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Theatrical pedagogy and interactive service.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Students in a University of Montana Drama class create dramatic programs for K-12 classrooms as part of their service learning. An interactive, performance-based lesson on the parts of speech created for fourth graders is offered as an example of how theatre can be used to teach discrete academic or social subjects. As the university students gain valuable information about drama and pedagogy from the fourth graders, they learn a valuable lesson themselves: they are not the only ones providing a service.

Theatre in Education: The Model

In 1965 the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England began an educational project that sought to explore the value of theatre as an educational method. The result of this endeavor was the creation of a unique form of contemporary theatre called Theatre in Education (TIE), which uses theatre in the service of education. This method, although still not prevalent in the United States, has become quite celebrated in the United Kingdom. There, numerous TIE troupes operating with both local and national backing travel to schools and agencies to facilitate theatrical programs.

A simple definition of TIE does not exist, but there are several characteristics that distinguish it from other types of educational theatre such as children's theatre. First and foremost, Theatre in Education uses drama as the primary teaching tool by offering students an interactive experience. Although a traditional play is often part of a TIE experience, TIE is not merely a play designed to educate; it is an entire program that asks audience members to actively engage with the performers before the play, after the play, and even during the play. Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal's coinage of the term spect-actor (1992 p. 19), to describe one who simultaneously observes and acts elucidates the TIE philosophy of audience and performer interplay. In a TIE program, both performer and audience member are spect-actors, conspiring together to gather knowledge and then to put their new knowledge into practice.

Another characteristic of TIE programs is that the subject matter arises out of the social and curricular needs of the audience in question. TIE companies produce programs that seek to address subjects and issues pertinent to the audience. For example, if an elementary class is having problems with bullying, a TIE program could include a play about a young boy who is taunted by his classmates or picked on by the older children who share his bus ride home. TIE does not...

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