The Significance of Stories and Storytelling in Theatre Education - Essay Example

The role of Story in Drama and Theatre Education Thumbelina The significance of stories and storytelling Storytelling and narratives have for along time been shared in almost all global cultures as a means of education, entertainment, instillation of moral values and preservation of culture (Willis 2008; Sockett 2001). The earliest forms of storytelling were oral which combined with gestures and expressions. Usually, the storytelling sessions were also accompanied by use of music and dances. The earliest written forms of stories were records of choreographed writings on carved tree trunks and picture stories on temporary media such as leaves and sand (Berry 1998; Devereux 2010). Today, storytelling has taken a broader perspective in that, on top of the traditional forms such as fairy tales, folktales and fables, there are now other forms such as personal narratives and evolving cultural norms among others (Weiner 2003; Luongo-Orlando 2001). Storytelling lends itself naturally, to dramatic presentation. Storytelling helps the audience to nurture a feeling that greatly assists them in considering themselves as creators that in turn builds self-confidence (Wilson 2006). This is because of the effect created by the acts of body movements and sounds that in turn create meaning through the performance and building on their imagination (Alfreds 2013). Use of stories in drama Fairy tales and other stories can be communicated in the form of drama or theatre performances especially when used as teaching tools to students. Use of drama results is good communication that comprises of emotions, ideas and feelings adaptability (Ribas 2005). The performances offer the students with an opportunity to make use of language while in operation which conspicuously misses in the normal classes (Worth 2008). The use of drama has various advantages in helping students learn better: Narrative performances enable the students to develop good communication skills which are commonly neglected in conventional classrooms (Bennathan 2000; Worth 2008). The performances involved expose the students to uses of real emotions and ideas thereby leading to an improved fluency and ultimately great communication ability. During a narrative performance, students are able to improve their linguistic abilities through adoption of good listening and language production skills (Kao & O’Neil 1998; Paul & Norbury 2012). Drama also helps to interrupt the monotony that comes with the conventional teaching methods. Through the active participation of students, they are better placed to face the world outside as the performances enable them to be more competent in using the language. Use of drama can also be of help in improving the learners’ socio-effectiveness while also enhancing the likeability of the syllabus by the students (Ribas 2005; Archakis & Tsakona 2012). Rationale of choosing the story A Summary of Thumbelina (Little Tiny) Once upon a time, there lived a barren woman who was desperate to get a child. She decided to seek help from a fairy who sold to her a barleycorn plant which she was to go and plant at her home. The plant grew immediately after planting and in its flower, emerged a little though very beautiful maiden (Daly, Andersen & Stone 1993). The woman named her ‘Thumbelina’ which meant ‘tiny’. Unfortunately, the woman did not get a chance to spend time with her new companion after she was kidnapped at night by a toad. One thing that ‘Thumbelina’ did not know was that there was more to come in a series of her predicaments. She was involved in other similar difficulties including another kidnap incidence and a near-forced marriage by the beetle and the pompous mole respectively. In these incidences, she was saved by the field mouse and the swallow. The story concludes with ‘Thumbelina’ meeting the love of her life and gets married to a fairy prince in what can be described as a happy ending (Daly, Andersen & Stone 1993). Theme- this is simply described as the meaning or lesson taught in a story. Themes give tales a purpose and meaning. They are mostly implied in the story, meaning the audience derives it as their understanding of the story while in some cases; the theme is stated (Gassner & Quinn 2002). In Thumbelina, the themes are implied and thus the audience or the readers need to derive them from a play or the story. Some of the major themes depicted in the play include: Arranged marriages, domestic abuse and misogyny among others. Thumbelina clearly displays the theme of arranged marriages when the toad kidnaps Tiny so as to take her as his wife. Another incidence is displayed when the field mouse tries to convince Tiny to get married to the pompous mole. The theme of domestic abuse is displayed in the scene where the toad places Tiny on water lilies in the river to restrict her from escaping. The theme is also displayed when Tiny is ridiculed as being ugly by ladybirds and beetles. Tiny is also restricted from moving around while at the field mouse house. Reasons why ‘Thumbelina’ is a good choice for a drama and theatre performance Fairy tales have been in use for thousands of years and this ranges in all cultures of the world (Cavallaro 2011). Thumbelina is one example of literary fairy tales that was written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1835. Usually, fairy tales have several shared characteristics especially in their structure. Some of the most common characteristics as seen in Thumbelina include: Most have special beginning and ending words. The common ones include: Once upon a time… and …they lived happily ever after (Haase 2008; Ashliman 2004). This characteristic is seen in Thumbelina and especially the happy ending that sees Tiny meet her dream man and weds him. Evil characters- these may include a demon, witch, and a sinister among other malicious characters (Geisler 1997; Cullinan & Pearson 2005). In Thumbelina, the evil characters are not out-rightly defined since the story does not portray extremism. For example, the toad may have kidnapped Tiny but not for a bad motive. She thought Tiny would make a good wife for her son. On the other hand, the beetle kidnapped Tiny due to his admiration of her. However, the beetle did not intend to harm her whatsoever. Good characters- they are depicted as innocent, clever and other general good characteristics (Hardyman 2014; Grimm & Hunt 2009). In Thumbelina, good characters are majorly depicted as saviors of Tiny from her awkward situations. For example, the fishes in the river help Tiny to escape from a forced marriage to the toad family. The butterfly also offers to fly Tiny away to a warmer country so that she could avoid the impending winter season. The swallow is the best character in Thumbelina as she helps Tiny the most when she needed to escape from a forced marriage to the pompous mole. She also leads Tiny away from the impending winter as well which also leads to Tiny meeting her dream lover. Magic and enchantments- common displays of magical things include objects or animals that have human qualities such as visual and hearing abilities (Bottigheimer 2014; Dickerson & O’Hara 2006). In Thumbelina, Tiny emerges from a barleycorn flower which is magical. Despite her very tiny body structure, she is described as having the qualities of a human. On the other hand, the field mouse describes the mole as blind. The mouse also refers the mole’s body covering as clothing. Royalty- It is common to find entities such as a prince, princess or a castle in most fairy tales (Carney 2012). At the end of the story, Thumbelina meets the prince to whom she is married. The wedding ceremony is attended by others who are ruled by the prince. Affluence versus poverty- most fairy tales involve a distinct comparison between varying circumstances and scenes that illustrate poor families and communities against other rich characters (Kitzinger C. & Kitzinger S. 1991). In Thumbelina, the field mouse considers the pompous mole richer than him. Recurring patterns- in most fairy tales, there could be use of repetition of certain phrases and tasks among others (Tiffin 2009; Joosen 2011). A common pattern in Thumbelina is the repeated cases of kidnaps and saves for Tiny. In addition, the phrase ‘she was only an inch high’ is repeatedly used in the story. Literary styles used in the performance play of Thumbelina Personification is a figure of speech that uses reference or description of non-human objects or other living things using human characteristics and qualities such as ability to see, hear, taste or develop emotions. Personification helps to connect the audience with the personified object by making the descriptions clearer. It also enables them to better understand, react emotionally or sympathize with the non-human characters involved (Myers & Smith 2008). In Thumbelina, the best illustration of personification is the scene where the pompous mole is described as blind by the field mouse. However, this might not be the exact scenario, and instead, the mole could only be self-important that he does not consider looking at others. In this narration and story, the toad is portraying a creepy character. The person playing this part ensured that he managed to move the audience’s attention. Keeping them actively involved in the process, one of the easy was to ensure that his actual role kept them laughing, thus following on the narration keenly. The audience would easily switch their emotions according to the way the narration was being done. Another style used in Thumbelina is interrogation of the story. Here, the audience is required to develop questions to themselves on certain developing circumstances in the story (Daly, Andersen, & Stone, 1993). For example, questions and concerns on Tiny’s decision-making on certain situations are developed by the audience. Her responses and actions are also under scrutiny, and this leads to the audience getting involved in the unfolding of events since it causes suspense. Rejection of duality is the presentation of characters as having both bad and good characters (Daly, Andersen, & Stone, 1993). For example, rejection of duality is seen when the toad kidnaps Tiny in order to take her to the son as his wife. It was certainly the wrong thing to kidnap, but she it can be argued that she did it for a good cause of her son. Tiny is also depicted as naïve and harmless but on the other hand; she is seen as self-despising after being ridiculed by the beetle and ladybirds communities. Challenges faced by the group in using Thumbelina as their story for a narrative performance Creating a performance narrative from a story is not very easy. This is especially true if stories fairy tales such as Thumbelina are brought into the picture. In creating the drama using Thumbelina, the following were some of the salient difficulties faced by the group including how I managed them. It is quite difficult to switch the characters between human and non-human characters meanwhile from the narrators. Each character has its own particular gesture; for instance, Thumbelina has her hands down around her hips and appressed the waist looking up to the sky as if she is very innocent. Mr. Mole walks like the Chinese Emperor but not in an exaggerated way, he is not literally blind but he is so self-centered that he could only see himself. Tiny being the only main protagonist in Thumbelina, it was always challenging to create a story that ensures that most of the other actors are actively involved in the play. How we allocate the characters while trying not to mess up Thumbelina and other characters. The main emphasis is to allow the main character to take most of the time on the stage in actual performance because be advances more moral lessons to the targeted audience. Another challenge in the play development was on formulating ways to determine what to leave out so that the play could fit in the allocated 15 minutes. This meant that a proper evaluation of the story to be done to determine the only important parts to include in the play. We had to ensure that some of the characters like Thumbelina, the toad among others that advance various themes are allocated time in actual performance we tried to find different version of the story of Thumbelina merging them into a 15 minutes long story by editing some lines by ourselves, which is captivating and rich in various moral lessons. Other challenges include difficulties in determining ways of assigning qualities to characters while being sensitive to how various cultures perceive each of us. Also, having Tiny as the main protagonist, it meant that rotating the group had to find ways of inviting the audience to see to view the world from her miniature perspective Bibliography Alfreds, M. 2013. The Empty Space & Actors as Storytellers. Nick Hern Books, London. Archakis, A., & Tsakona, V. 2012, The narrative construction of identities in critical Education, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire,. 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