” I have tried to use the world as a can opener…I have tried to let the sounds, shapes, and attitudes of different parts of the world play on the actors organism.”
(Peter Brook)
After reading this Brook quote I began to reflect further on my own experience in New Zealand, and that I should see this experience as another in my creative mind that is being opened slowly for me. By seeing a different culture like New Zealand that does not have a singular culture made of one race and one language. Instead many cultures combined to create to create a culture that has many different sounds, smells, colours, shapes and attitudes. This in turn has influenced me to a larger or lesser extent in the way I hear sounds, the smells I smell, the interpretation my eyes see various colours and shapes, resulting in a shift in my own attitude. I have found through this shift that I have now a wider collection of hats to put on in my work as a facilitator, with more experience for more situations and groups. Overall I am inspired as a creative individual in my arts practice as a workshop writer and facilitator, to see my own practice differently – as a new culture filters through to create new sounds, shapes etc resulting in the hope of a shift in other attitudes not just my own, as I continue my journey of exploration both in my own country and abroad.
FACILITATION…
How do we learn to facilitate?
It is I believe paramount that as a creative workshop leader and facilitator, to have the opportunity to watch other professionals facilitate workshops using various methods in various situations and then to ask questions…. Why did you do that exercise like that? What were your intentions? Etc.
Something Paula has reaffirmed for me is that to be able to facilitate and especially to facilitate well is a skill it does not happen by accident… You plan, you prepare, you have a clear understanding of your aims and objectives and how you are going to achieve these, you learn by your mistake. You use you voice and body to encourage and engage your group, and the one the I believe is fundamental to your role as facilitator in the circumstance that I am in just now with Paula, which is working in special education schools is to encourage a productive relationship with teachers and support staff. Put in place boundaries, outcomes and expectations of both you as a facilitator and the member of staff, in order to establish a positive working relationship and session so that all involved will benefit fully from the drama experience.
Paula’s facilitation skills that I have encountered so far is that after being at Rosehill special education school in Papacura south Auckland for that last 10 years, she knows the children and staff very well, and the working relationships overall are strong. However it wasn’t always like this, she had to teach staff about her drama methods and structure and what she expected of them and in return what they should expect of her. She very much implements and supports the teachers in the class rules set in place for the pupils. This is why for instance the pupil’s backbone for each session is always to sit on the chair. (The chair is reinforce within the dramatherapy workshops, as the pupils deal much better when the have a structure such as to sit on their chairs, it allows them to concentrate and to take on the role as the audience as well as taken centre stage as the performers, the chair is always a safety net. Paula always uses short sentences and simple language when verbal language is needed, in order for the children to understand the stories and the drama attached, she believes drama is about doing rather than listening. All children are encouraged to participate in all of the activities; everyone will always get a turn in order to promote fairness and equality. Children are reminded to wait their turn and not to shout out in order to instil the class rules within the dramatherapy session and to develop their social skills further within a group, promoting patience, co-operation and social conduct. There are only rare occasions when pupils are excluded from the dramatherapy sessions either by Paula or the teachers.
Drama and the arts in general are prioritised at Rosehill by the headteacher who works around her budget in order to finance the arts in her curriculum, sacrifices have been made in order to do this, for instance she has chosen the arts over speech and language therapists and believes the art therapies have a great positive impact on her pupils and staff and the school community at a large.
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