The Imagination

Last week at the conference there were some interesting presentations. One of which was on Teaching Through Drama. The idea always kind of interested me. In a shakespeare class I took last semester we were required to act out a scene from a chosen work and it went alright, pretty laid back, but it served it's purpose and the teacher really enjoyed it. However, what I learned through this seminar was to engage imagination even more so. Instead of acting out the work students would set up a scene in a freeze frame type of way. Then the rest of the class would close their eyes as the students set up the next scene and they opened their eyes when the others were ready. It was quite interesting because the students performing have to choose the best way to represent the scene without dialogue and with just a narrator. It gives the students a chance to both express themselves physically and others vocally while engaging their imaginations to be put on the spot. They were only granted about 5 minutes to prepare which really caused the groups to focus right away and get everything together. I thought it really was a great exercise.