Theatrical Pedagogy and Interactive Service

Abstract Students in a University of Montana Drama class create dramatic programs for K-12 classrooms as part of their service learning. An interactive, performance-based lesson on the parts of speech created for fourth graders is offered as an example of how theatre can be used to teach discrete academic or social subjects. As the university students gain valuable information about drama and pedagogy from the fourth graders, they learn a valuable lesson themselves: they are not the only ones providing a service. Theatre in Education: The Model In 1965 the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England began an educational project that sought to explore the value of theatre as an educational method. The result of this endeavor was the creation of a unique form of contemporary theatre called Theatre in Education (TIE), which uses theatre in the service of education. This method, although still not prevalent in the United States, has become quite celebrated in the United Kingdom. There, numerous TIE troupes operating with both local and national backing travel to schools and agencies to facilitate theatrical programs. A simple definition of TIE does not exist, but there are several characteristics that distinguish it from other types of educational theatre such as children's theatre. First and foremost, Theatre in Education uses drama as the primary teaching tool by offering students an interactive experience. Although a traditional play is often part of a TIE experience, TIE is not merely a play designed to educate; it is an entire program that asks audience members to actively engage with the performers before the play, after the play, and even during the play. Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal's coinage of the term spect-actor (1992 p. 19), to describe one who simultaneously observes and acts elucidates the TIE philosophy of audience and performer interplay. In a TIE program, both performer and audience member are spect-actors, conspiring together to gather knowledge and then to put their new knowledge into practice. Another characteristic of TIE programs is that the subject matter arises out of the social and curricular needs of the audience in question. TIE companies produce programs that seek to address subjects and issues pertinent to the audience. For example, if an elementary class is having problems with bullying, a TIE program could include a play about a young boy who is taunted by his classmates or picked on by the older children who share his bus ride home. TIE does not discriminate when it comes to the subjects to be presented and explored. It is inclusive of every social issue and academic area. Finally TIE seeks to develop, in its participants, an intense interest in the subject discussed in the program. The goal is for everyone to head out of the program with an impetus to learn even more about the subject presented. This interest should be cultivated so much so that the spect-actor seeks to reflect on and engage with the subject outside of the traditional classroom or theatre space. This component of Theatre in Education completes the experience by authentically connecting the subject taught to the participant's real world. Ideally a student who experiences a TIE program about bullying will be able to apply some of what they learn in the theatrical lesson to their real life. Whether the participant is a bully, a victim, or a bystander, the program should offer them tools so that they are able to change their actions and behaviors in the future. Theatrical Pedagogy: The Form Students in my University of Montana service-learning course Theatrical Pedagogy study the theories and styles of the Theatre in Education movement in order to develop what I have come to call, "interactive, performance-based lessons" for K-12 classrooms in Missoula, Montana. I refer to the students in this class as "actor-teachers," the term used by the Belgrade Theatre in 1965 to denote a new type of "hybrid" actor (Williams, 1993 p. …