Creating Change Quality Principles Pilot 3 Case Study

Ovalhouse Future Stage Programme

Ovalhouse is a fringe theatre in South London with a large and thriving participation programme offering creative opportunities for a range of children and young people, including those whoare considered at risk, vulnerable and socially excluded.

Future Stages

Future Stages is a participatory arts intervention programme supporting children who are considered ‘at risk’.Practitioners such as Augusto Boal and Dorothy Heathcote have inspired the drama methodologies adopted.The programme is specifically designed to support children aged 8- 12 years from disadvantaged circumstances who find themselves on the brink of exclusion or other crises. Working in partnership with local authorities, schools and pupil referral units, the project aims to use creative processes to give young people effective lifelong tools that build their resilience and maximise their strengths and so break the cycle of deprivation, not only for themselves, but also for their communities.

In 2014 the delivery has been in two contexts: a small class of 10 children in a pupil referral unit in Lambeth,who are not in main stream school because they are not able to cope in that setting,and a second group of individually referred children who have been recruited because they are facing crises in their life such as being in foster care, being bullied at school or family breakdown.

Ovalhouse commits to working with children for at least year. Occasionally children may choose to leave before a year has elapsed or may be moved out of borough into new accommodation or a new fostering setting, making it difficult for them to continue their involvement.

Future Stages is a three year project supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London Borough of Lambeth Commissioning, KPMG Foundation, Equitable Charitable Trust.

The project is the subject of an external evaluation by The Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths University. The material in this case study is taken from a report on the use of ‘In Role’ as a drama technique written by Chrissie Tiller, Director MA Participatory Arts at Goldsmiths and part of the CUCR team.

The use of in-Role in Future Stages

The case study set out below istaken from Chrissie Tiller’s report on the use of ‘In-Role’ in Future Stages and from reflective notes by Angela Ekaette Michaels one of the Future Stages practitioners. The case study seeks to describe how ‘In-Role’ work embodies all 7 Quality Principles in a joined up approach.

The Future Stages team is keen to offer the young people who are part of the programme a range of challenges and opportunities to shine in different ways: sharing the time equally between focusing on process and creating product. Within these parameters, however, they have observed that the ‘teacher in role’ method is particularly effective at encouraging the group to be more co-operative and in developing their team working skills. In needing to work together to solve a shared problem, the whole group focus remains very much on the task in hand and the act of playing another character or taking on a role becomes a much less competitive exercise. Because the teacher in role is able to work within the drama and alongside the young people rather than directing them from the front, this methodology offers a much more interactive, two-way model of learning. Importantly, in order for the process to work, everyone has to engage in [1]equal ‘buy-in’ to the story, often by demonstrating their willingness to meet the ‘in role’ character and creating a complementary character of their own.

The Future Stages team uses ‘teacher in role’ and more traditional drama and theatre making practice across the programme. Both offer young people the opportunity to be creative, use their imagination and develop personal skills such as empathy, by reflecting on what it might be like to live in someone else’s shoes. However, when it comes to sharing a piece of theatre, the team has noticed the collaborative approach developed in rehearsal can often disappear under the pressure of working towards a product for an audience. Although the opportunity to share newly gained skills, such as the recent creation and manipulation of shadow puppets, certainly raises the young people’s sense of achievement,[2] personal glory and questions of ownership are often back on the table.

What is teacher in role?

‘Teacher in role’ allows the teacher to draw on storytelling and theatre techniques by presenting themselves as an imaginary character within a drama. Although it is based on drama and theatre methods it is important for those teachers who have no formal theatre training to know that being ‘in role’ does not require traditional ‘acting’ abilities; in fact focusing on your own acting can often be a disadvantage. Part of the success of teacher in role relies on young people being able to feel they are [3]co-creators in the story rather than members of an audience. In responding to a simple offer made by the teacher taking on a role, young people realise it is possible for anyone to adopt the attitudes and behaviour of someone else. Watching the teacher signal they are playing another character by merely changing their voice, posture, taking up a prop or a specific item of clothing gives young people permission to practice and try out new roles of their own.

For instance , after establishing a’ tree-tops’ community who ate breakfast together each day, one facilitator put on an imaginary apron and set about preparing breakfast, asking which child what they would like. The children really engaged with this and asked for wonderful elaborate breakfasts, but also made offers of help to give out plates, help cook,serve, wash up etc. As they all settled down to eat, the scene was set for the facilitator (still in-role) to intimate that one of the group was missing and the cook produced a letter he’d found in his kitchen. It was from ‘Tom’, the fictional missing group member who revealed in this letter that a magic bird had visited him in the night and requested his help, so Tom had set out on a quest. The group decided they must follow him. As they packed their rucksacks they thought about what challenges they might meet along the way and how they felt about embarking on this journey. Through negotiation they also decided that they must all go, no-one should be left behind. Angela Ekaette Michaels[4]

Teacher in role is a technique that, once established with a group, offers endless possibilities for shaping the learning experience: from within the drama (as a character) as well as without (as the teacher). It can be introduced at any stage in the story making, dependent on the group and what the teacher wants to achieve in a particular session. E.g.

  • Opening the drama. By presenting a character that arouses the imagination and curiosity of the young people, the teacher can offer useful information, encourage questioning and open up a shared fiction. This opening role can be undertaken by the teacher her/himself or by another colleague. The Oval House team sometimes use another colleague to play this role in order to create an atmosphere of shared anticipation.
  • Developing and deepening the drama. By challenging and questioning the young people as co- creators of the story, the teacher in role can work with the group to elicit further information about characters or events, clarify the action, or extend and deepen their thinking/listening skills by encouraging them to reflect on and understand someone else’s point of view.
  • Building, maintaining or heightening the dramatic tension. The character the teacher has created in role can often be used hold the focus in more significant moments. It is also possible to create a character that acts much more like a devil’s advocate, encouraging the young people to defend their position within the story by questioning and challenging what is happening.
  • Managing classroom behaviour within the drama. By working with the young people to create stories and situations where the need to collaborate or negotiate with others is integral to the action the teacher in role can encourage these qualities through the fiction rather than imposing them from above.

e.g. In the ‘tree top’ villager’s journey, they found pieces of a map which they needed to piece together in order to go on their journey. The group were very excited by the discovery of the map and were so absorbed by putting it together that they forgot all their differences as they tried to fit the pieces together. It’s worth mentioning that some of the group did find this a challenge intellectually and may not have done many, if any jigsaws before, as it took a while for them to realise that the straight edges and corners formed the perimeter of the map.

Each week they faced a new challenge. One week they reached the lake, but had no means of crossing it, and so had to ‘build a boat’. This was adapted from the game, “What are you doing?”, reply “building a boat”, “can I help”, “of course, come on” and so on until the whole group is involved. Even the most sceptical young man who always entered the session with his eyes down and would sit slumped in his seat, was immersed in imaginary sawing, hammering, painting, chopping wood and so on until the boat was built and everyone sailed to the other side(with a few close calls and one man overboard and rescued by the group!) All of this instigated by the children, who demonstrated their ownership of thenarrative, feeding in dramatic events where they wanted them.

When they got to the other side they found the boatman (teacher-in-role,) in terrible disorder, he also ran a shop, from which they needed provisions but as he was in such a sorry state they unpacked boxes, sorted out his shop and took it in turns to be on the till while they bought goods. In return the boatman/shopkeeper gave them a lot of guidance for the rest of their journey. N.B The children were not asked to build a boat, or to help the shopkeeper, but these were behaviours they decided upon, in order to fulfil their quest. The notion that they would collaborate and help each other grew stronger as they built on one successful challenge to another on a weekly basis.Angela Ekaette Michaels

  • Concluding the drama. By creating and guiding a moment of reflection from within the process and while in role the teacher can often encourage more thoughtful and considered responses.

With one group we always ended the ‘day’s journey’ by settling down in a place to sleep for the night, sometimes around a camp-fire, which provided a good opportunity for reflection, then the children would settle down to ‘sleep’, while being talked through a ‘meditation’ of their experiences and triumphs with gentle music playing in the background.

With another group a huge store of gold was discovered. Everyone lay claim to it and the king’s advisor (teacher-in-role), suggested to his majesty that he might like to call a meeting to decide the best use of the gold.

The same king (child in role) was also concerned with the relationships within the village and decided to marry off the facilitators (as his subjects) and put his subjects in family units. At this time the child in question was experiencing a lot of disruption and was being moved back and forth from his mother’s to his grandad’s , so possibly he was unwittingly using the drama to explore notions of family and belonging, it may also have enabled a sense of agency as real life events were beyond his control.Angela Ekaette Michaels[5]

What skills are needed?

Successful in role work relies on an ability to be flexible about your status and a preparedness to risk taking on roles that do not reflect the teacher’s usual position of authority in the classroom. High status is the default position of the teacher in the usual classroom set up. And, of course, high status roles will be needed at some point within most dramas. But, with careful thought, the teacher can undercut stereotypes and challenge the young people’s expectations. E.g. they could decide to play a king but create a character that doesn’t enjoy his position of power and relies on his advisers (the young people) for guidance. [6] The most useful roles in getting the drama going are often mid or lower status as they are already asking the young people for some kind of help, advise, support. E.g. a messenger bringing the news of what’s happened in the village, an assistant or servant relaying their understanding of what is going on, a mediator (good for maintaining distance from hostility and pushing the narrative forward), someone who needs help (good for gaining advice and ideas) or one amongst equals e.g. a fellow astronaut on a space voyage (good for problem solving).

Working in role does need a certain amount of confidence on the part of the teacher but, more importantly, it needs them to take the in role process seriously. If the teacher is clearly committed to their role the young people soon recognise this and pick up the signals. There are tools and tricks of the trade that can be acquired with experience, especially when thinking about possible outcomes, but setting things up clearly, often just by using a signifier such as a simple prop or piece of costume to indicate when one is ‘in role’ and putting it down when one has returned to the ‘role’ of teacher, gives confidence and clarity.

In role work should never be seen as any easy option. Careful research and detailed preparation, especially if one is working with a historical topic or setting the story in a particular geographical or cultural context, adds credibility; which in turn encourages the young people’s commitment.[7]

Part of one quest was for the group to explore historical characters who weren’t the ‘stock’ characters taught about in Black History Month, such as Lady Sarah Bonetta Forbes and Mary Prince. In-role time-travel is a very successful way of overlaying historical fact with imagining what particular characters were like and empathising with their life’s experience. [8]

It can also be a completely imaginary journey, but using curriculum areas they’ve covered as the foundation. In one workshop we did a time travel ‘ pit stop’ thorough several eras in history. (The dramatic device was an old watch that ‘spun’ us back in time. We were all at wizard school and trying out our new powers) This particular session was held outdoors and it was liberating for the whole group to fly about and interact with each other, led only by their imaginations, but particularly for one young woman who had early onset puberty and wasn’t comfortable with her body, who was completely liberated and running about narrating all her actions, completely freed from the restrictions of feeling big (she was a lot taller and broader than her peers) and self-conscious). Angela Ekaette Michaels

Whilst working in role, the teacher needs to be focused on the way the story is developing and constantly scanning the room can be open to offers. Once in role they have to be prepared to trust the young people and ready to hand over the action to them. This means a willingness to improvise within the drama, responding to the young people’s contributions even when they may seem ‘weird and wonderful.’ [9]

For instance in one groups islandstory, the idea of modes of transport was introduced, we needed to get from A to B. In following this idea of how would we travel a member of the class who had hitherto swung between being a bit sullen or a bit ‘hyper’ and sometimes a disruptive influence, said he knew all about the buses and challenged us to ask him any question about London bus routes. We responded to this offer and a happy and somewhat ‘left-field’ five to ten minutes was spent while we asked him about buses eg “tell me about the 171” and so on. He knew them all! In the end we decided to travel by foot because of the terrain, but he had contributed to the discussion and hence the development of the story. Also in revealing a bit about himself in the safety of the dramatic narrative, had a new found respect among his peers for his specialist knowledge and from then on was more confident and relaxed in the workshops.Angela Ekaette Michaels[10]

Use of language and register is particularly important, especially when trying to indicate status or encouraging the young people to think about how a character they have created might behave. It is interesting how ready young people are to take on the register of another and how knowledgeable they can be about how someone such as an older bus driver or an ambitious lawyer or a nervous king might speak.