At a glance
Pairs · launched on Thread 3, Day 9 and presented on Day 18 or 19 · four working periods · one form, where it came from, and five minutes in which you teach it to us by making us do it
What you are making
A teaching presentation about one drama form or tradition: where it came from, what it was for, and what it can still do. The rule that makes this drama rather than a report — we have to be on our feet for at least two of your five minutes. You teach the form by running the room in it.
Choosing your form
From Where Drama Comes From, or another you can research properly: the Greek chorus, commedia dell’arte, mask work, Noh, Kabuki, shadow puppetry, melodrama, physical theatre, verbatim theatre, forum theatre, puppetry in contemporary Canadian companies, or a form from your own community’s traditions. Register your choice with me — two pairs may not take the same one.
If your form belongs to a living cultural tradition, particularly an Indigenous one, the standard is higher, not lower: use sources from people inside that tradition, name them, and present the form as somebody’s living practice rather than a technique to borrow. If you cannot find those sources, choose another form. That is not a failure — it is the correct decision, and it is worth saying so in your presentation.
What must be in it
- Where and when it comes from, in a sentence a Grade 9 audience follows.
- What problem it solved for the people who made it — the audience, the space, the occasion, what the community needed.
- One thing it does that our other tools cannot.
- Two minutes of the room doing it: a short exercise, an image, a chorus, a mask walk. Plan it as you would a warm-up, with the instruction sentence written down in advance.
- One contemporary trace: a film, series, play, or performer where the form is still visible today. Drama and the World Right Now is the way of looking that finds these.
- Your sources, at least three, named where you use them. At least one must be more substantial than a summary page.
The working periods
| Day | What it is for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choose and register the form; find your first two sources |
| 2 | Research: what it was for, and one contemporary trace |
| 3 | Design the two minutes we spend on our feet, and test it on one other pair |
| 4 | Rehearse the whole five minutes to time; fix what ran long |
How this is assessed
You present in a pair, and you are marked as yourself
There is no shared mark. Split the five minutes into named halves and tell me who is taking which before you present — one of you carries the origins and the purpose, the other runs the two minutes on our feet, or whatever division suits your form. Name the sources you personally read where you use them. I mark your half and your sources.
| Quality | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Researched | Specific, sourced, and beyond one summary page |
| Understood, not recited | You can say what the form was FOR |
| Taught, not told | The room did it, and knew what to do |
| Connected | A contemporary trace we can actually go and watch |
| Respectful | Living traditions presented as somebody’s practice, with sources from inside |
| Held to time | Five minutes, rehearsed, not discovered live |
Reflect
A Drama Journal entry: what surprised you about why this form existed, and which of our own class conventions you now see differently because of it.
Curriculum connection
C2.1
describe the origins and development of various drama forms, elements, conventions, and techniques (e.g., report on the role of the chorus in Greek theatre or the clown in slapstick comedy; report on how the changing uses of the thrust stage and the proscenium stage reflect developments in drama)
Link to original
C2.2
describe ways in which contemporary dramas show the influence of social trends (e.g., identify topical themes and/or familiar stereotypes in popular films and television dramas; compare the roles played by women characters today and in the past)
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B2.1
identify and explain the various purposes that drama serves or has served in diverse communities and cultures from the present and past (e.g., to provide entertainment; to highlight or interpret religious or ethical beliefs, as in ancient Greece or in Aboriginal cultures; to celebrate or commemorate key traditions or historical events of a culture or country)
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B2.4
identify ways in which dramatic exploration promotes an appreciation of diverse cultures and traditions (e.g., describe what they learned from experiencing different perspectives on reality through drama works based on Aboriginal and/or international sources)
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