ISTA Scene June 2010

mean for the young people... exploring new territory, crossing
boundaries, being adventurous and brave, and opening up new
worlds, new thinking, enabling creative journeys and returning
changed in some way. How exciting! And better still all these
possibilities would be supported by the cultural experience in
Lisbon: historically the gateway to exploration and discovery when
Portuguese explorers set sail nearly 600 years ago to venture into
the unknown.
As AD for the festival I asked myself: How can we ensure that
the young people make the most of the rich opportunities within
the theme of SPACE and recognise the strong links between the
creative journeys within an ISTA Festival and those of the
Portuguese explorers many years before. Also factoring in my
thinking were the needs of the primary aged children, many of
whom have not experienced the delights of ISTA before. My
previous experience working on primary festivals led me to reflect
that for many of the young people working as an ensemble and
recognising the inherent disciplines within the Art forms, is a
challenge within itself. I felt it important therefore, that these young
people engage positively with the ISTA ethos and are supported to
understand the ISTA code of conduct in practice and not just in
principle. Clear expectations would need to be negotiated and
disciplined approaches modelled so that we could all have serious
fun! Primary children are so open to play, but often need support in
realising ‘structured’ play; play with a clear purpose, the structured
play that Drama-in-Education processes offers.
I was also motivated by the prospect of these young people
staying in the ISTA family through the middle school festivals, high
school festivals and beyond. If we can inspire them now we will
keep them for the long haul! Just imagine how fabulous these
young people would be to work with when they are young adults
on the foundation of primary ISTA experiences.
Finally, I considered the teachers joining their pupils at the
festival. Many of these primary school teachers would not be
specialists in the Arts and so I asked myself: how can we make the
work of the artist accessible to a non-specialist, and model
approaches to teaching and learning that are applicable to the
creative needs of teachers and learners in the 21st century
curriculum?
With all these factors in mind it made sense to me to focus the
festival more on the process rather than the product, and to use a
Mantle of the Expert approach throughout the festival. Mantle of
the Expert was developed by Dorothy Heathcote (eminent
International Drama in Education Specialist) as an innovative
approach to teaching and learning across the curriculum. In a nut
shell Mantle of the Expert:
• frames the teaching and learning in an imaginary context,
involving an ENTERPRISE, a CLIENT and a PROBLEM to solve
• requires the teacher to assume a FICTIONAL ROLE (or roles),
which places the pupils as EXPERTS in a particular branch of
knowledge such as Accident Investigators, Detectives,
Anthropologist… Explorers of Space (in our case)
• creates a CREATIVE context for learning using DRAMATIC
METAPHOR
In the first planning meeting with the staff I brought my ‘artistic
offer’ to the table, but it was not without reservations. ISTA as an
organisation values diversity, and as an AD I am acutely aware of
the riches that the staff bring to the festivals from their own
disciplines, worlds of work and bountiful experiences. It is
important that the AD enables the artist to flourish and stretch their
own practice. I worried therefore, that by proposing a Mantle of the
Expert structure to the festival that they may feel that their own
creative input was not being acknowledged, and that I was
dictating a structure that they were not comfortable with. As a
teacher, artist and AD I aim to work hard to develop a collegiate
approach within a creative learning process; aiming to enable coconstruction
of the learning and co-authorship of the forms in
which we learn. Would my idea seem like an imposition to the
team? I felt only too aware that people do not reject their own
ideas only those imposed upon them! I would suggest that this is
the tension that all AD’s face: enabling ownership of the process
for all involved, while ensuring cohesion and meaningful outcomes.
I did, therefore, pitch my idea for the mantle on the basis that it
was open to discussion, rejection or adaptation. I presented my
rational for approaching the festival using a mantle, explaining the
riches of using this imaginary drama context as a ‘liberating’
structure within which we could all work and still explore our own
curiosities about space, exploration and discoveries. The team
embraced the challenge and so our creative journey together
began!
Can you provide an overview of the artistic process?
I arrived at the festival with a basic frame in my mind for the
mantle. I had planned how the stages in the development of the
mantle, the commission from the client, the inevitable dilemma and
the resolution, could all fit into the festival timetable. I had also
considered how the cultural experience might be developed as an
integral part of this context and not feel like an arbitrary ‘bolt on’.
As a staff team we took this basic mantle and co-authored the
frame for the festival experience.
The I.S.T.A (Inter Stella Training Academy) Mantle (in short!):
EXPERT ROLE for the pupils:
Space Explorers ‘ISTA-nauts’ (at least, almost expert Space
Explorers, in the final stages of their training at the I.S.T.A (Inter
Stella Training Academy) Head Quarters.
STAFF ROLE:
Training Officers of the I.S.T.A Zodiac residential training
programme and leaders of the Zodiac Squadrons: Libra, Leo,
Pisces, and Taurus etc.
AD ROLE:
President of the I.S.T.A Programme (representing the CLIENT in
the mantle by setting the training task to the ISTA-nauts,
monitoring outcomes and setting challenges)
CONTEXT:
The pupils are framed in role as ISTA-naut cadets arriving at the
Zodiac residential programme for the final stage of their 4-year
training to become a fully qualified expert Space Explorer. They
must successfully complete the rigorous training programme and
meet the challenges presented to them. Each squadron will be
sent on a mission (unique to their squadron) and must present the
outcomes of this mission in order to graduate.
DILEMMA:
To upgrade the responses from the pupils, to challenge their
thinking and creative processes the mission will inevitably not run
smoothly! Problems will be encountered and the staff (Training
Officers) will be sure to ‘drop in’ the problems along the way!
THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCE:
Based on the theme of SPACE and the cultural experience
designed by the host, Zoe Weiner could be positioned perfectly
within the mantle as a training exercise. The way in which Zoe had
introduced the excursion in the festival programme was a ‘happy
accident’; her language and imaginary frame directly supported our
mantle:
“You will be transported to the historical area of Belem and
your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to log important
data, sample local delicacies, gather photographic evidence of
your journey and take a quick trip into outer space before reporting
back to base.”
CLOSURE OF THE MANTLE:
The residential training programme will culminate in a final
presentation to the President and a large group of International
Experts (host parents!) who will decide if you graduate or not.
What were the outcomes of approaching the festival in this
way?
Clearly the outcomes I am sharing are those I perceived
through my lens as the AD. I am confident that I will have missed
outcomes (good and bad) and that the experience will have felt
and appeared different through the lenses of the staff, young
people and teachers. So here goes, the outcomes through my
lens:
• The transformation in the pupils’ engagement once we framed
them in-role was significant. For example some boys who we
were struggling to connect with in the opening group session,
4 | Scene | 2009-10 June Issue 4