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| Education; Blending Classroom Methods with Performance |
Education; Blending Classroom Methods with Performance
Teaching methods in the classroom is something that is often widely discussed and debated by teachers and others within the education system on a daily basis. In our modern society we can now see examples of old meeting new, particularly where traditional style methods of classroom control are combined with new, technologically-driven methods of learning.
In my own recent experience in teaching the English language alongside Theatre, it has become apparent to me that many students have the benefits of easy access to projectors, multi-media whiteboards and other such modern resources to aid their knowledge progression. However, there is also still evidence that traditional ‘pen and paper’ methods of teaching exist, and indeed often help create a blend of styles of learning for the student.
The blend of these methods work to enhance the general understanding of the English language to the student, for example studying linguistics and prose through textbooks, and then having the opportunity to display their knowledge visually through a PowerPoint presentation. In terms of understanding the content of their work both these methods are often successful. Despite the success with these styles, it is often a more aural approach in the classroom that helps to increase our students’ confidence with language and fluidity of speech, both in Britain itself and countries overseas.
Outside of timetabled drama lessons I have witnessed examples of teachers using performance as a teaching tool. There has been examples of a students willingness to participate in the learning of a subject be improved by their exposure to creativity, as a result of performance based activities run by the teacher in the classroom.
Indeed merging subjects together often can make for a more interesting class, for example when studying Mathematics or Science, a more performative aspect may gain a better student response. However, when studying Drama itself, the class can be cross-referenced with other subjects or areas of culture, with the student subconsciously learning as a result of their willing participation in a more active class. In the small learning projects I have used myself often include small script extracts, where I’ve coupled the performance element with the addition of a topic that runs throughout the sessions. For example, in the latest block of classes for the project ‘Performing Earth’, the students learn about performance in other countries/cultures, and then put into practice what they have studied in a performance of their own in the style of a particular country each week. This can help for a fluid circle of learning for the student, with one core subject overlapping into another, and a blend of traditional academic, or modern technologically-driven techniques working alongside the creativity of performance. |
| Posted by Daniel 13:41:27 25.10.2010; |
- Jennifer Bridge British Drama School Blog
 An American performer at a British Drama School
| Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! |
I'm Jen, I'm 25, American, and in my final year of drama school in the UK. I go to the Guildford School of Acting, which is in Surrey, England. It's a small, familial, very tight knit conservatoire, where over the past few years I have learned so much about performing, life, and how the two are irrevocably linked. The training style at GSA is very different from the way actors are taught back in Los Angeles, where I am from. For the first year we are stripped of ourselves; all-black dress code, no make up, where we focus on mastering the actors' most fundamental tools: The body and the voice. We learn about resonance, it's relevance to the stage, and the anatomy of the voice. We also take daily dance classes, with acting, acting for the camera, Shakespeare, storytelling, improv, stage combat and singing. As a musical theatre major, I have more dance and singing than the acting students, and they get more monologue work. In second year, we start doing mock auditions, workshopping shows, and really focus on understanding our own castability, and how we are marketable in the industry. In our third (and final) year, we finally get to do full scale productions! I'm currently doing ''Bye Bye Birdie'' by Charles Strouse and playing the role of Doris Macafee. It's beyond exciting to finally be performing for an audience again.
Anywho, the function of this blog will be to talk about drama school, being on the brink of a professional acting career, and everything in between. |
| Posted by jennifer 20:04:42 25.10.2010; |
| Comments (172): |
| Sounds great Jen, and we look forward to reading! |
| Posted by Daniel 04:13:45 26.10.2010; |
| Elusive Lessons |
''Bye Bye Birdie'' finally came to fruition, along with 12-hour days at the theatre. The show is very American, but we got fabulous feedback and agent interest none-the-less.
I made a conscious effort to be cognizant of the tools I had been given my past two years of training, and to not fall back into my old habits from performing in the past. One thing I noticed in particular was how well we were able to ''gel'' and read eachother as an ensemble, and I think this was largely due to our ''Greeks'' training in first year.
Greeks is a workshop course where we work on the traditional ancient Greek texts from a chorus point of view. Our year worked with Ted Hugh's translation of The Orestia by Aeschylus. We spent many a sweaty May afternoon trying to move and think as a unit, all 18 of us musical theatre students. Our professors pushed us hard, and wouldn't tell us what or how to do it, only that we must become one. It was the sort of class we would complain about, as we really went for it, worked through hour long improvisations as Furies, trying to communicate the horific tragedy of Orestes, and always being told that it was wrong, without any guidance on how to make it right. Then, one day, it clicks. We were suddenly cognizant of eachother in a new light. We could communicate in our little group through breath and energy. I know that sounds weird, but the ensemble training has opened up an awareness in us as actors that is imperitave for a professional working environment, particularly in something as unstable and unpredictable as live theatre. Now if only I knew how to articulate that skill on a CV... |
| Posted by jennifer 15:41:24 07.11.2010; |
| The Show Must Go On |
Third Year in drama school is a mad dash from one show to the next, and there is scarcely time to process what you created before you're rehearsing the next piece, with lessons, auditions and a dissertation to juggle along the way. It's tiring to say the least.
We just opened the Lerner and Lowe musical ''Camelot'' at the Bellairs Playhouse. An untimely snow storm swept the majority of the UK, and we missed several days of rehearsal during tech-week. Thus, we were forced to pull three consecutive twelve hour days at the theatre to open on time. We had pizzas delivered to the stage door and worked non stop as the techical team practically built the set under our feet.
I'm exhausted and elated. It's a labour of love; I wouldn't have it any other way |
| Posted by jennifer 00:46:37 10.12.2010; |
| The Hiding Place In Our Hearts |
I came upon this poem by Byrne Piven. It captures the metaphysical process of theatre in words; something I didn't think was possible. Enjoy...
''Be warned all who enter here:
This is theatre space
haunted by expectation
made opaque with dream.
No window opens to the sunlight here.
We choose to control the light
To reveal this face, hide that one,
To begin time and end being
To transform place, character,
Emotion, intellectual substance
Into stuffless spirit,
To invest the godless
And rip the god-fearing from
His airy moorings.
We are in love with pretend here.
We make Believe in order to find reality.
We shatter the real world to find
It’s true order
We search for the darkness here
Destroying it with
Fresnels and lekos and arc lamps
We color it with subtle gels
Knowing always it is in the darkness that we will find
Being
Naked to its own colors.
Be warned:
This space is charged with the eclectic electric,
The current of our romance:
We will confront
Our humanity in the
Prayer of
Recognizing it.
Be warned:
This is a nudist
Colony here.
The clothing we wear belongs
To no emperor.
We charge ourselves with
Inner nakedness
We are god’s fools.
We laugh at his universe,
Teasing, defying it
To define itself
Beware all who enter here:
This is a sacred place
Suitable only for those who
Would Profane
Shock,
Whisper
Cajole
Seduce
Verily suck the truth from her hiding
Place in our hearts. |
| Posted by jennifer 00:53:23 10.12.2010; |
| For Arts Sake! |
| It seems to grow more apparent every day that the function of drama school is to make you marketable. I suppose this should not be shocking and is completely reasonable; the theatre is an industry, and we actors need to eat too. However, it seems like it is far more important that I be marketable than truthful, and that is despondent. I came to drama school because I love the theatre and believe in its power, not so I could fit a ''niche'' and go to modeling calls. When I tell people I want to go into educational or activist theatre, they give me a sad look of pity, as if not being in Legally Blonde the Musical by choice is psychotic. As we meet agents and go through cattle calls, all I can think is how sad the state of theatre is. Sure, it makes money, but at what cost? Like most things, capatalism seems to strip the art of musical theatre and make it plastic, false, and the same in every city. Down with McTheatre, long live the arts for art sake! |
 Cassandra Hyde - An Australian Performer in England
Hello! I am Cas, a 21 year old dance teacher from bright, sunny, QLD Australia. I come from a literal island paradise, where everyone is laid back and “takes it easy”. That has been a big chapter of my life.
In comes a new chapter: BOOM! Frosty, cool, England, where everyone is still lovely, but where I am totally out of my comfort zone.
In Australia I was a teacher to over 150 students who I loved and who also loved me. We danced as a team and I taught them all I knew. These students respected me because I respected them, and through positive praise and encouragement they became the best dancers they could be. I inspired them to want to do their best by showing them that I believed they could be their best.
Upon splashing out of my little happy fish pond in Australia and diving into the big chilly lake in the UK I needed a quick part time job and took up working at a coffee shop for extra cash.
Now I have always known there are many types of people in this world. And as an educator I am aware also of the different types of learners: Auditory, Sensory, and Kinesthetic. However, no matter how someone learns in this life, I believe everybody answers to love. Everybody responds well to praise and in nine times out of ten a person aspires towards a positive from being given a positive to work with. However can fear teach someone something? Can threats and put downs inspire someone to be the best they can be? I think not. In the simple act of being taught how to make a cappuccino I felt my self worth diminish and my urge to become better be flattened out.
And this is just coffee.
Walking home one rainy day feeling sorry for myself and my over frothed latte I thought to myself; “why are you letting this bother you?! it’s just coffee!” And this is when I realized it’s not just coffee. Well, in my case it is. In my case it is just a small portion of life that doesn’t concern my greater being in the slightest. However any teacher, (big or small) in this world has the ability to make or break someone and their potential. To help someone grow an become something you must give them a ladder on which to climb on.
That night I went home and read a few letters my students had made me over the years. One written by a 6 year old called Tara said; “Cassie, you make me feel wonderful and Happy.” Isn’t that what it’s all about? If as a teacher (of anything) your students don’t feel wonderful, how are they going to reach their full potential?
As a young traveler and artist I have seen the world through many different lenses. I once was “the Teacher” and saw the world as a beautiful place where you can inspire and create in a safe environment. I am now “the Student” seeing the world as at times quite frightening and unknown whilst traveling in uncommon grounds. But at the end of the day, through the one big lens; this world is a gift to be explored and discovered and a place for learning of all kinds.
To all those students out there, be proud of who you are.
In all my years of learning and showing others the path to become great artists, the people who have taught me the most have been my students.
Mainly little Tara.
No matter how big your own personal boots become, you must always remember how to make someone else feel worthwhile and realize their full potential; by making them happy.
(Tara’s note has remained in my wallet reminding me daily what teaching is all about)
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