The Essential Tool in Executing the Goals and Purpose of any Endeavor - Assignment Example

Running Head: Community Arts Drama Proposal Drama for a Cause (Author’s name) (Professor’s name) (Course Description) (Date Submitted) Introduction Effective communication starts with a specified audience, clear message and objectives, appropriate channel, and needed assessment. Communication is not just an executed and normal human activity, but it can transcend into a more purposive and effective means to promote social change. In community arts, the communication process is the essential tool in executing the goals and purpose of any endeavor. However, the field includes any aspect of arts in its purposive communication activity. It emphasizes the role of communication, through delivering messages that are essential in aiding the community develop into a more informed and responsible community willing to help one another to promote development in their own community. Community arts reinforce and instigate social change, and thus the needed determination to provide activities worthy to achieve that cause. After the drastic paradigm to adopt and base development on being modernized alone, there is a movement in present times that call for an alternative means to achieve development. The development being proposed today encompass a more humanized objective, and with emphasis on community activities that shall greatly contribute to the development of all aspects in the society. According to Morris (1985) as cited by (Adams, 2001),there is a tragic dissolution of the natural balance due to the increase dependence on a misconception in basing development as being industrialized and modern. He proposed that arts be used as a way in which people can re-establish their connections to nature that shall deem healthy relationship within and among communities.(Adams, 2001) Further on Morris’ view, the community arts movement is a reaction to the consequences of the change in character and degradation of moral and ethical values brought by the Industrial revolution. Man attributes his pleasure from his daily work. From which he freely expresses his desires and skills. In order to achieve that significant shift of societal attitude towards change, arts is crucial in inspiring and motivating man to rediscover nature, his self and its community.(Berry, 1999) The trend shown today is the adoption of two movements, the community arts movement and the sustainable community-development movement.(Shifferd, 2006) Essentially the two have similar ideals and goals. Among of which are upholding the basic principles of conservation and establishment of life-support systems while people can creatively express them selves to achieve progressive change. Both movements lay emphasis on basic human rights and consequently addressing issues on poverty, gender equity, and social justice.(Shifferd, 2006) The processes by which the two movements follow also encourage participatory dialogues, continuous re-evaluation and learning, and cooperative creativity. In this proposal, we agree with David Korten’s argument which relates how the recognition of the interrelated relationships between people in the community and the understanding of their environment are matters of choice.(Korten, 2006) The modern culture has changed this recognition of relationships in communities as impossible. But it is not. There is the pressing need to reconstitute and modify common conceptions in the community, with regards to prosperity, family, individual and other aspects. While media affects how societies and communities think, the expression of one’s self and new stories that can be generated and relayed is a strong force in creating a new movement for social change.(Korten, 2001) Each community has its own set of artists, and it is the role of community arts to hone and develop these artists to tell new stories and relate new conceptions about important in life. Rationale Community arts activities require appropriate planning and worthy activities to help communities reach and discover its potentials to promote change. This kind of change not only relates the manner by which communities progress, but also the manner in which people are affected and are changed into more social-conscious and responsible individuals. There is the need to include the youth in community development. Moreover, what better way to inspire the youth to take action within its environment is to provide them with activities that inspire them and that they can enjoy? A drama is well suited to explore community issues because it provides a comfortable zone in which children can feel relaxed to explore sensitive issues and promotes a free-flow exchange of ideas and creativity. More so, the activity shall empower the children in all aspect of drama production, from writing, to acting, to set production and promotion. One of the fundamental issues that concern almost every community in the country is upholding children’s rights. As basic it is to know children’s rights, most communities are often unaware of the necessity and implications of knowing the rights of children. As cliché as it may be, children’s rights are important to discuss because this will enable the youth to realize their importance in the society and make communities realize on the other hand, their role in promoting these rights. Objectives: General Objectives: The drama presentation of children’s rights should inform children of their fundamental rights as children and promote in the communities to uphold and practice of children’s rights. Specific Objectives: At the end of the drama presentation, the youth should be able to: 1. know the children’s rights 2. determine how to practice these rights 3. share the issues regarding children’s rights to their community 4. partake in activities that promote children’s rights 5. know the basics in writing for drama production 6. learn to creatively express themselves in preparation for a drama 7. learn how to produce sets and costumes 8. learn the basics of promotional activities Proponents: For this drama proposal, the ideal situation is to look into more long-term provisions for its objectives. The youth is an essential motivating factor in achieving development in the community. Society is very much aware of the influence and the role of the youth in community development. Thus, the proponents for this proposal are the youth. Age can range from 8 to 18 years old, and comprise of both elementary and high school students. This will impart a more diverse age group of youth voicing out their concerns with children’s rights and can account for a mixed cast of characters. Intended Audience: The audience for the drama presentation must include all members of the community. Respective schools in the district must be able to contribute as audience. The local government of the community will also be invited, along with some important members from non-government organizations. Everybody is invited, as admissions will be free for community members. Setting: The presentation will be held on any local area accessible for everyone, like the school’s gymnasium or the community park. If held in the school’s gymnasium, there would be less need to outsource technical assistance as provided by the school. The place also requires less hassle in terms of seating and stage. However, the community park can also be well-suited if technical assistance is made available and the place can be secured to place seats available for audience. The outdoors also creates more drama and can attract people to watch the free show. The drama presentation will be shown after working hours of the community to accommodate more audience. The presentation must be done in two hours, and includes discussion of the issues in the drama. Drama Treatment: The focus of the play is to inform and educate its audience about children’s rights and to highlight the practices by which people can practice and uphold the rights. Children mentioned as the characters of the play shall assume the cast of characters and identify different members of the community. The lead character of the play must be able to address and depict what children’s rights are and reflect in the play how it would be practiced in the community. Preparations: Before each activity, the community must be able to work together to produce a worthwhile drama presentation to address the different issues at hand. The group of organizers must first determine the cause by which every action of the production preparation must be done. The organizers, as the people responsible for giving directions on the production cast and crew must be clear with the objectives of the endeavor and must brainstorm on the necessary details of the production. Nevertheless, more importantly, they must realize that the community is the main proponents of the activity. The organizers of the local government and district school of the community must present the framework of the activity. They must be able to determine the issues and concern of the community when it comes to children’s rights. Organizers must also solicit ideas from community members on real situations that call for the full understanding of children’s rights. The organizers must also determine the existing laws and provisions of the local government in protecting the rights of children. After which, they can plan specific problems to address in the play and the manner by which they can address these to the children despite the sensitivity of the situation. The organizers then must meet with the school district supervisors, teachers, and parents of the students to explain the activities of the drama production. They must emphasize that the activity will require support from different key players of the activity and they must be able to understand the purpose of the venture. Organizers must then find a common time in which they must meet with the children to propose the activity and convince them to partake in the play. They must be able relate to the children that they are the focus of the play and they have the responsibility in making it successful. They must also be able to relate to the children that the production process is more of fun and not work. Activities: Fund- Raising Activities One of the factors that make a drama production successful is reliable funding sources. The organizers including the community leaders can ask for assistance in the local government for the production materials and different miscellaneous fees acquired on the training and practice period for the production. Fund-Raising Activities or (FRA) must be participated primarily parents in the community. Parents must think of ways to income-generating activities for the drama production. This can include garage sales in which each family can contribute used items of clothing or things that the group can sell. They can organize a food drive to sell homemade goodies and food in exchange for income to be used for the production. This will help the community establish camaraderie among one another and know the essence of helping one another. The drama production is estimated to occur in a ten-week period timeframe. It should start after proper discussion among the organizer, community leaders, school district heads, teachers, parents and local officials. The first week of the production must be dedicated to inform children about the topic at hand. Discussions and explanations from mature sources, including a psychologist, must be done to help children understand what children’s rights are and what it is for. They must also address these issues in a comprehensible manner suited for different age types of the children who will participate in the play. They must be able to encourage a healthy discussion of the topic, to frequently ask the children about their opinions and understanding of the topic. They must also solicit examples by which in the children’s perspective, they can exercise those rights. The second week of the production process must determine the script of the drama presentation. It is best to also encourage children to give their ideas on how the story of the drama should proceed. The children are the focus of the play; why not involve them in producing the script for the play? This can be done by having a basic writing workshop for the children to attend and submit a rough draft of their idea of the play. Organizers can then be able to collate the ideas and form a drama script that the children have contributed in making. In the third week of the production process, aside from the selection of cast leads and division of production work into teams, organizers must also prepare for more workshops for the children to deliver and perform the best way they can for the play. Workshops can include confidence building exercises, drama techniques and other related activities to prepare the children to perform on stage. The fund-raising activities should also be consistent and on-going throughout this week. The drama production do requires and need attention and time from all proponents of the activity. If permitted, schedules of training activities and fund-raising activities can be done after school hours and or weekends. This will also enable the community to establish their relationship with a common objective to make the drama production successful. The fourth week of the production process must include continuous training and practice for the child performers and also start of producing the sets and costumes of the performers. The organizers must also by this time, have established the venue and necessary equipments needed for the production of the play. The fifth week of the play must include the start of promotional activities for the play. This includes making promotional materials and publicity in the community. The children can give their ideas on how the invitations can be laid out, or how the posters for the play can look. It must be made sure that the promotional materials are simple, yet inviting for the general audience in the community. The rest of the week before the play date usually includes more training, continuous practice and making of production materials. Organizers must also make sure that the schedule is followed because many participants of the process have work and children are studying. They must also ensure that invitations to local officials are sent already and that everything is done, just the final additions to the play and its execution. Budget: Target Capital for the Drama Production: ₤500 Production Set: ₤ 120 Costumes: ₤ 40 Professional Fees: ₤ 130 Training Materials: ₤ 50 Miscellaneous: ₤ 30 Conclusion At the end of the drama production, after achieving the goals of the activity, organizers must get feedback from the community. This can be done by another meeting set at the end of the 10-week period of the production. Together with the key players of the activity, organizers must then facilitate more ideas exchange on the lessons learned during the process and how the community can now solve the issues due to the lack of information on children’s rights. Reference Read More