Drama introduction

Drama with Malte

 

Break the ice !

During this creative module we had the chance to get an introduction to drama with Malte, a student from UCSYD. He first decided to go outside with us and do some group games to create a cosy and confident atmosphere. I really think that this way of starting the lesson was a good "ice breaker" because we knew we were going to express ourselves with our body and emotions which can be challenging to do with a whole group. As we were playing the different group games, I could feel that the energy was positive and that the people felt comfortable. I then understood the reason why Malte wanted to start with these activities. Indeed, I think, as a future teacher, that it is important to be able to know the pupils and find different strategies to bring the class group together in order to develop different important values like empathy or respect between each other, especially when it comes to expression activities. In that moment I could see the role Malte had by playing an indirect "leader" role when participating to the games. He explained the rules in an easy way, tried to be one of us by partaking in the games and let us the freedom to change or choose new game rules. I felt he had been able to build a group complicity in a matter of minutes. 

An emotional walk...

In the second part of the lesson, we experienced some emotion's expression. We first were told to walk around in a big room and avoid eye contact. At that moment I was already experiencing something new and interesting with my body and other bodies around. Indeed, I could feel how difficult it was for me try not to look at each other's eyes, because it is for me one of the first reflex I have when I'm with people. Walking around without touching others and looking at others made me feel empty, like a robot without feelings and emotions. Then, Malte started to ask us to walk with different emotions and feel them. During this exercise I could see different reactions and face expressions concerning the emotions that we had to bring to life. He started to ask us to be happy which was really nice to see, because it looked so easy to do. He continued by asking us to reproduce stress, anger, slow motion walk and quick walk. But then, he told us to be sad and act as if we were crying. In that moment, I really believed in that emotion which was a little bit bewildering because I felt sad and could also see people's face fade. Try to feel and share different emotions with a whole group was challenging for me because I had to open myself and put aside different thoughts such as judgment or shame. For me this experience was intense because I was able to feel the connection and relation people had towards different emotions by their faces or body mouvements which made me feel able to discover their inner person.

The human machine

At the end of the lesson, we had the chance to create human machines. The idea was to work as a group to create one and unique product. We all sat down on the floor and waited for someone to get inspired and start a mouvement. It all started with arm mouvements followed by robotic mouth sounds, crazy mechanical body mouvements and irregular body rythms. For me it was really interesting to see how different creative expression's contribution could create one continuous sound. What fascinated me the most is the intensity of the sound and rythm growing as people were getting into the human machine process. Choosing this activity to end our introduction to drama was a good idea because we started warming up together at the same time with games, expressing different emotions and finished by exposing ourselves with our bodies in front of the group to create a shameless and living end product. This activity showed me how varied our imagination is and how each personal touch can lead to a great and unique production. After this journey, I already imagined myself using this activity with the pupils to wake up their imagination and creativity but also to reinforce the group cohesion and build up empathy. As I could notice, this experience has to be done in a respectful and collaborative way without any judgement. As a future teacher I think this activity is an amusing and creative way to let the pupils express themselves in a loose and open atmosphere.

The human machine