Drama Analysis and Evaluation - Essay Example

? Introduction Drama and performance relate or majorly attribute to one and the same thing. Performance is hence the art of presentation of a work of art to an audience. Artistic performances are usually scripted in that, they are usually preplanned but other forms of performances are random or spontaneous; usually referred to as in the heat of the moment and May are performed with or without audience participation. Performance like drama is usually live on a stage but with the advancement in technology, they may be aired via media. For performances to be a success, it will always require the performer who in turn depends on the availability of the elements of performance which include space, time and a relationship that is created between the performer and his audience. The beauty of the art of performance is that it can happen anywhere, at any place, for any given amount of time (Carlson, 1996).  Drama hence is a form of fiction that is usually presented on stage, acted in theatres, performed by actors before an audience and usually assumes various modes of representation as either comedy or tragedy. Drama is also the dependence on in depth development of real characters dealing with real emotions that affect all human beings with the main purpose of exhibiting the emotions of pain and pleasure from the audience. (Longinus, 1762) The teaching of drama in grade school can be a complex task in that; the teacher has to consider all the components of drama to help the pupils in understanding all that pertains to drama that will help them in the creation of a performance such as the styles used, themes to be represented, the characters and the choice of each specific character, setting and the plot. While introducing this new topic of drama to the young learners, it’s advisable that the teacher assume that the learners are meeting the topic for the first time, hence breakdown the lessons in a manner that the lesson progresses from very simple content that are easily understood by the learners to more complex ideas. This categorization/breakdown of information makes it easy for the learners to conceptualize what is required of them. According to Jean Piagets cognitive development theory that suggests that children of this age; (11yrs-14yrs), are able to reason in a much more abstract way using systematic logic. If the children are hence left to make a play without sufficient background information to all that appertain to a performance or drama, they will make several mistakes that according to them are relevant. This is attributed to the children’s present cognitive stage. It’s advisable hence to give the pupils a simple skit that they can easily internalize and reproduce at the end of the lessons as a way of evaluating if they indeed understood all that is required in drama. (Piaget, J. 1976). The evaluation process is a continuous process that involves assessment, evaluation and re-evaluation of a work or performance or program activities while it is still in progress (Bhola, 1960). This type of evaluation focuses on the process unlike other forms of evaluations that focus on the eventual outcome. According to BF Skinner’s theory of reinforcement, it is important to reinforce positive behavior, while negative behavior should be punished or ignored. During the performance, the learner’s positive behavior was reinforced through rewards such as appreciation by applauding the pupils which encouraged them to perform better and also acted as a morale boost, while negative behavior was corrected on the spot or the pupils were punished by time out to prevent further repetition of the behavior. Discussion By the end of the four assigned lessons, the learners should be able to create a performance for drama and define all that appertains to theatre such as theater terminologies. The learners will also learn basic skills for acting for their grade level. Apart from academics, the learners are also expected to acquire interpersonal skills by working in small groups, use their imagination in creation of new ideas to solve emerging problems, be able to think critically and also boost their self confidence and other related social skills. As a teacher of the subject, I saw it wise to breakdown all the elements of drama to fit in the four lessons as a step by step guide so as to make it easy to understand and make the subject fun to the learners as the lessons progressed to more complex details. (Piaget,1976). During the first lesson, I asked the students to explain to me what they already knew about drama and performance or if they had witnessed any form of drama whatsoever. By the help of this information, I was able to base the rest of the lesson on what they already knew rather than explaining abstract content that they had never previously met. I also incorporated the use of tableaus in the development of the lesson to help in creating mental images to the learners. This made it easy for learners to relate what they already knew to the new concept of drama and performance. This is also in accordance with Jerome Bruner’s constructivism theory that is based on the concept that learners construct new ideas and concepts upon those that they already know. This helped the learner to create better mental pictures of what happens in drama, plays and skits during dramatization (Bruner, 1966). I was able to evaluate that the learners understood this concept by their ability to be in action as if they were portraying the characters or by the use of the language of a play; usually dialogue and pantomime. Introduction of pantomime in the lesson also made the lesson fun as the pupils now imitated various popular characters with their specific movements. After the introduction of the concept of performance and drama, with the confidence that the learners now understood what was required of them, I proceeded with the breaking down of the elements that compound to drama with the first lesson being the breakdown of the various characters within a drama such as the main characters; who the protagonists and antagonist/villain are. I developed this lesson asking the learners some of their favorite movie characters, or villain that they might have liked in a hero movie. By referring the learners back to their favorite hero movie that they had watched a while back in the explanation of the types of characters in drama, excited the emotions of the learners toward the topic at hand hence creating an interest in the learners making them to be more attentive . This also helps the learners to identify with the role that they may want to play in the drama skit by choosing the character that best fits their personality and that which they would be confident while portraying. The learners hence while reciting their favorite movie also was an evaluation process that was meant to confirm if indeed the learners understood what plot is in any of work of drama. Plot refers to the flow of the story in any play or drama work that comprises of the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action and the final conclusion. The first lesson was hence the development of plot for a performance and the assignment of appropriate characters that fit the roles that the plot dictates. By the end of the first lesson, the learners were able to create a simple story line based on a tableau presented by the teacher and develop characters that could fit the story line developed. As the first lesson came to an end, the learners suddenly had an urge to recite to their friends their favorite movies. This is a manifestation of the learners understanding of the plot of each of the stories in the movies that they had previously watched. One is only able to talk about the experiences that they have witnessed or gone through. The evaluation process was hence broken down into various stages that helped in the culmination of appropriate results from each particular stage as the drama lesson progressed. The first process of evaluation was based on selection. This refers to what criteria had been used in the choosing of the particular drama that the pupils were to perform. The second lesson basically emphasized on the choice of an appropriate drama performance that would also reflect on the learner’s development stage and also the age appropriateness of the performance to the pupils. This was evaluated in terms of, how the script developed by the learners came to reality through the various ways the various characters were improvised to make their characterization much better. The plot chosen had to correspond with the current stage of development of the learners so that it could facilitate the improvisation of the learners to the characters and the various themes that were presented in the play. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; it dictates that learners are only able to conceptualize those ideas that they can easily understand and is still in range of their cognitive reasoning capacity (Piaget, 1976). The drama chosen was hence evaluated in terms of the various uses of vocabularies. The vocabulary to be used for such grade level should incorporate simple words that the learners too can understand and pronounce appropriately. Though there might have been some usage of vocabulary, the learners were able to comprehend the words and the rest of the drama in totality and hence resulted in the learners having a meaningful drama experience. The themes that were presented should also be themes that revolve around the pupils world view since this will help the young actors to relate with the various characters that they were playing or portraying. As the second lesson came to an end, the learners were able to relate the academic relevance of the drama performance that they had chosen in that; they were able to identify the various key words and situations that made the play standout. The costumes they made for example, helped emphasize to the audience that the play was set in the medieval ages. The topic chosen was about the ancient English empire and their way of life hence the use of these costumes was very creative. According to Lev Vygotysky, children’s thinking is affected by their knowledge of the social community which they learn either by the technical or psychological cultural tools. These tools may also include academics, and by the performance of the drama, the pupils got to learn more about the ancient history of their people and their country as a whole. (Vygotskii?, 1994). The third lesson emphasized on the third level of evaluation of the drama which was based on the organization of a drama performance in all the levels of drama; from the flow of the plot, from the introduction to the plot development, to the conclusion. This lesson also involved the teaching of basic acting skills to the learners which was essential since it helped learners with the formation of character relationship among the various key characters as the performance progressed. The choice of a short skit instead of a whole entire play for the learners also was very essential in that, not the whole class was to participate in the drama and this made it easy for the teachers to coordinate with the learners at various intervals as the drama progressed. This was important for individual instruction and encouragement as the teacher was able to engage each learner individually. Any drama performance require a lot of bodily movements such as from one point of the stage to the next or just simple simulation of one’s body parts to fit into the character one is portraying. The core elements of bodily movements and intelligence are the way one controls his or her body motions and also having the capacity to manipulate objects that he or she uses in a skillful manner (Gardner, 1984). The teacher also demonstrated to the learners in terms of the movements that was required of the learners so as to make use of the entire stage as is required for good drama performance. It is a proven fact that learners need more than verbal instruction to retain and internalize information. The use of kinesthetic demonstrations help in the visualization of what is required of the pupil since, taking instruction from more than one sensory organ, increases ones retention capacity of the information instructed. The application of this mode of instruction by the teacher resulted in the production of a better mature performance. The application of Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory in the selection of learners to take part in the drama was also a key component in the discrimination of the characters that had different abilities and their selection to perform various tasks in the play. This is because, learners have different talents. The diversity of the pupils helps in the selection of character and character roles in accordance to their intelligence levels. Those who have linguistic intelligence may be assigned character role who speak a lot in the drama. This may be essential in the choice of the major characters; that are seen during the course of the entire play, and are needed to have a high capability in mastery of long scripts. The protagonist and the antagonist may be required to have this form of intelligence, or the choosing of comic characters to create comedy by speaking a lot during the entire play. Pupils who are athletic or gifted in the use of their muscles and are said to be have a well coordinated movement such as during dances and who can be said to have kinesthetic intelligence as a result of them excelling in sport activities, may be awarded the role of characters who are required to move a lot or dance during the drama. The selection of characters in accordance to the abilities of the pupils was done in the third lesson. The third lesson ended with the improvement of the acting skills of the learners with the correction of such simple mistakes like in body movement and stage usage that the teacher made to their already better acting skills. The final fourth lesson specialized on preparation of the drama which entailed the helping of the pupils to master their scripts, and put the drama skills that they had been practicing into action. During this lesson, learners were made to apply their spatial skills. Spatial skills or spatial psychology as referred to by psychologists; deal with the ability of an individual to visualize with the mind’s eyes (Gardner, 1984). The pupils are first made to read through the scripts to help them simulate what they would be doing and saying while in the play. This also helps them in starting to form various relationships that would be required due to the constant interaction with the characters in the play before they got to the actual stage for the performance. From then on, planning of the various stage movement and use of stage space is essential so as to avoid confusion during the performance. The evaluation of the drama was pegged to how well the preparation was done in terms of preparing the pupils psychologically that they were to perform before an audience. This mental mindset gave the pupils the confidence to perform on stage due to the well preparation that was done by the teacher through constant positive reinforcement in terms of constant encouragement of the learners. These positive reinforcements gave the learners confidence to perform due to the fact that they felt they were doing the right thing due to the constant applauding by the audience and their fellow students and peers too. The preparation entailed the learners putting their newly learned acting skills by performing before the rest of their classmates at first of who they are at ease with. From then on, the learners get to learn from them; attribute such as how they are supposed to interact among themselves hence developing their interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills refer to the ability of individuals to relate with others around him (Gardner, 1984). According to Gardner, individuals who have high interpersonal intelligence are characterized by the sensitivity in which they deal with others emotions in term of their moods, temperament, motivation and their feeling in general. When the pupils are hence made to work together in the attainment of success of the drama, they learned to deal with the frustrations of their fellow students who may have had difficulty in the mastery of whatever roles they were to play in the drama. This resulted in the learners forming positive relationships with their cast members and they also learned how to deal with disappointments and frustrations on their own. The various stage directions that were made to be followed in the play are also subject to evaluation since they also somehow reflect the pupils’ preparedness for the play. At the end of this lesson, the learners did not show any signs of stage fright and had developed better interpersonal skills that they learned during the course of these lessons and could now relate better to their peers. They also had a direction pertaining to what they wanted to do, whether they wanted to pursue acting or those who noticed were not that good at it dropped acting as a result. Conclusion By the end of the four lessons, learners were able to emerge out as totally new characters in terms of their personal change in behavior and how they treated other class members. This in essence is a reflection on the student’s development both academically and socially in that, through the play, learners are now able to relate to their history in relation to their ancestry and the cultural practices of ancient Britain (Vygotskii?, 1994). Their social development is as a result of the constant interaction that they had with their peers, hence making them to be able to handle their fellow students as facing similar challenges as they are, hence making them sensitive to other feeling. From this new knowledge, the learners were also able to develop new concepts and ideas such as generalization of the ancient politics and the class and other social factors that affected the people of the past. Learners were hence able to form a sense of appreciation to their English culture. (Bruner, 1966). Learners also had a tremendous interest in writing and developing new plays of their own that they had written after the completion of the school drama. This was as a result of a certain realization by the student of their innate ability that they posses. Intrapersonal abilities refer to ones introspective and self reflective abilities that one notices in himself or herself. (Gardner, 1984). The students had a deeper understanding of their individual capabilities in the performance art, and suddenly developed a passion to prosper in drama and other performance related arts like song and dance. Bibliography A treatise of Dionysius Longinus upon the sublime Translated from the Greek, with explanatory notes, by the late Rev. Charles Carthy, M.A.. (1762). Dublin: Printed by W. Sleater. Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University. Carlson, M. A. (1996). Performance: a critical introduction. London: Routledge. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Lloyd, P., & Fernyhough, C. (1999). Lev Vygotsky: critical assessments. London: Routledge. Pass, S. (2004). Parallel paths to constructivism: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub.. Piaget, J. (1976). The grasp of consciousness: action and concept in the young child. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Skinner, B. (1960). Science and human behavior. New York: Mc Millan company. Spolin, V., Sills, C., & Sills, P. (1999).Improvisation for the theater: a handbook of teaching and directing techniques (3rd ed.). Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. Vygotskii?, L. S., Veer, R. v., & Valsiner, J. (1994). The Vygotsky reader. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Read More