Process Drama IDEAS

Melanie Varcoe & Chris O’Neill

‘Where are you Teddy?’ Process Drama

For this Process Drama, we will be trying to involve the students into a global understanding and to plant human ideas. The context of this will involve the picture of the teddy bear alone on the cobblestones with the flower in its paw. (see references for picture).

 First the class must decide what year and world location the picture is placed in.

 Then the class needs to decide whom the teddy belongs to.

 The class then needs to decide why the teddy is there and who put the flower in the teddy’s paw.

 They can then give the ‘owner’, the ‘person who placed the flower’ and the teddy a name to create a sense of knowing amongst the group.

All of this should be written down on a large piece of paper and possibly stuck to the wall so that the students can see and relate to it throughout the process.

Process 1. Teacher In Role
This is an optional step for the process, although it will probably come in handy in setting the scene for a class that either hasn’t done a process drama before or a younger year level class.
The class decides which character the teacher will play – either the teddy, the owner or the person whom placed the flower in the teddy’s hand. The class is then only allowed to ask open-ended questions of the character. The questions should be limited to about 3-5. Each answer the teacher gives should create more questions in the students mind. The teacher should not give away too much. The students should be the ones who are creating the drama of the process.

Process 2. Iceberg
On a large piece of paper draw an iceberg shape with a water line. Ask the students to consider the text (above water) and subtext (below water) of the story. This can also be placed on the wall next to the base information of the process. This will aid as an anchor is the students get off course during the process. It will help bring the scenario back on track.

Process 3. Tableau
Students are then to get into groups of approx 4 and ask then to create a freeze frame shot of an hour before the photo was taken. Give the students 5 minutes to come up with a freeze frame shot.
After all scenes have been shown, promote discussion within the context of the freeze frames and what information has come out of the process. Decide on one of the frames as a class and use that context to create a past for the characters.

Process 4. Collective Character
The whole class is to form one character’s thoughts in conjunction with the freeze frame chosen above – either the teddy or the owner. Ask the students to sit in a circle, facing outwards so that no facial expressions are seen, and to stop any negativity within the thoughts being voiced. The students can randomly state thoughts out loud to the rest of the class. There need be no conformity within the thoughts, it is just what comes straight into the students minds at that time.
This will promote thoughts in the student’s minds and create a more rounded view of the text and sub-text of the characters thoughts. This will hopefully help with group performances to gain further understanding and break down barriers within the class to working with different people.

Process 5. Thought Tracking
Again in groups of 4 (try to promote different groups within the class to gather a more rounded view of the process), create a scene where the inner thought/s and emotions of one of the characters are shown. The groups can decide which characters thoughts/underlying emotions are to be shown and how, wether the individual character is showing them, or the other members of the group are showing the thoughts. Each scene should last no longer than 2 minutes. Give the students about 8-10 minutes to work on this scene. Then ask the students to perform the scene, asking the students for feedback after each short scene.
The teacher might have set up a table of props, such as a flower, material, camera, teddy, that can be used, only if completely necessary, in the scene. Students must ask first before taking the props.

Process 5. Away From Naturalism
In the same groups, ask the students to further work on the scene and create it into a mime sequence, making sure that the students focus on and bring out the emotions of the characters. Give each group 5 minutes to work on the scene. Ask the students to perform the scene, again promote discussion about the story that is unfolding.
Further this process by adding layers onto the scenes. Next by asking the students to add only sound and/or 1-2 spoken words. Again, ask them to perform and discuss.
If enough time, ask the students to perform the same scene again, but just with the sub-context of the characters thoughts being voiced. Again, ask them to perform and discuss.
Each scene should only last about 30 seconds.

Process 6. Flashback – Marking the Moment
In different groups of about 4, ask the students to re-enact a few moments before the photo was taken, ending their drama piece with the photo being taken. Give the students about 8-10 minutes to work on this scene; making sure that it is tied back in to the tableau and thought tracking processes. Also creating similar subtext and emotions that have arisen during the process.

Process 7. Small Group Drama - Looking Into the Future
As we have just looked at the past context of the photo, ask the students to get into different groups of 4 and devise a 20-30 second drama of what happens to the teddy in the future. It can be 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 1 year, 10 years after the photo was taken. Either set each group with a time and show the performances in chronological order (this would be more helpful for a class that either hasn’t done a process drama before or a younger year level class), or ask them to create their own timeline.
Make sure that the students are still keeping in mind the sub-text and tableau of the performances and to create an outcome to the drama. It may be positive or negative. It is their choice.
Promote discussion afterwards as to why the students chose that particular ending to the drama.

To conclude the process, the class should sit in a circle and discuss any conflicts and resolve any problems that may have arose during the lesson. This will promote a rounded discussion and hopefully distil any negativity that may have happened. It also gives the teacher a good guide as to possible structure of lessons for this class in the future and also how to devise a new Process Drama or possibly modify the ‘Where are you Teddy?’ process in the future.

REFERENCES:

The photo of the teddy bear was found on the Microsoft ClipArt website.

The easiest way to download the picture is to open up a Microsoft Word document. Go to the tabs on the top of the page - Insert, Picture, Clipart, then go to ‘Clips Online’ (you will have to sort though a few clips before you find it though) – The keyword that I use for the clip is ‘TEDDY’ it always comes up in the first few clips for that search.

Alternatively, you can click the below URL:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/clipart/results.aspx?qu=teddy&sc=22

Then just follow the prompts to download it to your computer, they are located on the left hand side of the web page.

NOTE **
YOU MUST HAVE CLIPART OPEN IN MICROSOFT WORD FOR THIS TO WORK!

Specific Information for photo file:

File name j0395946.jpg
Media type: Photo
Dimensions: 768 (w) x 591 (h) pixels
Resolution: 150 dpi
File size: 254 KB
Keywords: bricks, cobblestones, flowers, photographs, playthings, stuffed toys, teddy bears, toys