HowlRound: I recently had an experience working on a production of Pippin that served as a cultural bridge between students and helped lay the foundation for a whole new teaching philosophy. I tend to direct with a mix of Deaf and hearing actors, so I was excited when, in September 2016, a drama club at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY approached me to direct their production of Pippin. The club itself was wonderfully diverse, and the mix of ethnicity, culture, and language in that one production resulted in significant artistic and teaching opportunities.
2 comments:
This I think is an amazing idea and know from past experience in classes can work wonders for students who are somewhat behind on their communication skills. I for one am a dyslexic and dysgraphic student and have trouble a lot of the time articulating my thoughts and communicating my ideas so from an early age in class I learned to stay quiet and let the others around me talk more. The idea that taking away means of communication actually builds collaboration and communication I believe to be very true and is something that I think really works. These ideas in theatre are interesting though as we have so many different forms other then our mouths in which we can communicate and collaborate. for example building or dancing gives the creator or presenter the ability to show how they feel about a piece without necessarily having to articulate the ideas verbally. And that's where we are able to get the best ideas of course when a classroom and it's students are able to work as a collective in order to create the best product.
This article touches on a something most people never think about or even really notice. Other people can’t always communicate and communicating in an environment such as the one provided is very interesting and especially so because it allows for all people to grow and not just one side or the other as typically seen. This is also a really cool as in recent development the entertainment industry has been getting more and more aware about this audience. Not very long ago a trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 came out with Chris Pratt breaking the fourth wall to tell the viewers to turn the sound on (as it was targeted towards social media audiences). He very quickly got backlash for this and instead of tweeting an apology or ignoring it; he got back onto that same platform and apologized while bringing awareness about this topic and continued even after this occurrence. An amazing moment for me when I saw that all happen over the course of two days. The same thing is happening here though; theatre is bringing awareness as all people within the program learn about and grow in terms of communication.
Post a Comment