It is important, at
some point, to incorporate improvisation into the classroom because it is not
ideal that every activity is ‘teacher centered’, where the teacher is giving
all the instructions and directing how things should play out in the
class. In order to allow students to be as creative as possible, it is good to
give them as much space as possible to take risks and grow as individuals. By incorporating
improvisation into the class students are given the freedom to explore as many
different aspects of their creative being as possible because in improvisation
the stage is set for an individual to be given the most amount of leeway that
can possibly be given.
The mood, expressions, emotions, volume, and movements of the individual are completely up to them, in so far as they are still responding to their environment. For example, if a student is playing the character of a king in medieval times , and another student asks them “your highness, have you decided who you shall pick to be your Queen?”, then the student has the complete freedom to react in a way that they see fit, meaning they may potentially portray anger at the question, maybe because they feel their character has too much pressure on them to decide, or maybe they can portray the king as happy because he has in fact had someone he has been in love with for a very long time that he can finally marry, however, it would not be very appropriate to respond by completely leaving character and talking about the NHL playoffs. With that being said it can still be argued that even if the NHL playoffs are brought up, it could have been due to the fact that the King has built a secret time-machine and was able to visit the future and witness an NHL playoff game that has been the only thing he's been thinking about, but, what is important to note is in the first instance the student playing the king confused everyone else, whereas in the second instance, it was explained that there has been an addition made to the story (the time machine) that makes it clear to everyone what is going on. Thus, it seems that the only limitation to the freedom of an individual engaged in improvisation is to make sure that those around you are able to understand you, so that they may also respond to you.
The link here shows students being interviewed and asked questions about improvisation, and it struck me that students were able to find ways that they could take the improvisation skills they practiced in the drama classroom and apply them to many other aspects for their lives, for example presentation skills, or conversation skills (social skills).
Another great thing about Improvisation that was eluded to earlier is that fact that it is about the process, not the product, therefore, improvisation will look different for every student that does it, regardless of whether or not they have exceptionalities. For example, the class could be inspired by silent films and have to collaborate with one another in a way that gets their intended message across without using any words (by using other means of communication, such as facial expression and body movements), and this would allow an ELL student to seemlessly join in as just another member of the group.
Here is another video that I think woould be a nice an easy warm-up I could use in the class with my students.
Expectation From the Ontario Curriculum:
B1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to process drama and the development of drama works, using the elements and conventions of drama to communicate feelings, ideas, and multiple perspectives
The mood, expressions, emotions, volume, and movements of the individual are completely up to them, in so far as they are still responding to their environment. For example, if a student is playing the character of a king in medieval times , and another student asks them “your highness, have you decided who you shall pick to be your Queen?”, then the student has the complete freedom to react in a way that they see fit, meaning they may potentially portray anger at the question, maybe because they feel their character has too much pressure on them to decide, or maybe they can portray the king as happy because he has in fact had someone he has been in love with for a very long time that he can finally marry, however, it would not be very appropriate to respond by completely leaving character and talking about the NHL playoffs. With that being said it can still be argued that even if the NHL playoffs are brought up, it could have been due to the fact that the King has built a secret time-machine and was able to visit the future and witness an NHL playoff game that has been the only thing he's been thinking about, but, what is important to note is in the first instance the student playing the king confused everyone else, whereas in the second instance, it was explained that there has been an addition made to the story (the time machine) that makes it clear to everyone what is going on. Thus, it seems that the only limitation to the freedom of an individual engaged in improvisation is to make sure that those around you are able to understand you, so that they may also respond to you.
The link here shows students being interviewed and asked questions about improvisation, and it struck me that students were able to find ways that they could take the improvisation skills they practiced in the drama classroom and apply them to many other aspects for their lives, for example presentation skills, or conversation skills (social skills).
Another great thing about Improvisation that was eluded to earlier is that fact that it is about the process, not the product, therefore, improvisation will look different for every student that does it, regardless of whether or not they have exceptionalities. For example, the class could be inspired by silent films and have to collaborate with one another in a way that gets their intended message across without using any words (by using other means of communication, such as facial expression and body movements), and this would allow an ELL student to seemlessly join in as just another member of the group.
Here is another video that I think woould be a nice an easy warm-up I could use in the class with my students.
Expectation From the Ontario Curriculum:
B1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to process drama and the development of drama works, using the elements and conventions of drama to communicate feelings, ideas, and multiple perspectives
No comments:
Post a Comment