Aside universal culture, regional culture... organized, resisting=20
devastation. If we leave the fight, it becomes very "easy" to "them"...=20
Can you understand why is very important to us be present into=20
institutions or build institutions like non-governamental=20
organizations... ORGANIZATION, That's the question: To be=20
(inside institutions) or not ...
diane celia hodges wrote:
saying that popular education models of theatre
> have been adapted/adopted for schools?=20
Yes, in some schools. Depends on the people of those schools. They=20
decide their pedagogic project ( students, teachers etc ).
I also take it that the "arts" were
> not officially included prior to the recent LOE Direction - which
> means, I'd reckon, cheers are called for...! CHEERS!!! You must feel ex=
cited
> about the prospects...
>=20
> >What cheers are?
=20
> This is very much in the lines of where I've been thinking, also very
> Brechtian/marxist, theatre is a political tool for change... Again, it
> sounds exciting!
> How do you see theatre particicipating in school education democratizat=
ion?
Theater is a coletive activity, always. But there are many "models" of=20
relation between people who are involved in any theater=20
criation/process. Of course, I believe in a democratic model, in=20
which people can be heard and discuss their ideas/thinking/opinions.=20
Something very distant from most of business models.
I disagree with you. I don't think that "we" make the institutions -
> I think institutions are self-replicating systems of privilege and
> subordination,
> founded on the premises of a Machiavelian model of control.
> I think that if someone is working within an institution's systems, it
> is impossible to do anything but recreate the institution, however
> inadvertently.
>=20
> No matter well-intentioned we may be, once our work is situated within
> an institution, it is structurally wrested from any of its ideological
> independence,
> through the historicizations of interaction, hierachies of authority,
> ideological tyrranies based on a specific balance of power, and so on.
>=20
> I applaud your work!! But I am not as optimistic about structural chang=
e as you.
An hystorical aproach understands "things" in movement, in process...=20
> I've blustered a few times on this list about abolishing compulsory sch=
ooling,
> because if it weren't state-controlled, people like you and I, and othe=
r
> creative,
>=20
> independence-seeking educators, could co-create new spaces for learning
> to take place, spaces that are not structurally or ideologically linked=
to
> the institutions of
> school.
I'm not against organization outside schools. But, as I told you I think=20
it's important to be inside schools. I understand schools as a place of=20
socio-political fight, in which groups make their thought come out.
Someone on this list talked about fractals. A person after my own=20
heart. A
> fractal
> is a logarithmic equation used in computer design: the fractal is "play=
ed"
> so to speak, the an "nth" power,
>=20
> and as it runs, replicating its equation over
> and over and over, it literally creates a chaotic, spontaneous,
> unpredictable image.
>=20
> Leaning, to me, is about fractals. We come in to a situation with/as a
> certain repeated
> equation, but through interactions within chaos-tolerant environments, =
the
> spontaneous, unpredictable surprise of what can emerge changes us and
> the environement. Theatre can be a chaos-tolerant environment. Institut=
ions
> are not.
Not every kind of Theater.
Here. I think, then, there are irreconcilable limitations... not
> to diminish
> the work, but just to explain my position.
Yes, I understand what you say.
>=20
> A local artist in Vancouver describes it well:
> "You have to lose art to keep it alive. You must not remain in control =
of
> its expression.
> You've got to turn it over... The old notion of the author
> is ridiculous. I don't want to be an author anymore. I want to think ab=
out
> art in groups of two, three, four... in the plural, in the social."
> (Jochen Gerz)
>=20
> Yes! Here is where and why my focus shifted to adult communities outsid=
e
> schools, locally-based, grass-roots organizations which service
> marginalized community
> members (mental-health-consumers, for example; local lesbians, etc) -
> all of the groups participating in this "community-of-practice" are
> non-institution
> orgs., grass-roots; initiated as community-based, activist-oriented
> cooperatives,
> organized through ideologies about equity, respect, care, and so on.
>=20
> In this context, I think there is room for the chaos of cooperative,
> collective engagements with art. I *think*. I might be way wrong here.
> This is so *interesting* - certainly one of Brecht's passions was to
> waken the audience to their "role" in theatre, not to sit back and happ=
ily
> or sadly empathise, but to *realize* their roles as participants in the
> collective work of theatre; that once this took place, people would be
> thinking about what is happening.,.. Can you tell me more about the
>=20
> cultural/historical contexts in which performance happens? And
> this tree-based method... can you explain more of that?
Brecht model of action with the pedagogic plays are very used too. Do=20
you Know the work of Viola Spolin? She wrote two interesting books:=20
"Improvisation to the theater" and "Theater game file", published in NA.=20
There is the Boal's book "Two hundred exercises and games to actors and=20
not actors that want to say something throw Theater" and "Theater of the=20
Opressed".
tree based methodology:
1) To make theater ( as actor, set design, make up artist etc )
be "actor"
2) Read theater comunication ( understand what is said by theater )
3) Know the socio-historical context in which a performance happens... =20
and know the performance history.
> Aaaah!!!!! How excellent!!!!!! Wow. This all is so intimately connected=
to
> the work I am trying to do!!!! Are there are stories you could relate,
> which might describe an example of what you do?
Yes, there are many interesting stories... I'm very busy now. I have to=20
write a paper this weekend. Please,forgive me.
> Actually, you have prompted many more!! :-)
>=20
> "Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right."
> Ani Difranco
> *********************************
> diane celia hodges
> faculty of education
> university of british columbia
> vancouver, bc canada
> tel: (604)-253-4807
> email: dchodges who-is-at interchange.ubc.ca