Product Description

A collection of literature anthologies and reference books for Key Stage 3 onwards. A practical handbook for drama teachers and lecturers, youth leaders, theatre workers and anyone engaged in drama activity with people of all ages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #552953 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 120 pages

Customer Reviews

Invaluable Tool
Structuring Drama Work is both a deliciously practical and a tacitly theoretical handbook for teachers/leaders of drama. This is no small feat for a book that is only eighty-four pages in length. Neeland's book deftly examines the infinitely important notion of the structures and conventions used when teaching, facilitating and learning through theatre/drama; while it concurrently argues for the need for flexibility when designing for and working with students of theatre/drama. David Booth sums up the concept of theatre explored in this book when he describes the author's view of theatre as, "a meaning-making endeavour that interprets life and helps us to understand our world" (P.1). The strength of this book is that it does not get bogged down by such an ambiguous or esoteric definition; rather, it uses this definition to elucidate the potential power of drama in each of the lives of those who choose to suspend their disbeliefs (P.72) and participate in the collective endeavour of theatre. Most of the book is a compilation of current conventions applied in drama/theatre and used to enhance the educative process of expressing the world through symbolic form. Context-building, narrative, poetic and reflective conventions are explored in detail; they range from simple games to tableau to complex conventions like whole-group role-playing. Rather than focus on examples ad infinitum, Neeland focuses on the description, cultural connections and learning opportunities of each convention. This is where the power of the book is located; teachers, rather than just mimicking rote exercises, are given the reasons for the use of the convention and appropriate times to employ it. This fulfills an absolute requirement of teaching: the ability to answer the students' legitimate question of "Why are we doing this?!?". On page seventy-nine there is a diagram that clearly illustrates the purpose of the conventions described. My initial response was that I would give this diagram to my students; however, on page eighty-two Neeland writes, "To be too definite and clear about the intentions and focus of the work in advance is to deny the students the power and experience of being artists." Neeland is arguing here that the power of the Gestalt or "Aha!" component of learning should not be too quickly dismissed. My feeling now is that I would let the needs of the group I was working with dictate whether or not to reveal the purpose of the unit to them. I believe this is in line with Neeland's tacit theory, that the needs of the group supersedes the needs of the program or the teacher. The teachers who employs Neeland's methods, over time, will likely learn to wed teaching the conventional structures of drama to the spontaneous needs of the students. Neeland's adoption of the female form of the third person pronoun and his use of the term "teacher/leader" demonstrates, I believe, his implicit subversion of the current pedagogical patriarchal paradigm. Neeland appears to be undermining the role of the teacher as the repository of Truth. His examples are wonderfully open-ended and he appears to be encouraging teachers to employ both conventions and there own examples according to the needs of the students. His theoretical approach can be glimpsed through instructions like, "... whereas well-researched context-building action and the controlled pace of reflective action may produce challenges to assumptions and prejudices." (P.74). This is an invaluable book both as an easy to use reference of theatrical/dramatic conventions and as a reminder of the endless and fruitful possibilities of learning through theatre.