Final Performance

For our performance final, my group decided to focus on average people’s interactions with social media, specifically why they hide or share what they do. When we first got together, things were pretty scattered in our brainstorming session, so I created a google doc where we could compile our ideas and plans. I took note of our ideas and then suggested that we pick our top three favorite ideas. We gave everyone two votes and I recorded the votes. Interestingly, once we narrowed it down and I led the voting for the number one idea, we kept getting a tie between social media and mental health. Amy actually came to our group just after that and asked what our idea was. We told her about the tie and she suggested that we consider ways to combine them. As we discussed that prospect, we came up with the questions: Why do we hide the things we do? Why do we share the things we do? How is this evident in social media?

As we continued to meet, I tried to maintain the organization of the project, taking note of the things we were deciding upon and typing out our script with the help of Mariah. It was a lot of fun, and a little stressful, to be able to come up with our very own piece of art. We decided the context, we decided the topic, and we decided every move we made. It was so free and I think that was the thing that was most stressful about it. I think that this very aspect is what could make it so powerful in my future classroom.

Were I to adapt this for my future classroom, I think I would do a lot of scaffolding work during the project. I would form lessons that incorporate creative activities that could help my students learn to trust their abilities to create, to make decisions, and to be artists. I would probably show them some examples of a devised, multimedia piece when I introduce the project. That was one thing I noticed when working in my group. There was a bit of a divide between the theatre and english students at the start because the three of us that were theatre education had either worked on or seen a devised multimedia performance before, so we had a fairly good idea of what was expected. The english majors, however, had to stretch themselves farther because they had never seen performance art. The only theatre they knew was very traditional. So, at first, they were imagining the project as a multimedia presentation with a tiny bit of theatricality thrown in rather than a devised piece of art.

This taught me how important examples can be. I don’t want my students to feel lost or on a different level than other students. I think a few examples could get their wheels turning and provide a solid basis from which to draw. It would possibly provide a new challenge of them feeling limited to the things they saw, but that could be when I could draw upon activities to help them devise. I could have them create frozen images in their groups, then add one word, then one action, then a sentence (similar to the work that Julia did with us, but I would probably do more of those activities over the course of two class periods). I would also continually remind them that there is no right way to go about this.

So, I have talked a little about how I want to the project to go, I guess that I should define what exactly the project entails. I think that for the project, I would divide them into groups of 4 or 5 as we were. However, instead of ensuring that there are both English and Theatre students in each group, (if I had a combined drama class like we did at my high school) I would ensure that there were both beginning and advanced drama students in each group. If I had separate class periods for the different levels of Drama, I would reserve this project for the Drama II or Adv. Drama class.

Their assignment could be as follows:

Alright, now that you have seen a few examples of devised theatre and practiced some devising over the last week, we are going to start a new project. In a little, I will divide you up into groups of 5. In your group of 5, you will pick a social issue that you feel is important to address. This social issue will be the foundation of a new devised piece. Here are some of the guidelines: Your performance should be 10-15 minutes long. You should each participate. There is no “right way” to create your project. You should work as a team and respect everyone’s opinions. You should incorporate at least one image and some sound and voice recording. As we work on this project, we will do activities along the way that might help you find new ways to engage with your topic. Any questions? Alright, once you get into groups, I will pass out the rubric and you can begin brainstorming your topic.