Today, I tried to let go a bit and I still can't work out how well it went. I am generally inclined to avoid convention-one-type-process-drama because I just am not sure about it. However, I must get better and the only way to do this is to travel to Australia with a bunch of KS1 children on a Wednesday afternoon.
We'd set aside the whole afternoon for our expedition to Australia and the only aim I had was for the team of explorers to find some sort of significant, previously undiscovered, landmark. They had spent a couple of sessions becoming the expert team and now was the time for the initial part of their commission.
Team: Explorers
Client: The Australian Tourist Board
Commission: To explore lesser-known areas of Australia to discover a new landmark which will attract tourists.
I spent the afternoon in Australia trying simultaneously not to 'take control' while also trying to stick to my one aim. When the children took the fiction in a certain direction, I tried to let it unfold but also stick to my given: we would find a Significant Landmark.
Problem 1:
There was an alarming rattlesnake plague. The number of injuries was worrying. The explorers deployed their antivenom effectively, but failed to learn from their mistakes - they kept returning to the rattlesnake nests and getting bitten again. At one point I looked across the Australian outback and saw around 12 seriously injured explorers rolling around on the ground. Something had to be done to move the fiction on.
Solution:
I received a phone call from our client. She expressed concern that so many serious injuries were occurring. It was becoming unsafe. If the expedition proved too dangerous, she would have to cancel it.
Two children offered to become snake trainers. They explained that they hadn't been bitten so could help others to learn how to remain safe. The next 'day', children stopped getting injured and began to focus on the commission.
Problem 2:
A handful of children didn't seem very invested in being part of the team. While others were settling down at the campsite for the night, chatting about their journey so far, these children were throwing skipping ropes and running around at top speed.
Solution: I decided to watch and listen. I realised that one of the children was 'fishing' using the skipping rope so I went over and asked him to provide fish for the campfire. The lure of a job meant the others quickly joined in; they brought their catches over to the camp which brought them back into the team.
Problem 3:
Many of the children weren't focused on the commission. They'd initially been very interested in it but were now (naturally) distracted by rattlesnakes and crocodiles. They would talk about landmarks they could see when interacting with an adult, but there was little investment.
Solution: I overheard my colleague-in-role discussing a mountain a small handful of children had seen. It had purple fog at the top. I asked the children to take me there and we sat looking at it and talking about it. However, the rest of the explorers didn't notice so we found some cones and used hazard tape to mark off the area where we'd seen the mountain. Gradually children came over - they were interested.
Problem 4: (highly unexpected)
The mountain, I was warned, was guarded by a blue fox. This was a very unexpected problem for the afternoon. We (apparently) would not be able to explore the mountain because of this blue fox.
Solution (?): I decided to ask one of the children to represent the blue fox. We tried to talk to her to persuade her to allow us onto the mountain. At one point, she said 'yes'. We started to explore the mountain, but then...
Problem 5:
Around 3/4 of the explorers decided to represent blue foxes instead. We actually had a pack of blue foxes on the mountain, chasing away a small handful of explorers.
Solution: After several different attempts at a solution involving explorers talking to foxes, I asked to speak to the pack of foxes alone and negotiated some time on the mountain for the explorers. I then asked everyone to represent explorers again so that we could explore the mountain.
The actual, real end of the day was approaching and I still did not feel there was a large amount of investment in the mountain.
Solution: My good friend, co-creation. We reached the end of the expedition (after one helicopter rescue and one blue fox cub being sent back to where it came from) and went into the classroom where I happened to have a bamboo teepee frame.
We invited children to represent their 'patch' of the mountain on A3 paper, showing what they'd found, and then they added their paper to the mountain. After a very busy expedition, they calmed down and focused on the mountain. It is now in the corner of the classroom and the children love it.
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Being inexperienced in the arts of drama, I do not know whether the above responses to the problems were correct or whether I could have approached them in a different way. I will continue to try and learn. However, for now we have a Significant Landmark to focus our energies on.
The children named it 'Mountain of Colourful Dreams.'
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