They Do Call it a "Play," Don't They?

Esling, Kathleen

ET

Werberger, R. (2014, May 20). They do call it a “play,” don’t they? EduTopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/they-do-call-it-a-play-raleigh-werberger

I actually found this during a quick search while I was working with my partner on Transformation B. This short article discusses how educators can use drama in part of a Project-Based Learning (PBL) unit. As a theatre minor, I wanted to know how drama (a very hands-on subject) could help further a PBL unit's goals.

Werberger describes his approach in using Euripedes's The Trojan Women in a 9th-grade multidisciplinary humanities unit. How could he get kids interacting with the material and thinking in-depth about the content?  Through a combination of performance, research, and seminar discussions, Werberger put together a PBL unit that got his kids working. After learning about different performance artists and styles, students alternated performance and non-performance days. On performance days, students used the text and brought five class-chosen scenes to life. Students struggled with acting and speaking at the same time, so students were divided into "performers" and "readers," with the performers manifesting the action that the readers spoke aloud. The class as a whole would dissect the performance and point to ways that movement could be used differently to bring the text to life properly and convey the most pertinent ideas and emotions from the scene.

On non-performance days, they had seminar discussions about the play. Students were responsible for looking into the history behind the period and the play, and they had to devise their own "driving questions." Researching these questions and posting them on a class site helped shape the performances, and it helped give the students a great deal to discuss in their in-class "Socratic Circles." Putting history and text side-by-side helped the students to understand the play a great deal better.

I thought that this article was a good way to explore how drama has a place in "serious" coursework. (Perhaps this is a touchy subject as, during undergrad, during finals week no one took my finals stress since "all you have to do for theatre is play dress up" -- WRONG!) Instead, Werberger and his students found that using drama can be awkward and challenging at first, but it pulls you in and helps you to find something of interest in the text. It spurred students to connect with the material, making the culminating projects more interesting for them.