Jane Isobel Luton | The University of Auckland (original) (raw)
Book chapter by Jane Isobel Luton
Arts Education A Global Affair. Brill. Volume Editor: Bernard W. Andrews, 2024
This chapter explores the digital and classroom-based experiences of two drama teachers in a seco... more This chapter explores the digital and classroom-based experiences of two drama teachers in a secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand, during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss ways in which Drama, an embodied art form, was facilitated in a disembodied space, while acknowledging the problems and challenges, this paradox has provoked. As one of the four Arts subjects in the New Zealand curriculum, Drama plays an important role in the cultural life of New Zealand schools, developing critical thinking, creativity, and knowledge, using voice, body, and movement and space. When the pandemic, brought national lockdowns and home isolation, closing schools, drama studios were transformed from figurative to literal ‘empty spaces’, replaced by digital learning platforms. Lively spaces of exploration, experimentation, and embodied learning were reduced to a set of ‘talking heads’ and icons on a screen. Drama teachers confident in a ‘real’ space of creativity, surrounded by organised chaos, had to adapt to this ‘digital’ space. After two and a half years of remote and hybrid teaching, and amidst the frustrations and disappointments, we begin to acknowledge moments of success. However, our experiences render us sceptical that teaching drama remotely can ever be as truly effective as when it is enacted in the live space.
Pedagogy and Partnerships in Innovative Learning Environments
This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as "the empty space" (Brook, The e... more This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as "the empty space" (Brook, The empty space, Penguin, 1968), have for decades offered an example of the principles of the Innovative Learning Environment (ILE). This is a space which promotes the ideals of collaborative learning and the sharing and creating of knowledge between students and teachers. As a drama educator, I explore some of the historical documents concerning the creation of drama spaces in schools in the United Kingdom. I highlight the similarity in concept to the ideas for ILEs as expressed most recently by the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. I draw on enacted narratives from international drama educators using embodied reflections. These educators regard the drama space as a democratic space for learning, a space in which power can be shared between student and teacher/facilitator-where partnerships can be enacted. The chapter discusses the ways in which drama as a pedagogy thrives within and is informed by the open space, inviting collaborative embodied learning, often through discovery. This collaborative learning is not only enacted between pedagogue and learner but between students as they encourage, challenge and support each other. Acknowledging the long history of flexible, open spaces for shared and embodied learning in drama contributes to the literature supporting the ILE as a positive way forward in schools. Keywords Drama. ILE • Pedagogy • Learning spaces An Introduction to the Space of Possibilities As Noeline Wright discusses in her chapter, "the concept of flexible, open classrooms is […] not especially new" since "there have been spaces for teaching and learning for thousands of years" (Wright, see Chap. 2). As a specialist drama teacher who has taught in secondary schools in England and New Zealand, the concept of a learning space which "can encourage and facilitate exploration, collaboration, and discussion" (Ministry of Education, 2020a, para. 1) is not unfamiliar. For many years
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People, 2022
The circle in this chapter’s title is a symbol of the drama classroom and its ensemble. The chapt... more The circle in this chapter’s title is a symbol of the drama classroom and its ensemble. The chapter is constructed as a dramatic dialogue between Jane, a drama teacher, and her daughter Holly, a drama student. It arose from an embodied conversation as they reflected on their individual experiences of making theatre for assessment purposes at two separate secondary schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This chapter contributes to the global discussion about drama assessment in schools and whether it encourages or suppresses the act of aesthetic and purposeful theatre-making with young people. Jane and Holly focus on New Zealand’s assessment system, the National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA). They discuss the ways in which students and teachers navigate their roles to create ‘authentic’ theatre in the restricted environment of a school where there are limits on resources, time, and space. As a young person Holly’s voice is privileged as she considers the outcomes that she and her peers valued in the experience of NCEA theatre-making. Jane and Holly conclude that the presence of NCEA Drama in the curriculum has created a space for young people to create authentic theatre performances.
This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as “the empty space” (Brook, The e... more This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as “the empty space” (Brook, The empty
space, Penguin, 1968), have for decades offered an example of the principles of the Innovative Learning
Environment (ILE). This is a space which promotes the ideals of collaborative learning and the sharing and
creating of knowledge between students and teachers. As a drama educator, I explore some of the historical
documents concerning the creation of drama spaces in schools in the United Kingdom. I highlight the
similarity in concept to the ideas for ILEs as expressed most recently by the Ministry of Education in New
Zealand. I draw on enacted narratives from international drama educators using embodied reflections.
These educators regard the drama space as a democratic space for learning, a space in which power can be
shared between student and teacher/facilitator-where partnerships can be enacted. The chapter discusses
the ways in which drama as a pedagogy thrives within and is informed by the open space, inviting
collaborative embodied learning, often through discovery. This collaborative learning is not only enacted
between pedagogue and learner but between students as they encourage, challenge and support each other.
Acknowledging the long history of flexible, open spaces for shared and embodied learning in drama
contributes to the literature supporting the ILE as a positive way forward in schools
Intellect Books.Bristol: England., 2019
Hunky dory (Finn & Evans, 2012) is a light-hearted film set in comprehensive school in Swansea, W... more Hunky dory (Finn & Evans, 2012) is a light-hearted film set in comprehensive school in Swansea, Wales during the infamous “heat-wave” of 1976. It focuses upon Vivienne May and her attempts to rehearse and stage an ambitious Bowie infused 1970s rock opera of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611/2014) despite hostile teachers, teen angst, and the destruction of the school hall. Its UK release in 2011 coincided with the introduction of the UK government’s austerity measures, which made significant cuts to Arts programmes (Higgins, 2011). Recently acknowledged as detrimental, these cuts led to greater educational and cultural impoverishment particularly for the most disadvantaged (Neelands et al., 2015). This chapter discusses how Hunky dory both maintains and subverts the dominant discourses around arts in education. A fable for our times, this film highlights the value, challenges, and complexities of arts education and reflects upon their position within a wider educational context.
Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge Scholars publishing, 2017
Chapter 13 in Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge... more Chapter 13 in Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge Scholars publishing, 2017.
Serious research can use fun and playful methods. The title of this chapter is taken from a comment made by one of my participants in the research that I developed for my doctorate. The idea of ‘fun research’ may seem like an oxymoron but my methodology involved playful dramatic interviews with several key drama education practitioners. This playful research, I discovered, can draw out rich embodied narratives from participants.
In this chapter, Jane Luton shares some of the highlights from her search to examine the tensions... more In this chapter, Jane Luton shares some of the highlights from her search to examine the tensions in drama education praxis. Jane reveals how her quest contains serendipitous moments; when theory or practice lights up the darkened stage. Discovering arts-based research and performative inquiry she places her participants centre stage to enable them to perform their stories. Researchers will gain an insight into the development of a method specifically designed to enable the skills of the elite respondents to be applied. A few performative moments will also be shared.
This chapter recounts and explores an intergenerational applied theatre project which took place ... more This chapter recounts and explores an intergenerational applied theatre project which took place in New Zealand. A group of seniors at the Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village in West Auckland began sharing personal stories through drama. Young people collecedt these stories by working alongside them and translating their stories into a series of public performances. Through the collecting and presentation of stories, it was hoped the next generation would be inspired to take ownership of their family stories. The project was researched using arts-based methods.
Papers by Jane Isobel Luton
This undergraduate research project about an Amateur Theatre Company in Wallingford Oxfordshire t... more This undergraduate research project about an Amateur Theatre Company in Wallingford Oxfordshire took place in 1981 as part of undergraduate study in Year One of the BA Honours Theatre and Dramatic Arts degree at the University of Warwick. In 2020 during Covid-19 lockdown I revisited the project and decided to digitise it. This document was originally handwritten and submitted as part of my degree BA Hons. Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts at The University of Warwick (1980-1983).
The Sinodum Players in Wallingford Oxfordshire had as its president in the 1970s Agatha Christie who lived locally for many years. I had attended the pantomimes with my family growing up in Brightwell-cum Sotwell and loved their vitality and professional quality. I was very privileged to be given access to the Chairman, Director and Publicity Manager for this project. I saw as part of the project the production of Rashomon, which I remember vividly to this day. I offer it here as a small window into a local British amateur theatre which still operates today. It's external and internal building played a starring role in some episodes of the British TV series Midsomer Murders.
Dr Jane Isobel Luton (née Charlton).
The following document, my final year dissertaion, was researched and written during the year 198... more The following document, my final year dissertaion, was researched and written during the year 1982 to 1983 while I was an undergraduate at The University of Warwick studying for a BA (Hons) degree in Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts. The research explored the history of Christian drama in the 20th century until 1983. It explores the work of Martin Browne, Pamela Keilly, and the Pilgrim Players and their connection with T S Eliot among others, as well as the work of RADIUS, the Religious drama advisory service. During the Covid 19 lockdown in 2020, I returned to the original document to put it into a digital document. I have added an introduction that explains my updates. I remain grateful to (now) Emeritus Reader Dr Margaret Shewring at The University of Warwick who guided me through this piece of work all those years ago. As it is unlikely it will now be formally published I am uploading this document to assist others with their research into this field.
Teachers and CurriculumVolume 22 Issue 1, 20 22 : Special Issue: The Arts will find a way: Breaking through and moving forward , 2022
Using the allegory of Sisyphus from ancient Greek mythology, we examine the problems ... more Using the allegory of Sisyphus from ancient Greek mythology, we examine the problems that arose while teaching Year 9 drama classes online during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in Aotearoa, New Zealand. At times we have felt like Sisyphus, forced to push a boulder uphill forever. We became adept at using the school’s chosen online platform, in this case, Microsoft Teams. Forallteachers, this meant that students were no longer in an actual classroom with their peers but met in a virtual space as a series of little icons on a screen. For drama, this disrupted the very essence of the praxis. Drama is, at its heart, an embodied, interactive “subject”, requiring collaboration, cooperation and participation. Like Sisyphus, we have, at times, felt the task of teaching drama cannot be truly accomplished. In this article, we focus specifically on the Year 9 drama students, the youngest year group at secondary colleges in New Zealand. They are part of the generation defined as Gen Z (Beresford Research, 2022), “digital natives who have little or no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones” (Parker & Igielnik, 2020., para. 4). We compare the expectations and interactions of a traditional drama classroom with those online. We explore the approaches we took to encourage student participation in this new forum, trying to find dramatic strategies to mitigate some of the problems that arose. We discuss the consequences and outcomes of teaching drama remotely. Unlike Sisyphus, can we learn from successes and failures, or are we as drama teachers doomed forever to roll a large rock uphill?
Ipu Kererū Blog of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, 2022
I cherish the sense of joy and excitement that is palpable in the Secondary School drama space, t... more I cherish the sense of joy and excitement that is palpable in the Secondary School drama space, the energy of young people making discoveries and expressing themselves, the noise, the organised chaos. As an experienced drama teacher of many years, I had to ask, why did teaching drama remotely with year 9 students during the 2021 lockdowns feel like I was pushing a rock uphill like Sisyphus or nailing jelly to a wall?
In this article I explore what Justin Cash refers to as “the ugly side of drama teaching” (Cash, ... more In this article I explore what Justin Cash refers to as “the ugly side of drama teaching” (Cash, 2015) specifically the long hours required
to produce drama productions in schools and the subsequent effect this has on the health of drama teachers. Guided by documents
drawn up by the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association Te Wehengarua (PPTA) I question what drives drama teachers to
commit themselves to provide co-curricular and extra-curricular productions in schools, above and beyond normal teaching hours. This
commitment is, according to the PPTA, “unrecognised” and not funded which begs the question why do teachers feel obliged to volunteer
their skills. What do they believe the school production and other extra-curricular drama events offer the students? How do drama
teachers sustain themselves delivering the long hours required to produce these performances? Weaving the PPTA documents, health
and safety regulations and academic research this discussion challenges attitudes towards the provision of extra-curricular drama as an expected yet mainly unpaid requirement of the job. Since the writing of this article there has been a change of government which may
offer further hope for the arts and in particular those drama teachers drawn to providing extra-curricular productions.
This article describes some key moments from my doctoral research project which invited six inter... more This article describes some key moments from my doctoral research project which invited six
international drama educators to embody their stories of the battles and barricades inherent in
drama education using imagination and role play. Instead of a traditional qualitative interview I
devised a framing device – the Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre – and took
on role of an Archivist’s Assistant to facilitate the generation of stories. Inspired by arts-based
research and performative inquiry this method offers an alternative to traditional qualitative
interviews by suggesting that drama can be used to embody stories in a dyadic situation. This
research resulted in the development of a play which re-imagined and re-enacted some of those
stories.
UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 2015
I attempt to theorise how a dyadic embodied encounter can be used within drama education research... more I attempt to theorise how a dyadic embodied encounter can be used within drama education research and begin to contemplate whether this method could work in other fields. I describe the disillusionment I feel with traditional qualitative interviews when faced with researching the stories of key drama education practitioners. Inspired by the work of arts based researchers including George Belliveau, Joe Norris, and Johnny Saldaña I wonder how I can generate embodied, rich stories to enable me to create an ethnographic performance. Exploring the work of theorists and drama practitioners from both academia and the world of theatre I find clues along the way that help me create a possible solution to my conundrum.
In this article I will use the moral lesson of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) as ... more In this article I will use the moral lesson of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) as a critical discussion around the development of drama education in New Zealand. It will signal some of the dangers that can arise when a subject is established in the curriculum. As drama has taken its place as one of four arts based subjects, it is vulnerable to the wider discourses that surround outcomes based assessment and education in general. As an arts based researcher and drama teacher with experience of teaching secondary drama in both England and New Zealand I consider whether drama, by obtaining one of the golden tickets to the curriculum, betrays its role as a powerful pedagogy to conform and comply to traditional views of education.
New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehia no Aotearoa, 2015
This article discusses some of the ways in which I as a drama teacher and doctoral student began ... more This article discusses some of the ways in which I as a drama teacher and doctoral student began to empathise with students during the devising of a piece of theatre. In creating a drama for a PhD with Creative Practice Component I discovered that devising is a challenging task which demands an embodied approach. Using images and examples from the play I explain how I used my experiences as a teacher to help inform the process. In return I gained a deeper sense of what it may be like to be a student in a classroom devising a drama for assessment.
Research in New Zealand Performing Arts: Nga Mahi a Rehia no Aotearoa, 2013
This article is a description of student work inspired by academic research by Professor Janinka ... more This article is a description of student work inspired by academic research by Professor Janinka Greenwood’s into the plays of Alan E. Mulgan, A Slice of Theatre Archaeology: Mulgan’s For Love of Appin and Other Plays, as published in the Online New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education, 2010. Greenwood’s research highlighted the fact that these plays, which give an insight into New Zealand’s past, may never be performed again. As the Head of Drama at an Auckland Secondary college I introduced the plays to a Level 3 NCEA drama class. The class had been exploring stories of New Zealand and was excited by the plays and the possibility of being the first to use the material in many years; the students set out to bring them to life once more. After weeks of planning and rehearsal, For Love of Appin and The Voice of the People were performed to audiences in the old schoolroom at the Howick Historical Village, Auckland on the Village’s ‘live day’. The purpose of this article is to recall the memory of that busy term, the journey the students took and to demonstrate how academic research can inspire teachers within the drama classroom.
New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehia, 2013
When asked to write a review of my recent trip to Limerick, Ireland to attend and present a paper... more When asked to write a review of my recent trip to Limerick, Ireland to attend and present a
paper at IDIERI 7, (July 10-15th, 2012) I wondered where to begin. There are so many
recollections and moments of inspiration, a sense of excitement and disbelief that I was really
there. It had been eighteen months since the 2010 inaugural drama symposium at Auckland
University when conference director, Michael Finneran, put out the call for delegates to come
to Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick in Ireland. I recall raising my hand and
telling myself, yes I will be there. So the following reports a few highlights seen from my
point of view and interpreted from my own position as a drama teacher now turned doctoral
student.
Books by Jane Isobel Luton
ESA NZ, 2020
Drama Resources for New Zealand Senior Secondary Schools – Ko Te Ao Toi Whakaari: He Puka Rauemi ... more Drama Resources for New Zealand Senior Secondary Schools – Ko Te Ao Toi Whakaari: He Puka Rauemi mā Aotearoa is aimed at senior secondary students – Years 11, 12 and 13. It offers resources for students and teachers of drama to create, perform and study whakaari (drama). These resources can be used for both NCEA and general drama study, and include material on the theoretical, historical and practical aspects of drama and theatre.
The book uses the language of the Drama curriculum and a te reo Māori translation of important terms to help students and teachers develop their appreciation and understanding of the bicultural nature of New Zealand.
The topics selected for inclusion have all been taught with success in the classroom. The book is divided into four parts, as follows.
Part A is introductory.
Part B, Devising drama, provides ideas and themes for the creation of drama.
In Part C, Study of texts, dramatic works by seven playwrights from diverse backgrounds and spanning four centuries are presented for in-depth study.
Part D, Analysis of performance, gives students ideas for practical exploration of drama, with the emphasis on interpreting and enjoying live performances.
Arts Education A Global Affair. Brill. Volume Editor: Bernard W. Andrews, 2024
This chapter explores the digital and classroom-based experiences of two drama teachers in a seco... more This chapter explores the digital and classroom-based experiences of two drama teachers in a secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand, during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss ways in which Drama, an embodied art form, was facilitated in a disembodied space, while acknowledging the problems and challenges, this paradox has provoked. As one of the four Arts subjects in the New Zealand curriculum, Drama plays an important role in the cultural life of New Zealand schools, developing critical thinking, creativity, and knowledge, using voice, body, and movement and space. When the pandemic, brought national lockdowns and home isolation, closing schools, drama studios were transformed from figurative to literal ‘empty spaces’, replaced by digital learning platforms. Lively spaces of exploration, experimentation, and embodied learning were reduced to a set of ‘talking heads’ and icons on a screen. Drama teachers confident in a ‘real’ space of creativity, surrounded by organised chaos, had to adapt to this ‘digital’ space. After two and a half years of remote and hybrid teaching, and amidst the frustrations and disappointments, we begin to acknowledge moments of success. However, our experiences render us sceptical that teaching drama remotely can ever be as truly effective as when it is enacted in the live space.
Pedagogy and Partnerships in Innovative Learning Environments
This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as "the empty space" (Brook, The e... more This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as "the empty space" (Brook, The empty space, Penguin, 1968), have for decades offered an example of the principles of the Innovative Learning Environment (ILE). This is a space which promotes the ideals of collaborative learning and the sharing and creating of knowledge between students and teachers. As a drama educator, I explore some of the historical documents concerning the creation of drama spaces in schools in the United Kingdom. I highlight the similarity in concept to the ideas for ILEs as expressed most recently by the Ministry of Education in New Zealand. I draw on enacted narratives from international drama educators using embodied reflections. These educators regard the drama space as a democratic space for learning, a space in which power can be shared between student and teacher/facilitator-where partnerships can be enacted. The chapter discusses the ways in which drama as a pedagogy thrives within and is informed by the open space, inviting collaborative embodied learning, often through discovery. This collaborative learning is not only enacted between pedagogue and learner but between students as they encourage, challenge and support each other. Acknowledging the long history of flexible, open spaces for shared and embodied learning in drama contributes to the literature supporting the ILE as a positive way forward in schools. Keywords Drama. ILE • Pedagogy • Learning spaces An Introduction to the Space of Possibilities As Noeline Wright discusses in her chapter, "the concept of flexible, open classrooms is […] not especially new" since "there have been spaces for teaching and learning for thousands of years" (Wright, see Chap. 2). As a specialist drama teacher who has taught in secondary schools in England and New Zealand, the concept of a learning space which "can encourage and facilitate exploration, collaboration, and discussion" (Ministry of Education, 2020a, para. 1) is not unfamiliar. For many years
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People, 2022
The circle in this chapter’s title is a symbol of the drama classroom and its ensemble. The chapt... more The circle in this chapter’s title is a symbol of the drama classroom and its ensemble. The chapter is constructed as a dramatic dialogue between Jane, a drama teacher, and her daughter Holly, a drama student. It arose from an embodied conversation as they reflected on their individual experiences of making theatre for assessment purposes at two separate secondary schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This chapter contributes to the global discussion about drama assessment in schools and whether it encourages or suppresses the act of aesthetic and purposeful theatre-making with young people. Jane and Holly focus on New Zealand’s assessment system, the National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA). They discuss the ways in which students and teachers navigate their roles to create ‘authentic’ theatre in the restricted environment of a school where there are limits on resources, time, and space. As a young person Holly’s voice is privileged as she considers the outcomes that she and her peers valued in the experience of NCEA theatre-making. Jane and Holly conclude that the presence of NCEA Drama in the curriculum has created a space for young people to create authentic theatre performances.
This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as “the empty space” (Brook, The e... more This chapter suggests that Drama education spaces, often known as “the empty space” (Brook, The empty
space, Penguin, 1968), have for decades offered an example of the principles of the Innovative Learning
Environment (ILE). This is a space which promotes the ideals of collaborative learning and the sharing and
creating of knowledge between students and teachers. As a drama educator, I explore some of the historical
documents concerning the creation of drama spaces in schools in the United Kingdom. I highlight the
similarity in concept to the ideas for ILEs as expressed most recently by the Ministry of Education in New
Zealand. I draw on enacted narratives from international drama educators using embodied reflections.
These educators regard the drama space as a democratic space for learning, a space in which power can be
shared between student and teacher/facilitator-where partnerships can be enacted. The chapter discusses
the ways in which drama as a pedagogy thrives within and is informed by the open space, inviting
collaborative embodied learning, often through discovery. This collaborative learning is not only enacted
between pedagogue and learner but between students as they encourage, challenge and support each other.
Acknowledging the long history of flexible, open spaces for shared and embodied learning in drama
contributes to the literature supporting the ILE as a positive way forward in schools
Intellect Books.Bristol: England., 2019
Hunky dory (Finn & Evans, 2012) is a light-hearted film set in comprehensive school in Swansea, W... more Hunky dory (Finn & Evans, 2012) is a light-hearted film set in comprehensive school in Swansea, Wales during the infamous “heat-wave” of 1976. It focuses upon Vivienne May and her attempts to rehearse and stage an ambitious Bowie infused 1970s rock opera of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611/2014) despite hostile teachers, teen angst, and the destruction of the school hall. Its UK release in 2011 coincided with the introduction of the UK government’s austerity measures, which made significant cuts to Arts programmes (Higgins, 2011). Recently acknowledged as detrimental, these cuts led to greater educational and cultural impoverishment particularly for the most disadvantaged (Neelands et al., 2015). This chapter discusses how Hunky dory both maintains and subverts the dominant discourses around arts in education. A fable for our times, this film highlights the value, challenges, and complexities of arts education and reflects upon their position within a wider educational context.
Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge Scholars publishing, 2017
Chapter 13 in Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge... more Chapter 13 in Playing with Possibilities Edited by Peter O'Connor, Claudia Rozas Gómez, Cambridge Scholars publishing, 2017.
Serious research can use fun and playful methods. The title of this chapter is taken from a comment made by one of my participants in the research that I developed for my doctorate. The idea of ‘fun research’ may seem like an oxymoron but my methodology involved playful dramatic interviews with several key drama education practitioners. This playful research, I discovered, can draw out rich embodied narratives from participants.
In this chapter, Jane Luton shares some of the highlights from her search to examine the tensions... more In this chapter, Jane Luton shares some of the highlights from her search to examine the tensions in drama education praxis. Jane reveals how her quest contains serendipitous moments; when theory or practice lights up the darkened stage. Discovering arts-based research and performative inquiry she places her participants centre stage to enable them to perform their stories. Researchers will gain an insight into the development of a method specifically designed to enable the skills of the elite respondents to be applied. A few performative moments will also be shared.
This chapter recounts and explores an intergenerational applied theatre project which took place ... more This chapter recounts and explores an intergenerational applied theatre project which took place in New Zealand. A group of seniors at the Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village in West Auckland began sharing personal stories through drama. Young people collecedt these stories by working alongside them and translating their stories into a series of public performances. Through the collecting and presentation of stories, it was hoped the next generation would be inspired to take ownership of their family stories. The project was researched using arts-based methods.
This undergraduate research project about an Amateur Theatre Company in Wallingford Oxfordshire t... more This undergraduate research project about an Amateur Theatre Company in Wallingford Oxfordshire took place in 1981 as part of undergraduate study in Year One of the BA Honours Theatre and Dramatic Arts degree at the University of Warwick. In 2020 during Covid-19 lockdown I revisited the project and decided to digitise it. This document was originally handwritten and submitted as part of my degree BA Hons. Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts at The University of Warwick (1980-1983).
The Sinodum Players in Wallingford Oxfordshire had as its president in the 1970s Agatha Christie who lived locally for many years. I had attended the pantomimes with my family growing up in Brightwell-cum Sotwell and loved their vitality and professional quality. I was very privileged to be given access to the Chairman, Director and Publicity Manager for this project. I saw as part of the project the production of Rashomon, which I remember vividly to this day. I offer it here as a small window into a local British amateur theatre which still operates today. It's external and internal building played a starring role in some episodes of the British TV series Midsomer Murders.
Dr Jane Isobel Luton (née Charlton).
The following document, my final year dissertaion, was researched and written during the year 198... more The following document, my final year dissertaion, was researched and written during the year 1982 to 1983 while I was an undergraduate at The University of Warwick studying for a BA (Hons) degree in Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts. The research explored the history of Christian drama in the 20th century until 1983. It explores the work of Martin Browne, Pamela Keilly, and the Pilgrim Players and their connection with T S Eliot among others, as well as the work of RADIUS, the Religious drama advisory service. During the Covid 19 lockdown in 2020, I returned to the original document to put it into a digital document. I have added an introduction that explains my updates. I remain grateful to (now) Emeritus Reader Dr Margaret Shewring at The University of Warwick who guided me through this piece of work all those years ago. As it is unlikely it will now be formally published I am uploading this document to assist others with their research into this field.
Teachers and CurriculumVolume 22 Issue 1, 20 22 : Special Issue: The Arts will find a way: Breaking through and moving forward , 2022
Using the allegory of Sisyphus from ancient Greek mythology, we examine the problems ... more Using the allegory of Sisyphus from ancient Greek mythology, we examine the problems that arose while teaching Year 9 drama classes online during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in Aotearoa, New Zealand. At times we have felt like Sisyphus, forced to push a boulder uphill forever. We became adept at using the school’s chosen online platform, in this case, Microsoft Teams. Forallteachers, this meant that students were no longer in an actual classroom with their peers but met in a virtual space as a series of little icons on a screen. For drama, this disrupted the very essence of the praxis. Drama is, at its heart, an embodied, interactive “subject”, requiring collaboration, cooperation and participation. Like Sisyphus, we have, at times, felt the task of teaching drama cannot be truly accomplished. In this article, we focus specifically on the Year 9 drama students, the youngest year group at secondary colleges in New Zealand. They are part of the generation defined as Gen Z (Beresford Research, 2022), “digital natives who have little or no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones” (Parker & Igielnik, 2020., para. 4). We compare the expectations and interactions of a traditional drama classroom with those online. We explore the approaches we took to encourage student participation in this new forum, trying to find dramatic strategies to mitigate some of the problems that arose. We discuss the consequences and outcomes of teaching drama remotely. Unlike Sisyphus, can we learn from successes and failures, or are we as drama teachers doomed forever to roll a large rock uphill?
Ipu Kererū Blog of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, 2022
I cherish the sense of joy and excitement that is palpable in the Secondary School drama space, t... more I cherish the sense of joy and excitement that is palpable in the Secondary School drama space, the energy of young people making discoveries and expressing themselves, the noise, the organised chaos. As an experienced drama teacher of many years, I had to ask, why did teaching drama remotely with year 9 students during the 2021 lockdowns feel like I was pushing a rock uphill like Sisyphus or nailing jelly to a wall?
In this article I explore what Justin Cash refers to as “the ugly side of drama teaching” (Cash, ... more In this article I explore what Justin Cash refers to as “the ugly side of drama teaching” (Cash, 2015) specifically the long hours required
to produce drama productions in schools and the subsequent effect this has on the health of drama teachers. Guided by documents
drawn up by the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association Te Wehengarua (PPTA) I question what drives drama teachers to
commit themselves to provide co-curricular and extra-curricular productions in schools, above and beyond normal teaching hours. This
commitment is, according to the PPTA, “unrecognised” and not funded which begs the question why do teachers feel obliged to volunteer
their skills. What do they believe the school production and other extra-curricular drama events offer the students? How do drama
teachers sustain themselves delivering the long hours required to produce these performances? Weaving the PPTA documents, health
and safety regulations and academic research this discussion challenges attitudes towards the provision of extra-curricular drama as an expected yet mainly unpaid requirement of the job. Since the writing of this article there has been a change of government which may
offer further hope for the arts and in particular those drama teachers drawn to providing extra-curricular productions.
This article describes some key moments from my doctoral research project which invited six inter... more This article describes some key moments from my doctoral research project which invited six
international drama educators to embody their stories of the battles and barricades inherent in
drama education using imagination and role play. Instead of a traditional qualitative interview I
devised a framing device – the Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre – and took
on role of an Archivist’s Assistant to facilitate the generation of stories. Inspired by arts-based
research and performative inquiry this method offers an alternative to traditional qualitative
interviews by suggesting that drama can be used to embody stories in a dyadic situation. This
research resulted in the development of a play which re-imagined and re-enacted some of those
stories.
UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 2015
I attempt to theorise how a dyadic embodied encounter can be used within drama education research... more I attempt to theorise how a dyadic embodied encounter can be used within drama education research and begin to contemplate whether this method could work in other fields. I describe the disillusionment I feel with traditional qualitative interviews when faced with researching the stories of key drama education practitioners. Inspired by the work of arts based researchers including George Belliveau, Joe Norris, and Johnny Saldaña I wonder how I can generate embodied, rich stories to enable me to create an ethnographic performance. Exploring the work of theorists and drama practitioners from both academia and the world of theatre I find clues along the way that help me create a possible solution to my conundrum.
In this article I will use the moral lesson of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) as ... more In this article I will use the moral lesson of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl, 1964) as a critical discussion around the development of drama education in New Zealand. It will signal some of the dangers that can arise when a subject is established in the curriculum. As drama has taken its place as one of four arts based subjects, it is vulnerable to the wider discourses that surround outcomes based assessment and education in general. As an arts based researcher and drama teacher with experience of teaching secondary drama in both England and New Zealand I consider whether drama, by obtaining one of the golden tickets to the curriculum, betrays its role as a powerful pedagogy to conform and comply to traditional views of education.
New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehia no Aotearoa, 2015
This article discusses some of the ways in which I as a drama teacher and doctoral student began ... more This article discusses some of the ways in which I as a drama teacher and doctoral student began to empathise with students during the devising of a piece of theatre. In creating a drama for a PhD with Creative Practice Component I discovered that devising is a challenging task which demands an embodied approach. Using images and examples from the play I explain how I used my experiences as a teacher to help inform the process. In return I gained a deeper sense of what it may be like to be a student in a classroom devising a drama for assessment.
Research in New Zealand Performing Arts: Nga Mahi a Rehia no Aotearoa, 2013
This article is a description of student work inspired by academic research by Professor Janinka ... more This article is a description of student work inspired by academic research by Professor Janinka Greenwood’s into the plays of Alan E. Mulgan, A Slice of Theatre Archaeology: Mulgan’s For Love of Appin and Other Plays, as published in the Online New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education, 2010. Greenwood’s research highlighted the fact that these plays, which give an insight into New Zealand’s past, may never be performed again. As the Head of Drama at an Auckland Secondary college I introduced the plays to a Level 3 NCEA drama class. The class had been exploring stories of New Zealand and was excited by the plays and the possibility of being the first to use the material in many years; the students set out to bring them to life once more. After weeks of planning and rehearsal, For Love of Appin and The Voice of the People were performed to audiences in the old schoolroom at the Howick Historical Village, Auckland on the Village’s ‘live day’. The purpose of this article is to recall the memory of that busy term, the journey the students took and to demonstrate how academic research can inspire teachers within the drama classroom.
New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehia, 2013
When asked to write a review of my recent trip to Limerick, Ireland to attend and present a paper... more When asked to write a review of my recent trip to Limerick, Ireland to attend and present a
paper at IDIERI 7, (July 10-15th, 2012) I wondered where to begin. There are so many
recollections and moments of inspiration, a sense of excitement and disbelief that I was really
there. It had been eighteen months since the 2010 inaugural drama symposium at Auckland
University when conference director, Michael Finneran, put out the call for delegates to come
to Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick in Ireland. I recall raising my hand and
telling myself, yes I will be there. So the following reports a few highlights seen from my
point of view and interpreted from my own position as a drama teacher now turned doctoral
student.
ESA NZ, 2020
Drama Resources for New Zealand Senior Secondary Schools – Ko Te Ao Toi Whakaari: He Puka Rauemi ... more Drama Resources for New Zealand Senior Secondary Schools – Ko Te Ao Toi Whakaari: He Puka Rauemi mā Aotearoa is aimed at senior secondary students – Years 11, 12 and 13. It offers resources for students and teachers of drama to create, perform and study whakaari (drama). These resources can be used for both NCEA and general drama study, and include material on the theoretical, historical and practical aspects of drama and theatre.
The book uses the language of the Drama curriculum and a te reo Māori translation of important terms to help students and teachers develop their appreciation and understanding of the bicultural nature of New Zealand.
The topics selected for inclusion have all been taught with success in the classroom. The book is divided into four parts, as follows.
Part A is introductory.
Part B, Devising drama, provides ideas and themes for the creation of drama.
In Part C, Study of texts, dramatic works by seven playwrights from diverse backgrounds and spanning four centuries are presented for in-depth study.
Part D, Analysis of performance, gives students ideas for practical exploration of drama, with the emphasis on interpreting and enjoying live performances.
398 page textbook co-authored with Marthy Watson (Griffith University) and Jacqui Hood which cove... more 398 page textbook co-authored with Marthy Watson (Griffith University) and Jacqui Hood which covers all nine level 2 (year 12) NCEA drama achievement standards (New Zealand). The text guides students (and teachers) through the internal assessments with practical advice covering the key areas of drama creation, performance and study. Contains theory and practical examples to help with external written assessments. Covers areas of New Zealand theatre practice.
366 page textbook co authored with Marthy Watson (Griffith University) and Jacqui Hood (with S.B... more 366 page textbook co authored with Marthy Watson (Griffith University) and Jacqui Hood (with S.Battye and A. Bentley) which covers all nine New Zealand NCEA Level 3 (year 13) drama standards for teachers and students. Designed to help gain concepts and ideas for developing and performing drama work for assessment. Covers aspects of New Zealand theatre history and practice. Helps to develop critical thinking skills.
Doctoral researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) at the Faculty of E... more Doctoral researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) at the Faculty of Education and Social Work (2013) led by Associate Professor Peter O'Connor offer an insight into defining moments of their methodological explorations. Although involved in a wide variety of research projects, we share a common interest in methodologies that include critical self-reflection, involve embodied inquiry, and are informed by the arts. These emerging methodologies include post critical ethnography, poetic inquiry, A/r/tography, practised methodology and performative inquiry.
Working with methodologies that are emerging and which challenge established notions of empirical research can present particular opportunities and challenges for postgraduate researchers. We present the critical moments from our research journeys, our ‘lost moments’, 'aha moments’ and affirming ‘found moments’. We invite the audience to engage with this performed presentation as part of our attempt to take methodological theory into practice. We use narrative, metaphor, symbol, poetry and dramatic conventions in many different ways in our research projects. We make use of them in this presentation to invite your critical and felt responses to our work.
This collective presentation demonstrates that although the PhD journey is an individual one it can still involve and benefit from collaboration, synergy and the cross pollination of ideas.
The play was devised and performed by the following doctoral students:
Claire Coleman, Esther Fitzpatrick,Jane Isobel Luton, Molly Mullen and Adrian Schoone.
In July 2014 I presented this hour long performance (followed by a workshop - not shown) at The M... more In July 2014 I presented this hour long performance (followed by a workshop - not shown) at The Musgrove Studio, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a devised drama created as part of the first PhD in education with a creative practice component undertaken at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. The research invited 6 key drama educators to take part in an embodied reflection to explore their stories of the battles and barricades they face as drama educators. My aim was to discover what sustains them in these difficult times. Although not having performed for several years I found that in order to mediate the research I needed to accept myself as an artist and performer and feel the stories in my own body. I acknowledge and thank my participants and supervisors: Assoc Prof. Peter O'Connor, Dr Adrienne Sansom, Assoc Prof Lynn Fels, Prof John O'Toole, Prof. Jonothan Neelands, Mr Ron Price, Prof. Andy Kempe and my theatrical advisor Anton Bentley. My especial thanks go to my daughter Holly who was willing to take on a role for me. The work is inspired by the many arts-based researchers and performative inquirers I have met or read about during the research process and the many theatre performances in England and New Zealand I had the opportunity to see. This performance was an examined one and was followed by the writing of a 60,000 word thesis available through the University of Auckland.
This is episode 1 from what became a five episode data drama which synthesises the voices of key ... more This is episode 1 from what became a five episode data drama which synthesises the voices of key drama education practitioners who embodied their stories of passion and melancholia in drama education praxis. The stories were then synthesised, mediated and juxtaposed. I am grateful to my participants: Dr Peter O’Connor, and to my participants Dr John O’Toole, Dr Lynn Fels, Dr Andy Kempe, Ron Price and Dr Jonothan Neelands; Drama theorist practitioners who were kind enough to share their stories with me, through drama. This episode was presented for and received first prize at the Variety Showcase, Exposure Postgraduate Research Exposition, School of Graduate Studies and the Postgraduate Students’ Association, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
TaPRA Gallery, 2022
This Video presentation was shown continuously in the TaPRA Gallery at the Theatre and Performanc... more This Video presentation was shown continuously in the TaPRA Gallery at the Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference in 2022 held at the University of Essex UK.
Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand: July 2014
During my creative practice doctoral research, I became embodied by serendipitous necessity. I recognised that to generate, mediate, and reflect on dramaturgical data, we must use our voices and our bodies. I invited international drama educators to share stories of the battles and barricades we encounter in our praxis using ‘Embodied Reflections’ a dyadic, embodied, and imaginative interview process. Together we imagined a Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre [MEDAT]. I then devised and performed a ‘data-drama’ to re-embody our stories for a public audience. Using the elements and technologies of theatre, I crawled, climbed, and cavorted across the stage, coming to understand myself, a middle-aged mother, both as a drama educator and artist.
Auckland: March 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic. I am disembodied in the remote space-in the digital world of an online learning platform. I desperately coax my students to emerge from their desktop icons. This challenges me to re-consider the battles and barricades we encounter in a new disembodied world. I place new artefacts into the imagined space of MEDAT.
I performatively reflect on the praxis of being a drama teacher, juxtaposing the battles and barricades of the pre-and intra-pandemic era.
In 2009 I began a Masters in Theatre Studies exploring the role of drama education in helping to ... more In 2009 I began a Masters in Theatre Studies exploring the role of drama education in helping to create a theatre identity here in New Zealand. I began to find out about the history of drama education here in New Zealand. Later while undertaking my PhD using creative practice at the Faculty of Education in Auckland I had the opportunity to tutor on the History of Education course. I began to make links between the history of drama education and education itself. Encouraged by Dr Kirsten Locke I wrote and published an article which critiqued some of the developments of drama education through the lens of the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This story is surprisingly subversive, deals with social justice but also seems to promote a message of achieving success through compliance. This short fifteen-minute drama draws on my recent experience of undertaking a creative practice component to perform my research. I decided to see if I can create a short performance arising out of my paper on Finding the Golden Ticket: Reflections on the Development of Drama Education in New Zealand.
Engaging with Communities: Creative Pedagogies 7th World Arts Alliance for Education Conference, University of Auckland, New Zealand., 2017
I am a drama teacher in a secondary school passionate about the opportunities school production p... more I am a drama teacher in a secondary school passionate about the opportunities school production provide for students of all abilities. I suggest that school productions, musicals and plays are an important and vital site of community within the larger community of a school.
New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) Te aonui: the mighty triangle [Online Conference]., 2022
[Jane Luton & Jacqui Hood] This dialogic reflection explores the digital classroom experiences of... more [Jane Luton & Jacqui Hood] This dialogic reflection explores the digital classroom experiences of two Drama teachers in an Auckland secondary school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using performative inquiry (Fels, 2012) they share the problems, challenges and possibilities that arose from teaching an embodied art form in a disembodied space —a perplexing paradox. As one of the four Arts subjects in the New Zealand Curriculum, Drama plays an important role in the cultural life of schools developing students’ critical thinking, creativity, and knowledge, through purposeful play, using voice, body, movement, and space. During the lockdowns our lively learning environments were replaced by digital platforms. Drama teachers confident in a ‘real’ space of creativity, surrounded by organised chaos, had to adapt to this remote, distant, and disembodied space. Many students struggled with the technology, hiding behind icons or unable to join digital classes for myriad reasons. Key skills like communication, collaboration, and community building embedded in Drama were ‘mislaid’. Performative Inquiry enabled us to reflect on our drama teaching, “to turn the lens of inquiry onto the work that we do… to listen deeply, to be present in the moment” (Fels, 2012, p.53). We began to search for playful solutions to teaching in a disembodied world.
TaPRA Gallery (Curated by Christina Kapadocha) , 2022
Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand: July 2014 During my creative practice doctoral research, I becam... more Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand: July 2014
During my creative practice doctoral research, I became embodied by serendipitous necessity. I recognised that to generate, mediate, and reflect on dramaturgical data, we must use our voices and our bodies. I invited international drama educators to share stories of the battles and barricades we encounter in our praxis using ‘Embodied Reflections’ a dyadic, embodied, and imaginative interview process. Together we imagined a Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre [MEDAT]. I then devised and performed a ‘data-drama’ to re-embody our stories for a public audience. Using the elements and technologies of theatre, I crawled, climbed, and cavorted across the stage, coming to understand myself, a middle-aged mother, both as a drama educator and artist.
Auckland: March 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic. I am disembodied in the remote space-in the digital world of an online learning platform. I desperately coax my students to emerge from their desktop icons. This challenges me to re-consider the battles and barricades we encounter in a new disembodied world. I place new artefacts into the imagined space of MEDAT.
I performatively reflect on the praxis of being a drama teacher, juxtaposing the battles and barricades of the pre-and intra-pandemic era.
This ethnographic performance presents some of the ways in which drama was used to generate, medi... more This ethnographic performance presents some of the ways in which drama was used to generate, mediate and disseminate data within the community of drama education. My doctoral research examined what challenges and inspires some of the international published practitioners in times of melancholia. As a drama practitioner, I wondered whether drama elements and conventions could be used to interrogate those stories to evoke rich responses, which Nicholson feels are archived in the body. Inspired by Turner’s concept of Homo Performans and Huizinga’s Homo Ludens, I devised a dyadic performative method: Embodied Reflections. The method was framed using the context of an imaginary Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre. The use of Stanislavski’s ‘magic if’ enabled each participant to embody their stories using the metaphors of battles, barricades and balancing. In this bordered space performed narratives became interactive exhibits in the museum; enabling reflection through a process of metaxis.
Although intending to script the performance arising from the data, I found that I began to play like my participants. By embodying the stories, I could connect and respond to them. During the mediation, I became an actor, director, designer, dramaturg and audience. Saldaña’s ‘golden moments’ resonated through laughter and tears. Using Brechtian conventions, I played multiple roles crossing time and space to educate and entertain the audience; to engage them interactively. The language of drama education gives insights into its practitioners and opens up a space to return the stories to the wider drama education community.
Theatre, says Johnny Saldaña, has been telling stories for more than two and a half thousand year... more Theatre, says Johnny Saldaña, has been telling stories for more than two and a half thousand years. In the first creative practice PhD at the Faculty of Education, I performed an hour long play which shared some of the stories of tensions within drama education. In this presentation I intend to show two key moments that were vital in the development of my play: the creation of a framed dyadic dramatic method to gather stories and the use of a puppet as the critical voice of my research. The scenes will be linked with some brief reflections as a researcher, drama educator and performer on the synthesis of the stories and how embodiment helped to play in a space of possibilities. A new development is the use of a framing device through which, as Dorothy Heathcote suggests, a problem can be explored and which according to Bowell and Heap propels the participants into discourse. The framed context enables the participants to use their imaginations and bodies to share and reflect on their stories which Helen Nicholson believes are archived in bodies. The frame then provides the context for the performance. It helps me as actor to find a narrative role to speak directly to the audience as well as performing the multiple roles of my participants. My work is informed aesthetically and critically by immersion in many forms of theatre and particularly the work of Bertolt Brecht. My performance continues to provide new insights into the stories of drama education. I can now supplement my own story with the transition from drama educator to researcher and actor.
Recent academic research points to feelings of melancholia and exhaustion being expressed by dram... more Recent academic research points to feelings of melancholia and exhaustion being expressed by drama teachers as they strive to inspire others in what is still often a marginalised subject. This 40 minute long play is devised from the embodied stories of key practitioners including John O’Toole, Jonothan Neelands, Peter O’Connor and Andy Kempe. It is possibly the first play created to tell the stories of drama educators and drama education using the very art form we celebrate each day in the classroom. Using non-naturalistic and Brechtian inspired approaches, it acknowledges the long and sometimes tumultuous history of this pedagogy. This play both challenges our ways of thinking and invigorates us to action. It is a play that advocates for drama education as key to children’s learning and offers insights into how we might sustain our own energies within its practice. The play is followed by a short workshop in which drama educators can embody their own reflections on drama education practice to open up new discourses and express our dreams for its future.
Doctoral Thesis University of Auckland, 2015
This is the first PhD with creative practice component to be completed within the Faculty of Educ... more This is the first PhD with creative practice component to be completed within the Faculty of Education at The University of Auckland. This thesis forms the written body of work which integrates with and supports the hour long play I performed at the Musgrove Studio, Auckland, in July 2014. My research explores my loss of passion for drama education after many years teaching drama in secondary schools in England and New Zealand. This loss is described as ‘melancholy’, an aesthetic sense which propels me into a search to re-find my enthusiasm for drama education – an often marginalised pedagogy, art form and subject.
I asked six published international drama educators, who have inspired me, to share their stories about what sustains them in their practice. I developed a new research method ‘embodied reflections’ to generate data. This methodology and thesis is constructed like a ‘well-made play’ and uses a framing device to invite my participants to perform their stories and reflect on them through dramatic conventions. I became the ‘researcher-in-role’ as I facilitated each dyadic drama workshop. These stories were captured on video and subsequently mediated by me using theatrical processes resulting in the public performance of the research. I became a researcher, actor, director, designer and dramaturg. This research is informed by arts-based research and by my own immersion in theatre and the work of Bertolt Brecht and Constantin Stanislavski.
I come to embrace serendipity as I frequently made unplanned, unexpected and surprising discoveries – including the important role Motherhood plays in my experiences. During the devising, rehearsing and performing of my play I begin to renew my passion for drama education. I re-engage with drama as art form and pedagogy. I re-discover how to play, to imagine and to perform. I suggest other drama educators could reignite their passion through playful engagement with their own artform. I finally celebrate my melancholia and accept that – in being a drama educator – I am an artist.
A DVD of the doctoral performance accompanies this thesis.
In 2014 my creative practice drama performance took place at The Maidment Theatre in Auckland to ... more In 2014 my creative practice drama performance took place at The Maidment Theatre in Auckland to an audience which included examiners. This was an hour-long play complete with sets, costume, sound, lighting, music and slides. The play was devised from research carried out using Embodied Reflections with several drama academics and educators. This was the first creative practice PhD in Education at The Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. It uses humour, a puppet, and poetry to share the story of one drama teacher's search to refind their passion for teaching drama by creating and curating The Museum of Education Drama and Applied Theatre.
This is the first PhD with creative practice component to be completed within the Faculty of Educ... more This is the first PhD with creative practice component to be completed within the Faculty of Education at The University of Auckland. This thesis forms the written body of work which integrates with and supports the hour long play I performed at the Musgrove Studio, Auckland, in July 2014. My research explores my loss of passion for drama education after many years teaching drama in secondary schools in England and New Zealand. This loss is described as ‘melancholy’, an aesthetic sense which propels me into a search to re-find my enthusiasm for drama education – an often marginalised pedagogy, art form and subject.
I asked six published international drama educators, who have inspired me, to share their stories about what sustains them in their practice. I developed a new research method ‘embodied reflections’ to generate data. This methodology and thesis is constructed like a ‘well-made play’ and uses a framing device to invite my participants to perform their stories and reflect on them through dramatic conventions. I became the ‘researcher-in-role’ as I facilitated each dyadic drama workshop. These stories were captured on video and subsequently mediated by me using theatrical processes resulting in the public performance of the research. I became a researcher, actor, director, designer and dramaturg. This research is informed by arts-based research and by my own immersion in theatre and the work of Bertolt Brecht and Constantin Stanislavski.
I come to embrace serendipity as I frequently made unplanned, unexpected and surprising discoveries – including the important role Motherhood plays in my experiences. During the devising, rehearsing and performing of my play I begin to renew my passion for drama education. I re-engage with drama as art form and pedagogy. I re-discover how to play, to imagine and to perform. I suggest other drama educators could reignite their passion through playful engagement with their own artform. I finally celebrate my melancholia and accept that – in being a drama educator – I am an artist.
A DVD of the doctoral performance accompanies this thesis.
(Masters level thesis) This thesis considers the nature of drama and theatre in and for schools ... more (Masters level thesis)
This thesis considers the nature of drama and theatre in and for schools and references the nature of theatre in contemporary New Zealand. Drama in schools in New Zealand has developed from the earliest School productions in the 1800's, through its perceived role to enrich lives, to becoming a discrete Arts subject within the New Zealand educational curriculum in 1999. During this development, theatre companies began to tour schools and arguments ensued regarding drama’s role in education as a process or performance. This development is charted through a range of historical and current curriculum documents. The thesis references the importance of the Australian UNESCO Seminar on drama in education in 1958 which explored the relationship between the educational aspects of Drama and Drama as an art form and which inspired New Zealand Drama teachers. The research contains interviews conducted during 2009, with drama teachers, students and theatre practitioners, as well as examples of performances by schools and professional theatre since the advent of the new curriculum. The thesis investigates some of the many kinds of Drama work taking place in contemporary New Zealand schools, including co-curricula and curricula productions on a wide range of issues and utilising a range of dramatic styles. These included, an Intermediate school’s collaboration and contribution to capital E’s production of Kia Ora Khalid and examples of devised and scripted projects undertaken at Secondary Colleges in New Zealand. The research explores the relationship which exists between schools and professional theatre practitioners, and establishes some of the ways in which the relationship is beneficial for the development of high quality Drama programmes in schools. The contribution of the Auckland Theatre Company’s Educational Unit to schools is investigated, as is an example of the Artist in Schools programme at Pakuranga College in Auckland. The introduction of the National certificate in Educational drama in 2001 has undoubtedly contributed to the range and quality of work being undertaken in schools, which raises the possibility that their Drama performance work can, and often does, contribute to local communities and to a New Zealand theatre identity.
This is an article written by Anna Kirtlan after interviewing me regarding my research into teach... more This is an article written by Anna Kirtlan after interviewing me regarding my research into teacher resilience in the face of the long hours undertaken by Secondary Drama teachers to put on major school productions. The original article juxtaposed the New Zealand teaching Unions advice regarding teacher workload and the difference between extra-curricular and co-curricular work.
Researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) offer an insight into defini... more Researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) offer an insight into defining moments of their methodological explorations. Although involved in a wide variety of research projects, we share a common interest in methodologies that include critical self reflection, involve embodied inquiry, and are informed by the arts. These emerging methodologies include postcritical ethnography, poetic inquiry, A/r/tography, practised methodology and performative inquiry.
Working with methodologies that are emerging and which challenge established notions of empirical research can present particular opportunities and challenges for postgraduate researchers. We present the critical moments from our research journeys, our ‘lost moments’, 'aha moments’ and affirming ‘found moments’. We invite the audience to engage with this performed presentation as part of our attempt to take methodological theory into practice. We use narrative, metaphor, symbol, poetry and dramatic conventions in many different ways in our research projects. We make use of them in this presentation to invite your critical and felt responses to our work.
This collective presentation demonstrates that although the Ph.D. journey is an individual one it can still involve and benefit from collaboration, synergy and the cross pollination of ideas.
Researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) offer an insight into defini... more Researchers in the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre (CRUAT) offer an insight into defining moments of their methodological explorations. Although involved in a wide variety of research projects, we share a common interest in methodologies that include critical self reflection, involve embodied inquiry, and are informed by the arts. These emerging methodologies include postcritical ethnography, poetic inquiry, A/r/tography, practised methodology and performative inquiry.
Working with methodologies that are emerging and which challenge established notions of empirical research can present particular opportunities and challenges for postgraduate researchers. We present the critical moments from our research journeys, our ‘lost moments’, 'aha moments’ and affirming ‘found moments’. We invite the audience to engage with this performed presentation as part of our attempt to take methodological theory into practice. We use narrative, metaphor, symbol, poetry and dramatic conventions in many different ways in our research projects. We make use of them in this presentation to invite your critical and felt responses to our work.
This collective presentation demonstrates that although the Ph.D. journey is an individual one it can still involve and benefit from collaboration, synergy and the cross pollination of ideas.
In 2014, I created and performed a data-drama about an imaginary museumthe Museum of Educationa... more In 2014, I created and performed a data-drama about an imaginary museumthe Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre [MEDAT]. The performance took place in a theatre in Auckland, which has sadly since been bulldozed. MEDAT became a place to explore and examine drama education and ultimately to celebrate it in its various forms with its many challenges and dichotomies. Over a period of a few months I gathered enacted stories from several drama education practitioners using “Embodied Reflections” and subsequently devised my drama. In recent days, looking back at the script and re-performing the lines alone in my office, I felt a resonance with the challenges that theatre faces today in our current New Zealand and global lockdown.
My Museum of Educational Drama was an entirely imagined construct to bring together the voices of my research participants who were based across the Globe. It allowed me and my participants the space to imagine exciting possibilities without limitations. Today actors and directors cannot meet in person and are having to find ways to connect and continue the powerful work of theatre. Here, using just a few extracts, I re-tell key moments of creating an imagined space weaving stories together to interrogate and elucidate the struggles of being a drama educator.
In the invitation at the end perhaps you may want to imagine your own contribution to the Museum of Educational Drama; a symbol, re-enactment or speech to celebrate, challenge or inspire drama educators and theatre makers.