Rebellion in Drama

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Rebellion in Drama

We started our work on rebellion as a class by thinking of all the

terms and groups of people associated with rebellion: we came up with

terrorism, strikes, the French revolution, motorbikes, drugs, alcohol,

anarchy, protests, sit-ins, rock music and teenagers along with

others.

My first improvised scene was in a group of three. I played a modern

day teacher, who was trying to start a lesson, but the two students

were being disruptive. When one pupil storms out of the lesson, and I

bring him back in, the other is about to leave. We decided to use a

dramatic technique and so put a freeze frame at this point, then a

flashback to when I as the teacher was a teenager in the 1960's, in a

protest against cutting down trees. This brought irony to the piece,

as it showed the person who was against the rebellion was once a rebel

herself.

I think this piece went well, even thought we never performed it to

the class, because when we were practicing the characters seemed real

and not too 'over-the-top', we chose a good moment for the freeze

frame as it was tense and emotive, and it did fit the rebellion

criteria over two sets of generations. To have improved the piece even

more, we could have made it a bit longer, and perhaps expanded our

knowledge of the characters by spending more time considering exactly

what they would do in different situations.

Another group in the class chose to do a scenario in which a grandson

had rebelled against his grandmother, but the granddaughter was

getting all the blame and the grandson was seen as perfect. I think

that this was a good idea to work around, but to begin with some o...

... middle of paper ...

...put into it, as in forum theatre. For one

freeze frame, I commented on how the style of dress of one character

was good as it reflected what their character was like. The character

in question was wearing his tie in a very messy fashion, showing him

to be lazy and untidy.

After the freezes we then went on to act out the scene leading up to

that freeze, using dramatic techniques such as soliloquies.

During the whole rebellion work, I have managed to play many different

and interesting characters and develop them. I have studied many

dramatic stage techniques and ways of performing, such as forum

theatre and conscience alley. I think that I have managed to expand my

knowledge of playing different characters and different ways to show

emotions, like understated emotions, body language and gesture, not

just speech.

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