A journey in metaxis explores the facilitation of drama workshops using an adaptation of Theatre
of the Oppressed, a participatory drama process used with high school students, teachers and
others in the community. New possibilities of engagement open up as knowing emerges through a
variety o f forms of dramatic action which are simultaneously the medium, subject and
re-presentation of research.
As a theatre pedagogue I explore how knowing and meaning emerge through theatre and in the
interplay between my life and my work. Writing, then reading, narratives of my practice engages
me in a conversation that helps me draw attention to my practice. Diverse roles and points of view
of the drama facilitator begin to become apparent as these narratives speak through a spiralling
process of shared experiences. Commentaries on these experiences lead to discussions of the
implications of this inquiry for other forms of reflective leadership practice in drama and in
education.
Particular attention is placed on the role of the body and mind (bodymind) of facilitator and
participants as they journey into an increasing awareness of senses, histories, the landscapes
worked in, and the relationships that intertwine through the constant ebb and flow of the drama
workshop. Using a framework that parallels the drama workshop I facilitate, I play with forms of
texts, languages and styles to enter into the text(ure) of the worlds of facilitation so that we may
come face to face with kinaesthetic and discursive experiences remembered and reconsidered.
Writing my body into this exploration enables me to become mindfully aware of, and extends and
transforms, my practice. I re-awaken the memory of my senses and re-connect with them in the
moments of "performing" my teaching. Such poetic and expressive writing enables an evocation
of the world of drama. Writing from and through a sensing body means that reflection on practice
becomes not merely reporting experiences, but also celebrating and expressing the multi-vocal,
multi-layered events that develop drama facilitation skills.
Writing, then reading, about this process of coming to know my identity-in-process as a drama
facilitator enables the interpretation, interrogation and transformation of how one becomes
facilitator, "making the way as we go," (re)writing/performing our presence.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13085 |
Date | 05 1900 |
Creators | Linds, Warren |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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