Episode One: The Warm-up

By Author: Kevin Garnnet
Total Articles: 24
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In many theater classrooms, the daily routine begins with a warm-up—some sort of activity to get the body and voice moving and ready for the day's work. I began the process drama with a similar sort of activity, but one that tied in thematically to the work we were about to do. It is important to note that at no time did I tell the students, "We'll be doing some acting today." Words such as acting, drama, or theater can energize some students and terrify others. Instead, we begin with a "game" called Silent Switch.

Silent Switch: All participants get in a circle with one individual in the middle. Without verbal interaction, making eye contact only, individuals on the outside of the circle will try to switch places with each other. If the person in the middle gets to one of the spots before the "switchers," that person gets to stay on the outside and the person who didn't make it becomes the new person in the middle.

Variations of this game date back to medieval times, with a popular variation highlighted by Viola Spolin called Kitty Wants a Corner (113). As an introductory activity, the game serves a dual ...
... purpose. On one hand, the game signals that this is not a typical lesson. Students are on their feet, moving Omega Seamaster Replica about, engaging physical and emotional capacities as well as intellectual. More importantly, the game provides a thematic link to the rest of the drama to follow. After playing for a few moments, the facilitator asks what feelings arose during the game, especially for those who were "trapped" in the middle. Karen, one of the preservice teachers who participated in the university workshop of the process drama, noted that the game "brought back all those awful feelings of high school, being outside the crowd and just not being able to get the game going on around me." Kimberly, a ninth-grade student in the Brooklyn workshop, echoed the sentiment, saying, "It felt a lot like the lunchroom does sometimes." This allowed an easy entry point to the dramatic work to follow.

This dramatic world offers a situation one step from actual reality, in which the participants can act and feel what they wish without fear of repercussions or judgment. In the safety of roles, participants can become critical, antagonistic, and even evil if they wish. To facilitate that transition into the drama world, Pamela Bowell and Brian S. Heap espouse the need for a personal emotional connection to the material being presented. They write, "Learners who have a sense of ownership about their learning have a greater commitment to it". This sense of ownership is magnified by the level of engagement created by emotional connection. Joshua, one of the preservice teachers, states it another way: "It was sort of like filling up the bowl with Tag Heuer Replica Watches who this person was. Then, it was like drawing us closer to the bowl rather than seeing it from afar. Instead of drawing the bowl and listing what was in it, we got pulled to it and wanted to be a part of it." One cannot underestimate the importance of this "belief-building" stage of the drama. It is here that the facilitator can move past stereotypes, asking questions and providing in-role answers that break down preconceptions.