Applying theatre theory and practice to Shakespearean texts in schools

Abstract

ln Chapter 1 l set out to draw parallels between the classroom situation and that in the theatre. I compare the role of the teacher to that of the director. Brecht's theory about Epic Theatre is applied to the classroom situation and the Chapter explores how the Shift from passive to active spectator/student enhances the student's learning process and empowers him/her to think critically in his/her English Literature lesson. Chapter 2 explores the encounter between the student and the text. During this Chapter I highlight what aspects of the text should be stressed during the lesson. The chapter mainly explores the use of imagination. sub-text and the Director's interpretation of the text. ln each case, every aspect of the text. tackled, as previously mentioned, is accompanied by actual dramatic exercises that could be proposed to students, The aim of the exercises is to make the students aware of the fact that they are dealing with a theatre text, as well as to develop their critical skills. I explain in Chapter 3 my choice of tackling Shakespeare's plays with the students. These are optional texts in the Maltese educational system. It is the teachers or subject coordinators who make this choice for the students. In Chapter 3 I also justify the Shakespearean texts I chose as well as the level I chose to work with: i.e. Form 3. The Chapter also gives a general analysis of the questionnaire results which is carried out in more minute detail in Appendix . My initial methodological approach was to examine a cross section of Maltese Secondary Schools. I had intended to work in 4 schools: a State Junior Lyceum for boys and one for girls, a private school and an Area Secondary School. I also wanted to work in collaboration with the teacher as I lacked the teaching skills to assume full responsibility of the classroom. What I took with me was my baggage of theatre knowledge and praxis. I was not able to realize my plans fully. I discovered that in the particular Area Secondary School I had planned to work, English Literature is not taught at all. This is the case in many of this type of school. Moreover, the teacher I had planned to work with at the boys' Junior Lyceum did not want to participate in the workshop and I did not feel I had the experience or ability to handle the class on my own. An added problem was that, although l had intended to carry out a series of 6 workshops sessions I was only allowed to conduct one workshop and attend two other lessons as an observer in the two schools which permitted me to use their classes. Originally I had approached a greater amount of schools, in order for me to carry out my research, than the two I ultimately worked in. Unfortunately complications arose when I was turned down at the last minute by these schools and the 2 case studies I eventually carried out at Carlo Diacono and St. Aloysius were not the total amount I had originally planned. which made it impossible to attain the objectives I had originally set myself. Chapter 4 puts the workshop experience against a theoretical background by setting moments from the workshop against theories by theatre pedagogues and experts in drama for learning. The aim of the chapter is to show that through a dramatic approach, the students' learning processes may be further enhanced and as a result students will add new layers of meaning and understanding to the text they would have already tackled in class. This dissertation places vital importance on the figure of the teacher who should act as guide and facilitator during the course of students' learning processes. Finally, as Martin Esslin states: " .... drama is also a 'ludic' activity springing from sheer playfulness or the fun of impersonation; children playing fathers and mothers, or doctors and patients, are engaging in improvised drama, both as a form of pleasurable joyful self-expression and also as a learning process".