Dorothy Heathcote: Drama As a Learning Medium
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DOCUMENT RESUME. .ED.130 362 .AUTHOR'.. Wagner, Betty Jane TITLE Dorothy Heathcote: Drama asa Learning Medium. 'INSTITUTION National Education Association, Washington,W.C. PUB DATE 76 NOTE. 231p. iLVAILABLE FROM'NEA Order Department, The-Academic Building,Saw Mill -Road, West Haven, Connecticut 06516.($7.50) EDRS.PRICE MF-$0.83 Plus Postage. HC Not Availablefrom EDRS. 'DESCRIPTORS *Creative Dra*atics; *Drama; EducationalTheories; Elementary Secondary Education;Language Arts; Post Secondary Education; *Role Playing;*Teaching - Techniques IDENTIFIERS *Heathcote (Dorothy) ABSTRACT Dorothy Heathcote's theories and practicesrelating to.the uses of drama in educationare presented in detail. The 20 chapters discuss the value of drama,as well as guidelinvs for organizing and carrying through dramaticacticiities. Transcripts of Heathcote's teaching and speaking and herwriting are used to illustrate the generalizations drawn.A bibliography lists other books, articles, films, and"videotapesby or about Heathcote. (AA) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC indludemany informal unpublished * materials not available from othersources. ERIC makes every effort *' * 'to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * ° * reproducibillty are often encounteredand this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductionsERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document ReproductionService (EDRS)., EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of theoriginal document. Reproductions* * supplied by" EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original. *********************************************************************** C\.1 Ic) Pr\ rC1 r--i C=1 LtJ mirning ct Betty Jane Wagner U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE.. NATIONACINSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS ,BEEN REPRo. DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROVI THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATICN ORIGIII ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINI.O/IS STATED DO NOT NECCSSARILY REPRE- SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL IN&TITUTE nea EDUCATION POSiTION OR POLICY Natiorial Education Association Washington, D.C. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL BY MICRO. NatFICHE OHLYi ons HAS BEENGRANTEDI Fdcntjji BY Association TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERAT. ING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NA TIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE mg ERIC SYSTEM RFOUIR6 .PERAMS , SION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." Copyright ©1976 National Education Association of the United States NEA Stock No. 1381-6-00 (paper) . r, -NEA Stock No. 1383-2-00. (cloth) Library of Congiess Cataloging in Publiaation Data Wagner, Betty Jane. Dorothy Heathcote. Bibliography: p. 1. 'Drama in education. 2. Heatlicote, Dorothy. I. Title PN3171.W25 371.3 76-25055 ISBN 0-8106-1383:2 ISBN 0-8106-1381;6 to. ra To my younger brother, Mason Brown, who when I was barely literate would do all my chores to getme to read the funnies to him, thereby irrevocably committing me to wordmongering. PREFACE Dear B. J., As I read your book I become increasinglyaware of four debts I owe you, which Ican only repay by my constant recognition of them. The first of these debts is forall the time, effort, and patience you must have spent in givingaccurate written form and shape to the ideas we have shared, in talkand classrooms. I find thatwriting about any teaching momentis an enormously- complex task, for somany things occur in so many interesting dimensions, all simultaneously, and I trulyrespect the labor it has been for you. I alsoam grateful-that you never.in the least made me aware of the burden of that! My -second debt to-you arisesIecauseyou have received my work without either sentimentalizingit (which not only wearies me, but is unproductive) or attacking it, Which isequally.unpro- ductive... Thank you for giving itattention, consideration, and analysis. Your own "cool strip" isobviously in healthy shape! Thirdly, without spoilingyour own vigorous writing style, you have paid me the complinient ofpreserving my own rather odd (and certainly idiosyncratic) language,which must, I. think, have cost you much thought and labor. Finally, I am in your debt becausethrough your writing Ican see My work now at some distance, whichmust help my next development and that ofmy future studentsthis development I shall continue to share withyou as it emerges in my teaching and my consciousness. Thank you, B.J.. Dorothy Ilea thcote ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want toi.thank a few of themany friends who helped me with this project. Two of themare Northwestern University pro- fessors: Anne Thurman, who introducedme to Dorothy and loaned me tapes of.her classes she madelong before I conceived of writing this-book, and Wallace Douglas,who insisted that I not listen to the advice of Othersto Make the book more "scholarly." Several teachers in England 'graciouslyinvited me, to watch their. drama, classes or talked' withme about their work with Dorothy: Anthony Lintott, Chris Waddilove, CarolNorthage, Tom SWann, and Cecily O'Neill, the drama wardenof the Inner. London Educa- .tion Authority. Gavin Bolton of theInstitute of Education at" the University of Durham, England, andOliver Fiala of the UniversitY of New South Wales in Australia,in long conversations analyzed Dorothy's work, and theirown. Elizabeth Flory Kelly, .of the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation'in Cleveland, glared her insights and. support. Calvin Gross,President, and Dick Bagg, Chairman of the Humanities Division,at National College of Education, enthusiastically. encouraged this work. My husband, Durrett, advised me to respondto the urgings of all those who said should'explain:Dorothy's kind of drama,because he wisely knew this would brMg me joy;our three'children endured long hours of Heathcote tapes, Which irritatinglydrowned out their mime-. Finally, of' course, I thank Dorothy.herself, whose inspiration called forth this book. 6 Contents . , 'I., What Drama,Can Do 13 2. Evoking, Not Directing ..0 20 3. Edging In 34 4. Finding Maprial Through Brotherhoods 48 :5. From Segmenting to Dramatic Focus 53 6. Leading Thiough questions " .'-' 60, 7. Building Belief 67 8. Dropping to the.Universal 76 9.. *ithholding Expertisd 97;. 10. u .Planning 109 l.r. Using Role in_ 'Teaching 128 11 Theater Etements as Tools -. 147 13. Movement r 3 159 14. The Left Hand Of Knowing -, , 166 15; Classifying Drama 173 tode Cracking: Literature and Language 186 17. Code Cracking: Other Areas 197 18. The Handicapped 210 19. Teacher Training 218 20. Guarantees for Drama, .225 Bibliography .... 233 - 0 1. WHAT DRAMA CAN DO : "I don't have a name for whatrao. Asa person it seems to me I simply stand midway bet.Ween all:that has happened before I arrivedand what.is. now. What I do at thia moment oEviouslit phapesup some part of What is to come. Everything that has happened before me I have somethingin common with,. ana, thii is my secret for finding materialfor drama." Thus Dorothy Heathcote (pronounce,d "Heth'cut"),one of England's best-known educators, has described what she dims, whiCh ehe feelsis not creatiye dramatics, rote playing, Psychodrama, or sociodrama, buta conscious employrnent of the elements of drama to educate-to literally bring Mitwht children already knoW but don't yet.icnow they. know. Shecalls this "building volume within the student"Lquality education,as opposed to quantity. She doesn't deny v. that often,it is appropriate to go for quantity, deliberately to try to coveras much ground as possible. But at othertithes the best thing to do is to go.for quality of experience, to plummet deep into feelingand Meaning; this is lier goal in drama. wIzat._ we. see-Dorothy 'Heathcote'slarge, 'sturdy 'build, ruddy cheeks, and mesmerizing eyes-liea keen sensitivity to the nuance of lan- guage, a profound awareness of the 'Complexityof human interaction, andan artist's 'dedication to perfection in meeting thedemands of hercraft: drama. She-works-from4heinside QUA, froma solid conviction that what she'does has' - tr,feel right, and she ask§ children to do noihinileisT Sh-eisatreTinost-dissat---. isfied when she senses that her class is "doingtheatrics," performing tricks, "acting" in a phony *or aitificalway. That is not what she.'s after.She's always looking for the precise dramaticpressure that will leaa to a break- through, to a point Where' the studentshave to conie' at a problem ina new way, to fight for language adequate to'the tension they feel.. What shaped her-hard-driving, indefatigaW,and yet warmhearted and calmly patient? Shtgrev .up in the thirties, on the haunting, windswept ileaths near Hawortii, the Beontes' village: She remembersasea happy fam- ily" the littk village school -whereshe went until shewas 14. Still in her 8- 14-, DOROTHY.HEATHCOTE girlhood, she sat at a loom in the Yorkshire mills, dreaming of becoming a , film actress. Then her mother, a strong, poor woman widowed at 27, toOk over Dorothy's looms in the mill because that was the only way she could see to it that her daughter could go to theater school in Bradford, 10 minutes f..om their tiny; sparsely furnished cottage. Dorothy's acting teacher was 2fnie .Church, an actress who took a keen interesint teaching and hadan understanding of educational trendseyen 'though what-shegave Dorothy Heathcote 'in those three: years was a typical th ater training to become an actress. Dorothy Heathcote has etherged froin Haworth to become What her- aunts and friends prOdly call:"famous," a much-sought-after lecturer and teacher at conferences and workshops not only in England !kit in the