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In my recent studies, I had been introduced to this form of dramatic activity, and it seemed the ideal solution to my quandary. In an effort to better understand the potential of process drama to overcome the reluctance of students to engage with LGBT characters, I created a workshop that directly addresses the outcast mentality and the marginalization of LGBT youth in schools. Over the past four years, I have conducted this workshop or variations on it with a number of different populations. This study focuses on three of these sites: with ninth- through twelfth-grade students in an Upward Bound program in rural Pennsylvania, in an inner-city classroom in New York, and with a group of preservice teachers in a graduate program at a major East Coast university. What follows is an investigation of the underlying theory Tag Heuer Replica of process drama work, an outline of the workshop I devised, and the reactions and responses of the participants in the workshop.

Process drama, as conceived by British drama educator Dorothy Heathcote, is a sequence of structured ...
... improvisations that explore a central theme or guiding concept. Cecily O'Neill expands this definition, calling it "a complex dramatic encounter," proceeding without a script, lacking a separate audience, whose outcome is unpredictable (Drama xiii). The dramatic encounters may include games and activities, individualrole work, small-group improvisations and role-play, and full-class ensemble improvisations. Process drama differs from other performance-based theatrical genres in that the participants, together with the facilitator, engage in the drama to make meaning for themselves, not for a separate audience. Attitude and exploration of theme are more important than character.

This pedagogy engages participants in multiple illiteracies, promotes creative problem-solving, and relies on imaginative creation to develop fictional lived experiences (Bowell and Heap 8). Process work moves beyond simple role-play or improvisation by opening up the potential to explore multiple viewpoints. In theory, this dramatic form offers a potent tool for teaching as well as for investigation of social justice issues. Students learn to think beyond their own point of view and consider multiple perspectives on a topic through playing different roles. Playing a range of positions encourages them to be able to recast themselves as the "other" and to consider life from that viewpoint, thereby complicating and enabling us to explore Tag Heuer Replica Watches multiple dimensions of the topic. Process drama allows the participants to "try on" other people's shoes, to walk the paths they tread and to see how the world looks from their point of view.

In process drama work, educators have found a powerful tool for creative expression and collaborative invention. The development of a fictional world, a "dramatic elsewhere," allows students to explore ideas in a safe space of their creation. Moreover, including the students' feelings and values personalizes knowledge and the creation of knowledge, creating a potential for growth. Process drama allows for an empathetic space in which emotional reflection, critical thinking, and physical action combine for a potentially transformative encounter. As noted drama educator Philip Taylor writes in The Drama Classroom, "[Drama] praxis denotes the action, reflections and transformation of people as they engage with one another. And those involved in praxis can anticipate that such action, reflections, and transformation should help create a just and better world".