Spider’s Work 2: Noise

The second Spider’s Work Play-shop was presented on 21 and 22 November at the HB Thom Theatre, Stellenbosch University.  The playshop ran Friday from 17:00 to 20:00 and Saturday from 8:30 to 17:00..

Spider’s Work is an educational drama training programme that can teach actors to use their craft to help people deal with value conflicts and assist teachers or community workers to use drama as learning medium in their own conflict ridden contexts.

On the past weekend 6 professionals from different educational fields learned how to use story telling, role-play and improvisation to get young people talking about their values. There were 2 actors looking for ways to apply their art for helping young people gain a voice, a minister craving creative inspiration for communicating with his young congregation and a lecturer from the Education Department recently resigned looking for new ways to educate. There were also two participants from the previous workshop looking for more of what they got last time – specifically more analysis and theory on how this process utelizes the magic of mythic journeys and archetypal characters to get young people to reflect on who they are and how they fit into their world

A little more detail about the content of the ‘Play-shop’:

The difference between the main character of a story and the supporting characters, is that the main character undergoes personal growth. This growth follows a very particular pattern of events leading to the main character’s gradually becoming aware of his/her desires and values and how s/he fits into the world.  Story tellers, writers and  film makers know the pattern and use it cleverly to tell stories that can move you and make you aware of yourself and your relationships.

The Shamans of ancient tribes used the same pattern to tell myths and create rituals to keep their tribesmen on the path to spiritual maturity. Even the story of Jesus Christ follows the same pattern. More interestingly, any personal growth ordinary people undergo in real life happens according to the same pattern. In this way stories mirror life and life mirrors stories.

More so than the previous round, the playshop explained the ‘drama recipes’ used to form this pattern. Particpants were deeply moved by the pttential of these recipes and their use in educational contexts.

The playshop programme:

Friday
17:00-17:30	Welcome and introduction
17:30-20:00	Drama Process
Saturday
8:30-10:45	1. Values and re-evaluation
	2. Recipe 1: A fictional setting wherein value conflict can play out
10:45-11:00	Tea
11:00-13:00 3.	Recipe 2: Characters that can change and grow
	4. Recipe 3: character relationships that can provide value conflict
13:00-13:45	Lunch
13:45-15:45 5	Building belief
	6. Recipe 4: Plotline that promote value awareness and personal growth

The plan after the playshop:

After the playshop, participants agreed on the following:

1. Post their evaluation of the workshop on the Spider’s Work Blog.

2. Plan one intervention with a group of their choice using the techniques and approaches taught at the Spider’s Work Playshop.

3. Implement the plan.

4. Evaluate the implementation, adapt the plan and try it again.

5. Post the plan, evaluation, adaptation and report back of the second try on the Spider’s Work Blog as a means of sharing their journey with others, especially the members of their own training group.

Post all your comments about this playshop here by clicking on the title of this page and filling in the comment box.

Evaluation and feedback

To all the Islanders of Playshop 1

It took me all this time to get my thoughts and my body to catch up with each other after our incredible time together . May I just thank you all again for giving so much of yourselves and your creativity.

Evaluation of the workshop:

Below is the first step in your feedback after the workshop. There will be others and I will remind you about them in time. For now I have one pressing question even before you  start answering my previously prepared questions: Did you get what you came for? Please indicate which playshop you attended (Islanders or Noise) and then answer this question plus the rest as a comment to this post.

Posting your evaluation and feedback on the blog is part of my ethical strategy making the process completely transparent and consensual.

Thanks again. Now, which playshop was it (Islanders or Noise), and did you get from the workshop what you came for?

1.    What did you enjoy most during the process?

2.    Why?

3.    What did you enjoy least?

4.    Why?

5.    Did you learn anything about yourself that you never realised before? Explain.

6.    If you answered ‘yes’ to Question 5,  which part of the process helped you learn this?

7.    Was there something that you knew before, but which you see differently now?  Explain.

8.    If you answered ‘yes’ to Question 7,  which part of the process helped you learn this?

9.    Did you learn something new about drama?  Explain.

10.     What part of the process taught you this?

11.    If you did something like this again, what would you want to keep the same?

12.     What would you want to do differently?

13.    What did you enjoy about the facilitator and her style?

14. Are there some suggestions that you can make so that she can improve even further?

15. Any other comments?

Please post your responses as comments here. To get to where you can place the coment, click on the title of this page.

Recipe 5: The Spider’s Work Process

Can The Spider’s work Playshop methods become a recipe for life change?

The methods of the Spider’s work Playshop, provide a link between the growth of a fictional hero, like the one in Vogler’s scripts, and real people undergoing change. The workshop offers a method of externalising and re-evaluating belief systems by creating a ‘Special World’ for the individual where change occurs. The Special World is the world of the fictional drama created by the participants in their story. The hero’s journey from his Ordinary World to the Special World where he undergoes an Ordeal, learns a new wisdom and returns with this Elixir to his world, is paralleled by the participant in the Spider’s Work process who leaves her Ordinary World to enter the Special World of the drama, learns something and returns to her world with new insight. Particular emphasis is placed on the three thresholds the hero must cross:

· from his world to the Special world of the workshop

· from the journey outside to the journey to the inmost cave (the participant comes face to face with her own belief systems)

· back to her world where the insight is tested (after rehearsal for revolution the participant must model the change in real life situations).

The stories people tell and the roles they choose externalise their systems of belief. A participant using the Hero’s Journey to structure a story will, therefore fill it with her own ideologies, indeed her own value objects. In this way her story can help her to concretise those abstract values and beliefs that exist in her unconscious. At the same time she will be able to use the Hero’s Journey as an analytical tool to understand, not just what her own values are, but also how they work, because she will see how her hero’s values work. This speaks of a journey within a journey as suggested by Turner’s placement of stage drama within the context of social drama. It also points to a similar double movement for the kind of process that is offered by the spider’s work Playshops.

The Double Journey

1. The ordinary world of the participant

2. The participant enters the special world of drama and creates a character with his own Ordinary World

3. The character enters a Special World of his own and starts the journey to the Inmost Cave

4. The Ordeal: Through identification the participant and the character (hero) both face their desires and beliefs

5. The character Returns to his Ordinary World with the Elixer and applies his new insight

6. The participant also returns to her world, applying her own elixer

Recipe 4: Story and Plot

This is the pivotal recipe and it helps you to create a plotline that can bring value awareness and personal growth

Christopher Vogler identifies twelve stages in the journey of a hero, grouped into three acts. Each of these stages corresponds to a particular response from the hero (See table 3.2.1 below). The succession of these responses, form what is called a ‘character arc’ a term used to describe the gradual stages of change in a character (1998: 211-212). Vistor Turner’s (1990) description of ‘social drama’ makes the same journey applicable to the growth of entire communities. Social drama is the narrative structure of change which any society follows in times of conflict and crisis. An arch similar to that of Vogler’s hero is experienced by persons or communities taking part in a ritual (liminal) or in dramatic and theatrical (liminoid) activities which form part of the redressive phase of the social drama. Some of his descriptions will therefore be insightful when compared to Vogler’s journey of a hero.

The first stage of the fictional story describes the hero’s Ordinary World (Vogler, 1998: 81-98). The hero is as yet unconscious of the problems in his world that are causing instability. This instability is, however communicated to the audience along with the hero’s attitude toward his world, his values and beliefs. In the next stage, The Call to Adventure (1998: 99-106), a person or event makes the hero aware of the problem threatening the security of his world. Turner writes that the instability, and consequent need for action, is caused when “a person or subgroup breaks a rule deliberately or by inward compulsion, in a public setting” (Turner, 1990: 8). The ‘rule’ referred to here relates to the rules of the society in which the change is about to occur, the Ordinary World. The hero reacts with interest, but is reluctant to get involved, since it would mean leaving old ways behind and entering unknown territory. This reluctance leads to the Refusal of the Call (1998: 107-116), a moment of hesitating on a threshold to weigh the risks carefully before making the difficult choice for change. All doubts and fears must be clearly expressed. In Turner’s terms, the breach in rules leads to a state of crisis; it is in this state of crisis that “hidden clashes of character, interest, and ambition” are revealed (Turner, 1990: 8).

Next the hero Meets a Mentor (1998: 117-126), a source of wisdom that exhorts him to action. He agrees to undertake the adventure armed with new confidence, often symbolised by a magic item or special power provided by the mentor. It is time to commit and enter the space where the problem is to be addressed. His commitment takes him Across the First Threshold (1998: 127-133), the one between his world and the world of the unknown.

For the person involved in a ritual or social drama, the role of guidance is taken by the community’s leaders, elders or guardians. The person or persons that undertake the redressive action must be those who consider themselves or are considered the most legitimate or authoritative representatives of the relevant community. What follows is the redressive phase of liminality and ambiguity.

The second act of the fictional adventure plays out in a Special World, removed from the hero’s Ordinary World, but always informed by the conditions and needs of that Ordinary world. Everything that happens here is of a semi-magical sort. This world is riddled with characteristics of the liminal, of the in-between existence of being and not being that is also characteristic of the play space, or temenos, and of the ritual space of transformation – indeed of the aesthetic space where the dramatic paradox is most poignant and where one is both yourself and not yourself at once. According to Turner, the liminal space is “detached from mundane life and characterized by the presence of ambiguous ideas, monstrous images, sacred symbols, ordeals, humiliations, esoteric and paradoxical instructions, the emergence of ‘symbolic types’” (Turner, 1990: 11).

Character Arc	The Hero’s Journey	Social Drama
Act One		Breech and Crisis
1) Limited awareness of a problem.	Ordinary World.	Peace of social life is interrupted by a breach of a rule.
2) Increased awareness.	Call to Adventure.	Leads to state of crisis, exposing conflict.
3) Reluctance to change.	Refusal.	If the crisis is not addressed then it could pose a threat to the group’s unity.
4) Overcoming reluctance.	Meeting with the Mentor.	The group’s authority takes redressive action in the form of law, politics or religion to save the community.
5) Committing to change.	Crossing the Threshold.	Harmony is restored or the group regresses into crisis.
Act Two		Redressive Action
6) Experimenting with first change.	Tests, Allies, Enemies.	Alternative solutions are explored and extreme measures are taken.
7) Preparing for difficult change.	Approach to Inmost Cave.	The group is restructured; an alternative redressive action is taken. Stories about the community are told.
Attempting difficult change.	Ordeal.	The ultimate Liminal phase is experienced through ritual. Values are re-evaluated and transformed.
9) Consequences of the attempt. (improvements and setbacks)	Reward (Seizing the Sword)	If they succeed, the crisis is resolved; if not then the damage is irreversible.
Act Three		Reflexive Phase
10) Rededication to change.	The Road Back.	Sense of harmony can only be achieved by working through the underlying reason for the crisis.
11) Final attempt at difficult change.	Resurrection.	Outmoded behaviour is released and new behaviour is internalized.
12) Final mastery of the problem.	Return with the Elixir.	Communitas and new meaning is attained.

According to Vogler’s journey, in this world, the hero is exposed to a series of Tests and Trials (1998: 133-143) designed to train him for the final ordeal. He meets different people, some of whom are friends and allies, others who are enemies. He experiments with the idea of change. Once the new world is introduced and its rules understood, the hero and his friends begin their Approach to the Inmost Cave (1998: 133-157). This is where the greatest test will take place. During the approach the hero has time to prepare himself, take reconnaissance and reorganise his group. Often he realises how strong the defences of the enemy are and sometimes the stakes are raised by introducing the risk of losing a life or missing the goal.

The hero now faces the Ordeal (1998: 158-180). This is the central dramatic moment, the moment of transformation. Here in the inmost cave he meets the fiercest of his enemies, his greatest fears and desires come to life and are brought to the light. Turner (1990) explains that through the symbolic and abstract actions of the ritual or the drama the society is able to deal concretely with those forces that are creating conflict and division. In this liminal/liminoid space the hero in Vogler’s journey must die and be reborn – die to the negative possibilities of his own psyche and be reborn to its positive potential.

No matter how alien the villain’s values, in some way they are the dark reflection of the hero’s own desires, magnified. (1998: 169)

For our purposes, this is the moment when the hero comes face to face with the consequences of his own values and choices. He cannot step away from this moment without dying to an old belief system and being reborn to a deeper understanding of life. The entire story thus far leads up to this point and the rest will flow from it as logical consequence of the change that has occurred. One such consequence is the balancing of the two sides of the hero, what Campbell called the “sacred marriage” (1988a: 109). He dies to a one-sided interpretation of life and is reborn to a new multidimensional perspective (Vogler, 1998: 177).

After having faced death and sacrificed a piece of himself, the hero is recompensed by his seizing a Reward – a special treasure or secret (1998: 181-192). It is what Campbell calls the Elixir or magic boon (1988a: 172-192). Like the fire Prometheus steals from the gods, it will bring healing to mankind. Often the reward is a new power, an insight, or a new understanding of himself and his quest.

They see who they are and how they fit into the scheme of things. … The scales fall from their eyes and the illusion of their lives is replaced with clarity and truth. (Vogler, 1998: 188)

At the heart of this experience of growth is the built-in reflection upon values that occurs – an interrogation made possible by their (the values’) concrete expression in the guise of the hero’s nemesis. It is the moment of catharsis where the emotional experience is understood cognitively (Winston, 1988), or where aesthetic distance is achieved (Landy, 1993).

I

In social drama, it can be said that it is through the ritual or dramatic process that deeper understanding is realized because the liminal space provokes the visitor to question her paradigm that contains the existing ideology. I deliberately use the word ‘visitor’ here because it implies that the one who enters the liminal space can not stay there indefinitely. In Turner’s terms this is because the liminal space or Inmost Cave of the Special World (Vogler), is a dangerous place. It is dangerous because of its instability and ambiguity. It is set up especially to create this ambiguity so that the visitor can question her ideologies and values, but at the same time it is denaturing to the visitor who must restructure and come to a new stable state to survive the liminal experience.

The moment of insight therefore pre-empts a return to stability. In Vogler’s journey, having undergone deep change, the hero must return to his own world and embarks on The Road Back (1998: 193-201). Act Three starts with his resolve to cross the threshold back to his own world, although sometimes he is chased across it. Often he experiences setbacks on his return which threaten to rekindle the flaw, addiction or desire that he had supposedly overcome in the ordeal. The lesson learned in the ordeal will be put to the final test as the hero faces death and Resurrection. The hero must provide external proof of the change in his character by his behaviour or appearance. It is one thing to learn something of oneself in the Special World; it is another to apply that knowledge back home in the ordinary world. Vogler writes:

A difficult choice tests a hero’s values: will he choose in accordanvce with his old, flawed ways, or will the choice reflect the new person he’s become? (1998: 207)

The resurrection is characterised by the hero rising from the Special World as a new creation having sacrificed an old habit or belief. Having provided proof of growth, the hero may now Return with the Elixir, the item or the wisdom that can heal his wound and perhaps that of his world.

The story may end neatly with all loose ends tied or it may have an open ending. Either way the hero gives his world and/or the audience a new perspective. As Vogler puts it:

… a good story like a good journey, leaves us with an Elixir that changes us, makes us more aware, more alive, more human, more whole, more a part of everything that is. (1998: 235)

The elixir is the tangible proof that change has occurred. In some stories, as in tragedies, the hero does not change or only understands the necessity to change too late and the audience is left with the realisation that, if he had, things would have turned out differently. If the hero or the leaders of the community undergoing change in Turner’s social drama, succeed, “the breach is healed and the status quo, or something resembling it, is restored; if they do not, it is accepted as incapable of remedy and things fall apart into various sorts of unhappy endings: migrations, divorces, or murders in the cathedral” (Turner, 1990: 15).

Recipe 3: Role relationships

This recipe helps you with the group dynamics – relating the cast of fictional characters to each other ina way that provides value conflict

Archetypes exist as a form of storytelling shorthand. Making sure that certain archetypes are represented by characters in your story, enables you to pre-empt the possibility of conflict and therefore plot. The main advantage of Archetypes is their basic simplicity. There are eight such archetypes and they are paired up in order to explore the conflicts that may occur in a participant’s mind. The first four are essential for the story and can be represented by whole groups if you are working with a large group of participants. The others can be dispersed among the group members as the writer/director /teacher feels necessary.

Protaginist and Antagonist

The Protagonist represents the drive to try and solve a problem; the Antagonist represents the drive to undermine success. These two characters teeter back and forth over the course of the story as each in turn gains the upper hand.

· The archetypal Protagonist is the chief proponent and principal driver of the effort to achieve the story’s goal. The protagonist is not the same as the main character although they often work together. Authors frequently assign the roles of both Protagonist AND Main Character to the same player in the story. The Main Character has an independent job from the Protagonist namely the exploration of the Subjective Story i.e. how the main story line is perceived..

· The Archetypal Antagonist is diametrically opposed to the Protagonist’s successful attainment of the goal. Often this results in a Protagonist who has a purpose and an Antagonist comes along and tries to stop it. Sometimes, however, it is the other way around. The Antagonist may have a goal of its own that causes negative repercussions. The Protagonist then has the goal of stopping the Antagonist. For purposes of establishing a consistent way to analyze how all Archetypal Characters relate to the goal of any story, Dramatica defines the Protagonist’s goal as the .i.story’s goal;, regardless of which kind it is.

Guardian & Contagonist

This is the second essential pair of Archetypal Characters.

· The first of these characters is the Guardian. The Guardian functions as a teacher/helper who represents the Conscience of the Story Mind. This is a protective character who eliminates obstacles and illuminates the path ahead. In this way, the Guardian helps the Protagonist stay on the proper path to achieve success. Balancing the Guardian is a character representing Temptation in the Story Mind. This character works to place obstacles in the path of the Protagonist, and to lure it away from success. Because this character works to hinder the progress of the Protagonist, we coined the name “Contagonist”.

· Whereas the Antagonist works to stop the Protagonist, the Contagonist acts to deflect the Protagonist. The Antagonist wants to prevent the Protagonist from making further progress, the Contagonist wants to delay or divert the Protagonist for a time. As with the Sidekick, the Contagonist can be allied with either the Antagonist or the Protagonist. Often, Contagonists are cast as the Antagonist’s henchman or second-in-command. However, Contagonists are sometimes attached to the Protagonist, where they function as a thorn in the side and bad influence. As a pair, Guardian and Contagonist function in the Story Mind as Conscience and Temptation, providing both a light to illuminate the proper path and the enticement to step off it.

Reason and Emotion

n terms of the Story Mind, Reason and Emotion describe the conflict between our purely practical conclusions and considerations of our human side. Throughout a story, the Reason and Emotion Archetypal Characters will conflict over the proper course of action and decision, illustrating the Story Mind’s deliberation between intellect and heart. The Reason Archetypal Character is calm, collected, and cool, perhaps even cold. It makes decisions and takes action wholly on the basis of logic. The Reason character is the organized, logical type. The Emotion character who is frenetic, disorganized, and driven by feelings. It is important to note that as in real life, Reason is not inherently better than Emotion, nor does Emotion have the edge on Reason. They just have different areas of strength and weakness which may make one more appropriate than the other in a given context.

· Functionally, the Emotion Character has its heart on its sleeve; it is quick to anger, but also quick to empathize. Because it is frenetic and disorganized, however, most of its energy is uncontrolled and gets wasted by lashing out in so many directions that it ends up running in circles and getting nowhere.

· In contrast, the Reason Character seems to lack “humanity” and has apparently no ability to think from the heart. As a result, the Reason Character often fails to find support for its well-laid plans and ends up wasting its effort because it has unknowingly violated the personal concerns of others.

Sidekick & Skeptic

The next pair of Archetypal Characters are the Sidekick and the Skeptic, who represent the conflict between confidence and doubt in the Story Mind.

· The Sidekick is the faithful supporter. Usually, a Sidekick is attached to the Protagonist. Sometimes, however, they may be supporters of the Antagonist. This gives a good clue to the way Dramatica sees Objective Characters: The purpose of the Sidekick is to show faithful support. That does not determine who or what it supports, but just that it must loyally support someone or something. Other dynamics of a story will determine who the Sidekick needs to be attached to in order to make the story’s argument, but from the standpoint of just describing the Archetypal Characters by themselves, the Sidekick faithfully supports.

· The Sidekick is balanced by the Skeptic. Where the Sidekick has faith, the Skeptic disbelieves; where the Sidekick supports, the Skeptic opposes. The nature of the Skeptic is nicely described in the line of a song… “Whatever it is, I’m against it.” In the Story Mind, it is the function of the Skeptic to note the indicators that portend failure. In contrast, the Sidekick notes the indicators that point to success. The interactions between Sidekick and Skeptic describe the Story Mind’s consideration of the likelihood of success.

Recipe 2: Playable Characters

This is a recipe for easy to play characters that can change and grow

Izzo identifies seven elements of character creation that will ensure characters which are identifiable and believable, from the audience’s point of view, and present potential for dramatic action (are playable), from the perspective of the actor. Omly 5 of these are essential to identify the attitude and actions that create a simple role for educational processes. The most profitable strategy is to focus on the role’s function or its occupation. Both attitude and actions flow from this function as passion and primary needs (which relate to attitude) and occupational and primary activities (which relate to action) flow from the occupation.

· The occupation of the character refers to a collection of related activities. These related activities do not necessarily indicate the ‘job’ of the character, but rather his role, or function, e.g. gunfighter, schoolmarm or rich widow. For the occupation to be playable it must involve interaction with people. A lone ranger riding on his horse hardly invites dramatic action until he meets the villain or the damsel in distress. Characters must also be archetypal. The reason is that such characters are easily playable by actors, but more importantly, immediately recognisable by the audience. The occupation must fit within the environment and support the subject and its themes. This is to create unity between the elements inside the temenos.

· The related activities are called occupational activities. It is important to find as many occupational activities as possible to provide a wide range of options for the actor. (Izzo,1997: 73-86)

· The character chooses its occupation out of passion – a desire that moti­vates his activities. The passion is a singular choice and will simplify the character enough to make it playable, yet provide sufficient depth to make him intriguing. Fulfilment of the passion will bring final happiness to the character, although fulfilment never occurs in performance, since that will eliminate the character’s motivation. The passion creates the character’s needs and the needs are met by performing the occupational activities. The passion should be a broad and obvious choice, it may even be unoriginal e.g. a need to be revered (Schoolmarm) or to be worthy of true love (Saloon girl). The passion has a ‘back story’, a reason for its coming into being and although it is something the audience never sees, it motivates the character’s actions emotionally.

· Primary Needs are those needs that most directly serve the attainment of the passion. A good primary need in terms of playability is one that calls to mind many occupational activities that could lead to its fulfilment. The primary needs are all connected to the passion, which is the core desire. So, for instance, if the passion is recognition, primary needs may be wealth, the need to be seen with the right people and the need for achievement on some level. Such was the profile of the gangster’s sidekick in the sports day scenario. (1997: 98-100)

· The last element flows directly from primary needs: primary activities. They are the activities that reveal the primary needs. What would a gangster do on sports day at the school if wealth, or just appearing rich, was a primary need? There should be several primary activities for each primary need. Primary activities are occupational activities that best reveal the character in terms of foibles and virtues. They allow for the most playable action. (1997: 100)

If your process allows, you may like to play with the other two ingredients for playable characters: foible and virtue

· One of the blocks that hinder the character’s fulfilment of his passion is his foible (Izzo, 1997: 92-97): a defect or ugliness that is not painful or destructive to the character but works against the attainment of the passion. The foible too has a ‘back story’ of how it came into being for the character.

· To counteract and redeem the foible, the character has a virtue (1997: 97-98). Interestingly the virtue should not be confused with moral or just behaviour. For instance, if a character’s occupation is ‘thief’, ‘honesty’ may be considered a foible not a virtue.

What follows is a comparison between Izzo’s characters and some other characters which are equally useful for creating characters that can become aware of their own values and change.

Recipe 1: Fictional Setting

This is a recipe for a fictional setting (temenos) wherein value conflict can play out

Accordingg to Gary Izzo (1997) temenos (fictional setting or play space) is governed by a particular set of rules that dictates what is possible and what not inside the space.

· A clearly defined subject is chosen e.g. the boom-towns of the Wild West, during the Gold Rush years of 1849—1870 (Izzo’s example). Even though the choice is very focussed, it is not limiting. A clear structure, says Izzo, provides more freedom for embellishment. (1997: 43-44)

· A specific physical location or environment is chosen that will reveal the subject. The environment must be familiar enough to the participants that it will be easy for them to relate to it and to come up with things to do inside it (1997: 44-49). For instance, the main street of a boom-town (Izzo’s choice for his Wild West event) may not be the most appropriate choice for a Grade 10 class in South Africa. They will have to identify their own environment catering for everyone in the group.

· An event is chosen to focus the action in a recognisable ritual so that participants can have an idea of who they are and how to act (1997: 49-50). In a workshop with a group of culturally mixed students, we chose a sports day at a local school as our event. Roles of parents, soccer/netball players, coaches, supporters etc. were clear and playable.

· Themes are chosen to extend the subject and to connect the characters to the environment (1997: 51). For example, in our sports event the gangster pushing drugs on the fringes of the field represented substance abuse and peer pressure. The authoritarian father who is driving his son to achieve in soccer represents pressure from parents to excel.

These rules create the distance between everyday life and the drama to ensure that participants feel free and able to act spontaneously. There are several elements of play space that create this distance. O’Neill refers to these parameters as pretext explaining that such pretext has the “power to launch the dramatic world with economy and clarity, propose action, and imply transformation” (1995: 136).

Drama Recipes for Life Change

My main concern with the Spider’s work project is to provide non-drama people with the tools to use drama effectively as teaching medium for learning about values. I am working on a list of ‘recipes’ which can simplify tricky dramatic elements such as setting, plot, character and tension in a way that makes them user friendly. I have scanned the work of many theorists and artists to come up with a selection of ‘recipes’ that specifically aids the process of talking about values.

Like following a recipe you should be able to gather the ‘ingredients’ and blend them together to produce the desired outcome: a dramatic experience that can teach us about our values. But like a recipe too, you will be able to add your own personal touch and interpret the method and ingredients creatively for your own context and purposes. If you are already a teacher, parent, community worker or leader of sorts, you will have a lot of experience with people and with teaching that you can contribute to dishing up a wonderful life changing learning experience.

What follows is a list of the kinds of recipes I am working on with another list of the main theorists whose ideas I am drawing from.

List of recipes

1. A fictional setting (temenos) wherein value conflict can play out
2. Playable characters that can change and grow
3. Character relationships that can provide value conflict
4. Plotline that can bring value awareness and personal growth
5. The Spider’s work Playshop : a recipe for life change?

Resource material

Campbell, Joseph. 1988a. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. London: Paladin Grafton Books.

Campbell, Joseph. 1988b. The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday.

Izzo, Gary. 1997. The Art of Play: The New Genre of Interactive Theatre. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Izzo, Gary. 1998. Acting Interactive Theatre: A Handbook. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

O’Neill, Cecily. 1995. Drama Worlds: a framework for process drama. Portsmouth, Hants: Heinemann.

O’Neill, Cecily and Lambert, A.. 1988. Drama Structures. London: Hutchinson.

Phillips, Melanie Anne and Huntley, Chris. 2004. Dramatica: A New Theory of Story, Special Tenth Anniversary Edition, Write Brothers. Incorporated: Glendale Calefornia

Turner, Victor. 1968. Myth and Symbol. In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by D. Sills, 576-582. New York: Macmillan & The Free Press.

Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. Maryland: PAJ Publications.

Turner, Victor. 1990. “Are There Universals of Performance in Myth, Ritual and Drama?” in Schechner, Richard and Appel, Willa. (eds.) By means of Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Vogler, Christopher. 1998. The Writer’s Journey: Mythical Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters. Revised edition. London: Pan Books.

First Spider’s Work Play-shop

First Spider's Work Group

Spider’s Work is an educational drama training programme for teachers and community workers to help them deal with value conflicts. The first Spider’s Work Play-shop was presented on 3 and 4 October at the HB Thom Theatre, Stellenbosch University.

Nine people participated in this workshop and learned how to use story telling, role-play and improvisation to get young people talking about their values. Whether you are a teacher, community worker, parent or church leader, this process can show you how to utilize the magic of mythic journeys and archetypal characters to get young people to reflect on who they are and how they fit into their world.

On the weekend from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon Petro Janse van Vuuren trained a group of 9 people to discover and apply the ancient power of stories to bring change and growth.
After the initial training weekend, Petro will use this blog to walk step by step through the process and remain in discussion with the participants as they work out the programme in their own context with a group of their choice.

A little more detail about the content of the ‘Play-shop’

Character building exercise - Character word and action expressed by the group

The difference between the main character of a story and the supporting characters, is that the main character undergoes personal growth. This growth follows a very particular pattern of events leading to the main character’s gradually becoming aware of his/her desires and values and how s/he fits into the world. Story tellers, writers and film makers know the pattern and use it cleverly to tell stories that can move you and make you aware of yourself and your relationships.

The Shamans of ancient tribes used the same pattern to tell myths and create rituals to keep their tribesmen on the path to spiritual maturity. Even the story of Jesus Christ follows the same pattern. More interestingly, any personal growth ordinary people undergo in real life happens according to the same pattern. In this way stories mirror life and life mirrors stories.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if teachers could use this pattern to get their learners become aware of their own values and how they can conflict with the values of others allowing them to grow emotionally and spiritually? What about parents and their children, councelors and their clients, community workers and their charges?