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| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
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The importance of drama in schools by Andrew Scott Today in most of the developed and developing countries of the world, drama plays a significant role in the lives of the people who constantly see, hear and read plays and radio, stage and T.V. dramas that reach large audience which enjoy seeing these performances. In Sri Lanka too new techniques have been perfected through the years and live actors are brought before our T.V. audiences and it is encouraging that today both T.V. and stage dramas are flourishing in this country. In the light of these recent developments the school theatre can be channelled to be a vigorous educating force that would create an enthusiasm for various forms of drama. Well-equipped auditoriums and halls have been built in many schools throughout the island incurring much expenditure and school children are taking a keen interest in the field of drama and the state too recognises drama as an important component of the school curriculum. However, it is somewhat saddening that today drama, specially English drama, is not given its due place in the lives of our student population. Vivid In many schools drama merely means just the staging of a show or two is interest the school community in order to raise some money to provide better facilities for the school. Usually these plays are performed at school prize givings and parents' day celebrations. Still some school principals in Sri Lanka regard drama as having no intellectual importance and they fail to realize that drama is the most vivid and most subtle medium and a powerful vehicle for the conveyance of ideas and that drama is a very potent medium for the artistic and intellectual progress of the students. At the same time some heads of schools hesitate to encourage the production of dramas in their schools as they are of opinion that money spent on the production of school dramas is a waste of money and talent. They also fail to realize the fact that school dramas can contribute much to the moral, spiritual and mental well-being of specially the senior students in schools. It is well known that today most of the students in our society are not well versed in the art of speaking, recitation and loud reading as these are now not taught at all in most of our average schools. As a result there are only a few students who can make a speech or read a book aloud to draw the attention of the listeners. All these problems can be overcome easily by the active participation in school dramas. What have we done recently to promote drama in schools? It is true that school drama competitions are organised at various levels but there is much more that can be done by the state to foster drama in our schools. As drama is not taken seriously in most of our schools, the intellectual and cultural development of the average students do not take place. As a result most students today do not have a keen appreciation of art, literature and humanities and schools continue to produce students with little or no knowledge of the fine arts and the finer human qualities that go to make a total man. Literature What are the benefits that schoolchildren could derive from dramatics? Drama is a stimulating form of literature because one learns by doing and acting is a very definite way of living. A student who has acted in dramas will be a finer person and one who has studied great dramas will be a more understanding person. Drama will also broaden the general outlook of students and participating in drama will help them to observe the people they meet in life and will assist them to appreciate literature more intimately. Drama will also help students to develop a sympathy for human values because of their better understanding of men and matters. The active participation in drama will also help students to control their emotions more effectively. These are significant features in the field of drama which we cannot ignore. Acting also helps the development of the personality of the students and it will reveal the latent talents of the students. Backward students and particularly those not inclined to do academic work could be guided to gain a new interest in themselves by making them to participate in dramas. It must also be mentioned that once an interest in drama is created in the mind of a student who has no intellectual interest it is easy for that student to develop a fuller intellectual life and later he will develop positive attitudes in self-expression, self-discipline and co-operation with others. As dramatics is clearly a group activity the students will find that they need patience, sportsmanship, tact and good nature to do their part well and dramatics also instils certain important habits of working such as punctuality. Accurate timing is a necessary requirement in any drama and this will encourage students to learn time management. In drama the physical, emotional and intellectual life of the students are blended to give a complete experience of life and its activities. Thus the active participation in drama bears a great influence on all school students in the development of their artistic sensibility, creative ability and harmonious living and performance of real dramatic value are a powerful educational force that should be reckoned with. English, Sinhala and Tamil dramas should be fostered in our schools with the idea of intellectual and cultural stimulation of the students. Drama in the classroom can be tackled at three very important levels - the intensive study of drama as an essential component of literature, participating in the acting and the production of a play and the development of the students' individuality. The students should be made to understand about what really a play is and that a play has four very important components - the exposition, plot, character and theme. Students should also be made to have a knowledge of the various types of drama such as tragedy, comedy, social play, historical play, one act play, special characteristics of plays by renowned dramatists such as Shakespeare, Chekhov, Bernard Shaw etc. We must also remember the fact that during the ancient times too various forms of drama such as folk drama played a dominant role in promoting the educational and religious activities of early communities. Developing drama in our schools would assist the future generations to take up to drama as an integral part of their education and culture and it would also help one to lead a balanced life. Even though today drama is done in our schools as a part of English, Sinhalese and Tamil literature, students are not properly guided in the multifarious uses of drama as a dynamic force that contributes immensely to the production of a total personality. Therefore it is important that we give a better place for drama to assist the educational and cultural progress of the schools and to contribute in the production of the total human being at a time when science and technology have attained unimaginable heights of development but human qualities have plunged to a very low ebb. |
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