DRAMA SPACES - Youth Arts Programme

dramaspaces6 18/8/05 4:25 PM Page 45TechniquesThese are a few techniques that I have referred to throughout the manual. It is by using these techniquesthat you can help your group to explore its own response to the stimulus for drama you present it with.Don’t be intimidated. Once you have used a technique, you will remember it.ImprovisationIt is very important, if we want any young person to engage in drama, that we are willing to do it ourselves.Creating the belief in a fictional world is central to drama. Central to creating that belief is the ability toimprovise. By improvising, we project ourselves into a fictional world, a situation or another person’s reality.It is necessary to cover issues such as safety and group rules before we begin teaching improvisation.All too often, the facilitator’s desire to ‘make it work’directs the action and his/her panic about the subjectmatter can stop any action. It is important to watch for that in yourself when trying improvisation.As reading material, I couldn’t recommend Keith Johnson’s ‘Impro’ more. It is an accessible, practical andenjoyable read. It is also the kind of book that you can read on and off, dip back into, and find somethingnew over the years.This is a section of a workshop. You can select other warm ups, focus exercises and wind-down exercises tosuit your group of young people.Who? What? Where?Simple Improvisation exercises can be found in Workshop Section 3 (page 20)Status and how it worksStatus is the easiest and most comprehensible way for a group to grasp the basics of improvisation.See Workshop Sections 3 & 4 (Page 20, Page 24).Image workWhen you have a group of young people creating a frozen picture/image/tableaux it is important to:• Remind them where their audience is.• Remind them that they cannot use words.You can add depth to an image by Thought-Tracking the individuals in the picture.• Tell the group to think of a word that describes how their character is feeling in that picture.Tell themthat you will go around and when you place your hand on their shoulder, they can speak.45