The drama journal : ‘ the breathings of your heart ’
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Patron and Global Partner Schools
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Patron Professor Jonothan Neelands National Teaching Fellow, Chair of Drama and Theatre Education in the Institute of Education and Chair of Creative Education in the Warwick Business School (WBS) at the University of Warwick. Global partners Atlanta International School, USA Artist Residency Thailand, Prem Dulwich College, Singapore International School of Phnom
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Penh, Cambodia ISTA Performing Arts Academy, Hong Kong Near West, China St Julians School, Portugal
Scene Editor Helen Abbott Artwork Melissa Carne © International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) 2021-2022 ISTA and its editors accept no liability for the views, opinions and advice contained in this journal. The editors reserve the right to edit any materials submitted for publication. ISTA contact information International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA), Lakeside Offices, The Old Cattle Market, Coronation Park, Helston, Cornwall TR13 0SR United Kingdom office@ista.co.uk
Contents 3 Editorial 5 7
The Adventures of Teaching the Theatre Journal
by Gretchen Nordleaf-Nelson 11
The Journal: Refuge, Receptacle and Play Space
by Dinos Aristidou 16
Radical Candor in Self-Reflections
by Lizzie Hodge 19
The Journal: Finding My Theatre Voice
by Aditi Soni 22
Journaling: Drama, Wellness and Finding Your Path
by Juliette O’Brien 25
Idea Generation, Modification and Development: The ISTA Journal
by Dr. Derek Pigrum 32
5 ways to make journals come alive!
by Keriann O'Rourke 34
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This is our story...
by Daphne Said
Biographies
Editorial ‘Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.’ William Wordsworth
We are increasingly living in a heavily curated world. Much of what we see, online and in real life, has been chosen, designed and edited. We are frequently engaging with the best version of something or, in many cases, an unrealistic or entirely false projection. We are coaxed into working towards a final product - we delete, we edit, we cut, we sharpen. We attempt to create perfection and then hope that no one digs deeper or finds flaws in our product. Where then, can we find space to be ourselves. Truly ourselves. With no judgement. A safe space to express our perfect imperfect selves.... For many, this space is a journal. The art of journaling has been around for centuries. It is known to have a powerful effect, often helping to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety or stress but it can also be used as a tool to help us engage with our creative selves and reflect on our process and development. For IB theatre, students ‘keep a theatre journal throughout the two-year theatre course which charts their development and their experiences of theatre as a creator, designer, director, performer and spectator.’ I’m sure for many students this is a welcome space to record their thoughts but for others, this may not come naturally at all. But, if given the tools and the right framing, the journal can become a trusted space and prove invaluable in a student’s journey. This issue offers practical tips and advice on journaling, from starting early and weaving reflection into the primary years to returning to physical
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The Journal: Refuge, Receptacle and Play Space By Dinos Aristidou Being reflective is something we do naturally all the
b) Gather materials or memorabilia that will
time-whenever we have a major decision to make,
prompt reflections or evoke memories at
whenever something significant has happened,
a later date
when we encounter the unfamiliar, when we face a major change or need to try to make sense of
A journal for me is, therefore, both a space to go to
something. Though we all naturally reflect, we don’t
and a place to put things in.
always document or record our reflections. Our thought processes, our responses to our experiences
Journals and learning
and our insights remain locked away within us. As a tool for learning, the recording of reflection What is journaling?
gives educators access to the learner’s thinking, learning and development. The journal makes a
Journaling is an attempt to capture both our
learner’s processes visible–the way they think, the
insights and the processes that have given rise to
impact something has had on them, the way they
them. Like the workings out of a maths problem,
solve problems and approach their work.
journaling unlocks us, leads us to a conclusion and shows us how we got there. Through the process
For the learner, journals also operate as a memory
of journaling, we reach understandings that help to
prompt. The recording of reflection ensures that
guide us while also providing us with markings that
thoughts, feelings, experiences and insights are
we can return to, should we lose our way.
not lost or forgotten. It provides a record of past learning and experience that the learner can return
I’ve been keeping journals since I was about 13 and
to and refer to. This can help to inform future
though these have changed in nature and format
learning and problem solving. A learner’s reflections
over time, they still provide me with the solace, the
in a journal also offer the educator great starting
insights and the refuge that they offered me then.
points for conversations and tutorials.
They are all records of my project of becoming. They transport me back to past moments, show me how
As a tool for creativity, journaling gives young
some of my ideas were developed and capture the
theatre makers a platform to try out new ideas
workings of my complicated mind. They are both
within the privacy of a journal’s pages, away from
a map showing me how I got here and a record of
the prying eyes of an audience. It’s also a sandbox
who I was and am and might be.
where the artist can play, create, try ideas out and solve creative challenges.
A journal, whether digital or hard copy, provides us with a space where we can:
One of journals greatest assets is that it provides us with distance. The records of our experiences, of
a) Record our reflections to give shape and form to them
our learning, of our play give us the chance to look at ourselves and our experiences objectively. When we’re in the heart of an experience we often can’t
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Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
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Idea generation, Modification and Development: The ISTA Journal By Dr. Derek Pigrum (Article from Scene 2006/7)
While the ISTA journal does not
by students today. In the
a master of this process, which
exist in one format, the generic
‘commonplace book’ students
often involved rapidly absorbing
term is a useful one, in that it
studying analysis, genesis and
and metamorphosing ideas by
refers to all work carried out by
literary composition would
other people. But he was not
teachers, in relation to students
enter products of individual
alone in keeping a notebook.
reflecting on their work. Whether
reading and notes on style for
Galluzzi (1996) states that there
this be a notebook, an IB Theatre
future use, on the grounds that
are in existence one hundred and
Arts Portfolio or an MYP Journal
they would, as Bacon stated,
fifty notebooks by other artist-
or another form that you use.
‘ensure copies (copiousness) of
engineers of the Renaissance
As such it lends clarity to that
invention’ (in Dixon, 1971, p.48).
that have never been published.
area of our work that is focused
In the renaissance artist’s note/
The practice of copying down
on students generating ideas in
sketch book, with its drawings
ideas by other people was not in
written/visual form.
and writing, it became the focal
the least at odds with ideas about
point of discussion of ideas and
creativity or originality based
their modification. The notebook,
on the interplay in rhetoric and
Introduction
like the ISTA journal today,
poetical composition between
This article is an attempt to
became an instrument both of
invention and imitation.
locate the complexity of idea
guidance, interaction and control
generation and development in
because it provided the means
Perhaps one of the most
the ISTA journal and its role in
to discuss and illustrate ideas
important tasks facing post-
sustaining the unending effort of
and changes, as well as a means
Romantic, expressionist and
construction that is characteristic
to check changes and mistakes
modernist theories of education
of creative work.
and to introduce corrections.
in the arts is to help our students
The sketchbooks of the Medieval
overcome what Bloom (1988) has
There is a correlation between
craftsmen were pattern books,
termed ‘the anxiety of influence’.
the origins of the creative use of
while the sketchbooks of the
All art involves artifice. The way
journals, the emergence of the
Renaissance artist-engineer,
we approach the effort and
sketchbook in the Renaissance
like the ISTA journal, effectively
artifice of creative construction
and the role of the ‘commonplace
constituted an experimental
and the quality of completed
book’ that is present in the
field (Pigrum, 2001). As we might
work will to a great extent be
way the ISTA journal is used
expect, Leonardo da Vinci was
determined by the way students
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