DRAMA CONVENTIONS
Conventions define the form of the dramatic activity and how participants behave at
particular states. Here are some common drama conventions.
Defining space
Accurately defining the place/area where the drama is to
take place.
Unfinished materials
Objects/newscutting/comic strip as initial stimulus.
Still image
Bodies motionless to crystallise an idea, theme, contrast or a
moment in time.
Mantle of the expert
Someone/a group is endowed with knowledge or special
skills.
A day in the life
Working backwards from the event in group scenes.
Hot seating
Group/class questions players in character.
Reportage
Distancing of events through the media.
Teacher in role
To add tension/move on the drama/challenge the superficial.
Role reversal
One group shows how they think the other will react.
Re-enactment
Re-enactment of an event, to reveal what might have
happened.
Come on down
e.g. game show, soap, pop video.
Mime
Silent films, slow motion, assembly line/machines, etc.
Marking the moment
An important moment in the drama is marked, then another
convention is used to express, e.g. still image/poem/dance or
mime.
Improvisation
Pretending to be someone other than ourselves in a situation other than the one we are
actually physically in. The participants are aiming to communicate with each other
and not usually to an audience.
Planned improvisation
Could be called ‘play making’. The group is involved in a process of changing and
adjusting as the drama develops in order to ‘get the message/story over’ to the
‘audience (other member of class/other classes).
Planned improvisation relies on effective communication/being audible and shaping
the drama so that it has a beginning, middle and end. Observations of pupils outwith
the group should be encouraged, for example:
 ‘It wasn’t clear to me why Mark …’
 ‘I couldn’t hear what Amy was saying when the …’
.
Cross cutting
Moving the action from one group on to another, which then
becomes the focus of attention.
Forum Theatre
A situation is enacted by a group while others observe. Both
actors and audience can stop the action whenever they feel
something requires to be sorted out. Observers may step in to take
over roles or add new ones.
Thought tracking
Speaking thoughts and feelings aloud. There are various ways in
which this method can be employed, for example characters in a
freeze frame may speak their own thoughts. The class may
suggest thoughts and/or feelings for characters in a freeze frame.
Pupils may be asked to do a ‘monologue’ as an activity either to
develop character or the understanding of a character. An
improvisation can be frozen and characters asked to express the
deeper feelings or thoughts (the teacher, or class members, can
prompt the characters with questions if necessary). The purpose of
thought tracking is generally to deepen the drama.
Tableau
Is a still picture, or image, of a generalised nature. A tableau gives
an impression of events, action in, or, reaction to a situation, for
example sailors’ activities on board ship, farm workers at work,
wives waiting at a harbour in a storm. Tableau can be used to
elicit how much knowledge or understanding a class has about
aspects of a theme, or to provide a stimulus for reflection.
Freeze frame
Another form of still image. In this case, the still image is of a
single, very significant moment during which the action is frozen.
It is always important o examine and respond to a freeze frame
and there are various means of making that response, namely
asking characters open or closed questions; speaking characters’
thoughts; starting dialogue, mime or action; giving image a title
newspaper headline and so on.
Vox Pop
Literally ‘vox populus’ or ‘voice of the people’, is a series of
random, quick-fire interviews. Vox pop derives from
documentary, news and current affairs programmes on television
where a range of individuals is asked to give short, sharp answer
to an interviewer’s questions. Vox pop can either be used to
provide ‘in drama’ reflection to whatever has preceded it in the
lesson or, to create tension, contrast and/or conflict. In reality, it is
also a useful technique to keep the participants on their toes!
Narrator
As a dramatic convention, involves teacher, or participant, using
live narrative to inform the drama, to move it forward – in time,
place, tension or in terms of student involvement/commitment.
Narrator is also an effective convention to illustrate more clearly
the meaning of a group’s improvisation or, to reflect back to a
group or class the main points or qualities within their drama or to
create a special atmosphere to introduce or to intensify the drama.
The Conventions of Drama
The conventions ‘are not structures in themselves, they are more like building
blocks, or a palette that is used … to create structures’ (Neelands, J., (1998),
Beginning Drama 11-14. London: David Fulton.). Sometimes described as
‘techniques’ or ‘methods’, these conventions form the ‘building blocks’ of
primary classroom drama.
Still Images
Tableau
A tableau is a still picture, or image, of a generalised nature. A tableau gives
an impression of events, action in, or reaction to, a situation, for example
sailors’ activities on board ship, or farm workers at work, or wives waiting at a
harbour in a storm. A tableau can be used to elicit how much knowledge or
understanding a class has about aspects of a theme, or it can provide a
stimulus for reflection.
Freeze-frame
A freeze-frame is another form of still image. In this case, the still image is of
a single, very significant moment during which the action is frozen. It is always
important to examine and respond to a freeze-frame and there are various
means of making that response, namely:
 asking characters open or closed questions
 speaking characters’ thoughts
 starting dialogue, mime or action
 giving image a title or newspaper headline
and so on.
Photograph
A photograph can be either a still image that gives a flavour of a time, place or
event, or a moment frozen in time. Young children are particularly good at
making very still photographs.
Statue
Like ‘photograph’, ‘statue’ is a term that children understand. As a use of still
image, it too is effective with the early stages especially when they are dealing
with fantasies or fairy stories.
Moving and talking images
Role play
Role play is one form of unscripted drama. It involves participants taking on a
role. These roles are often quite superficial and stereotyped. In role play the
scenes are generally more functional than creative. For example, police
dealing with members of the public, or practising use of language in a foreign
café, or returning faulty goods to a shop.
Vox-pop
Vox-pop (vox populi, literally ‘voice of the people’) is a series of random,
quick-fire interviews. Vox-pop derives from documentary, news and current
affairs programmes on television where various individuals are asked to give
short, sharp answers to an interviewer’s questions. Vox-pop can either be
used to provide ‘in drama’ reflection on whatever has preceded it in the
lesson, or to create tension, contrast and/or conflict. In reality, it is also a
useful technique to keep the participants on their toes!
Mime
Mime is the use of movement of the body and facial expression to
communicate meaning or narrative without words. Mime can be naturalistic or
stylised though participants need not rely on any formal or stylised mime
technique but simply use mime and gesture to indicate an action – the pouring
of wine from a jug or the passing round a circle a pipe of peace. One
technique, configuration mime is the convention of using the body, or bodies,
to represent inanimate objects. White mime allows teacher or pupil to draw
props on the board or in the air and then use these ‘imaginary objects’ in a
piece of drama.
Improvisation
‘Improvisation’ is a generic name for any unscripted piece of drama. Much
drama in education could be described as ‘improvised’, though we often
consider an improvisation as a scene that is acted out. The purpose of
improvisation is investigative, exploratory, responsive (spontaneous or
prepared), or, expressive, (prepared or rehearsed). Improvisation may be very
good instances of the 5–14 strand creating and designing.
Reflective images
Thought-tracking (Thought-tapping, Thought-tunnel)
Thought-tracking is speaking thoughts and feelings aloud. There are various
ways in which this method can be employed, for example characters in a
freeze-frame may speak their own thoughts. The class may suggest thoughts
and/or feelings for characters in a freeze-frame. Pupils may be asked to do a
‘monologue’ as an activity, either to develop character or to develop the
understanding of a character. An improvisation can be frozen and characters
asked to express the deeper feelings or thoughts (the teacher, or class
members can prompt the characters with questions if necessary). The
purpose of thought-tracking is generally to deepen the drama.
There are many variations on the use of these conventions. Thought-tapping
is when a class freezes a scene and taps any or all of the characters to speak
their inner thoughts. This is to demonstrate that what is going on ‘inside’ a
character can be quite different to what the character is saying or how he or
she is behaving.
Thought-tunnelling involves the class standing in two straight parallel rows
facing each other. Call these Line A and Line B. The people in Line A express
thoughts, feelings and opinions on one side of an argument. The people in
Line B express ideas thoughts or feelings from the other side of the argument.
For example, the ‘A’s (as environmental activists) could be supporting the
preservation of the rainforest and the ‘B’s could speak as developers.
Alternatively, the ‘A’s could persuade Goldilocks to admit the damage she had
done to the home of The Three Bears. In this case, the ‘B’s would be
persuading Goldilocks to remain quiet or to deny her involvement.
The teacher starts at one end of the lines and moves slowly along between
the ‘A’s and ‘B’s. In turn, when the teacher is in front of them, A speaks,
then B.
Hot-seating
Hot-seating is when a character is put in the ‘hot seat’, a chair in the middle of
the circle and questioned by the class in or out of role. The ‘chair’ is given a
special space to stress its importance.
It is possible to have three or four seats in the centre and have three or four
children take on the composite character of the person in the hot seat. This
way of working has the advantage that it may reveal conflicting aspects of a
character. This deepens understanding and gets away from stereotypes.
Role-on-the-wall
Role-on-the-wall is where the outline of a character is drawn, either on the
board or life-sized on a huge sheet of paper. First, words are inserted outside
the outline of the character to represent external circumstances or, ‘what other
people think’ about the character or situation. Then the character’s internal
thoughts and feelings are identified and inserted inside the character’s outline.
Role-on-the-wall can be used as a stimulus, as a ‘way in’ to a theme, as a
means of deepening or developing character, or in challenging stereotypes. It
provides a reference point throughout the lesson and a useful record of pupils’
contributions.
It is important with this technique to separate, with other drama tasks, the
external contributions/phrases from the internal ones. The teacher should not
move too quickly.
Writing in role
After performing a piece of drama, children are often stimulated to write in the
role that they have just played. This is because they have the immediacy of
the experience to inform the writing. Such writing may take the form of a diary
entry, a newspaper scoop, a confession, a letter, etc.