DRAMA STRATEGIES

Reporter: Mark Dave T. Paborada

DRAMA STRATEGIES- are the tools and techniques employed by teachers in dramatic arts. These strategies
are used to explore a theme, text or idea while engaging students in the creative process. Implementing drama
strategies encourages students to build inquiry skills and explore their imagination for understanding. Through
drama strategies, students enhance their teamwork, character development, storytelling and performance skills.
Drama strategies can be used across the curriculum and require students to be actively engaged in their own
learning.
1.Captioning- a scene or still image is given one sentence that encapsulates it. It is used in words the meaning
portrayed in the scene or image.
2.Choral Speaking- more than one person speaking in unison for dramatic effect. Used for aural dramatic effect.
3.Collective Role & Collective Voice- more than one person simultaneously takes on one role and anyone of them
can speak as the character they are together portraying. Used to share ownership of role and reason for careful
and active listening.
4.Conscience Alley, Decision Alley and Thought Tunnel- the class splits into two lines facing each other. A
character passes between the lines at a moment of indecision in the drama. Used to make explicit and public the
pros and cons of a course of action, give opportunity for everyone to influence a character’s actions and to
model balanced argument and support persuasive speech.
5.Dance Drama- drama expressed through movement, usually with music or sound. Used to kinesthetically
understand, create and communicate meaning.
6.Essence Machine- usually done in standing class circle, the student in turns enter the circle and performs very
short and continuously repeating sound or word. The machine can be controlled by the teacher through signals
that speed it up, slow it down, make it noisier and quieter, stop it. etc for dramatic effect. Used to encourage
reflective and selective thought.
7.Eye Witness- can observe a scene without being noticed by those in the scene or the eye witness might be a
partial or impartial observer present within a scene as it is happening and able to report back afterwards on they
have seen and answer questions put to them about what they saw. Used to give dramatic purpose to being an
active and accurate observer.
8.Forum Theatre- involves a group creating a short scene/s that authentically portray a social issue the importance
to them and reflect their real life experiences. Used to engage together with a social issue that matters to the
participants and in within their experience.
9.Free Frame- this is when action is halted and a moment in a scene is held perfectly still. Used to hold a moment
still in order to allow thinking time (example: reflection)
10. Hot- seating- usually a chair is designated as the “hot-seat” and a character form the drama sits in it and is
open to being questioned and will answer in role. Used to find out information from a character and to find out
a character’s viewpoint.
11. Improvisation- involves speaking and acting spontaneously in role without rehearsal. Used to encourage and
develop quick thinking and response in role.
12. Drama Theatre- involve telling parts of the drama through the series of images or showing what a character
is thinking and or feeling through creating and presenting realistic or symbolic images. Used to support
reflective thinking, positive reframing and enable the visualization of positive possibilities.
13. Mantle of Expert- children are given the roles of experts and treated respectfully as experts but are not told
directly that they are “experts”. Used to raise self- esteem and self-image, to empower and challenge children
to respond as adults.
14. Mime and Movement- mime uses the body to act or interact with something or somebody that is not visible
and is imagined. It may be carried out alone or with others. Used to create impression that someone or
something is present.
15. Multi- sensory Imaging- visualization is about specifically giving time to supporting children to see pictures
in their minds. Used to deepen sensory engagement and to support the children to focus on, tune into and
become sensitive to the sensory aspects of a place and/or moment.
16. Passing Thoughts- type of thought tracking “on the move”. Used to link physical movement and thought.
17. Performance Carousel Performance Wave- each group create a short piece of performance drama. They are
then presented in turn seamlessly without interruption. Used to create quickly a whole themed performance.
18. Physical Theatre- involves using the body to actively represent and portray not just people in a drama but
objects, scenery etc. Used to make drama physically active and to breakdown physical barriers between
participants.
19. Active Storytelling- the teacher might tell a story and as he/she tells it the children physically become anything
they hear in the story and keep changing into something/somebody else when new people, objects and places
 are mentioned. Used to ensure everyone contributes, encourage speedy response and to make storyline
memorable.
20. Proxemics- physical distance between characters carries meaning. When a scene has been created in any drama
the children can be asked to place themselves meaningfully in relation to the characters within it and be able
to explain why. Used to encourage justification, reasoning and reflection.
21. Role on the Wall- involves drawing an outline of a character and writing information about the character in
and around the outline. Used to generate discussion about characters and support justification of
opinions/viewpoints about character.
22. Rumors’- the class working in role and given short amount of time to create, spread and gather rumors about
a character or event in the drama. Used to generate and share many ideas quickly.
23. Sensory Journey- can involve the class together creating a journey experience for some of them to pass through
in turn. Used to encourage creative and lateral thinking.
24. Slow motion- device that is helpful in terms of demanding individual and group cooperation, concentration
and physical self-control. Used to build in controlled movement for physical safety and denote different states
of a character’s consciousness.
25. Small group Playmaking- involves a group of children making up a scene or short play. Used to create and
develop the plot and enable every child to share ownership of the fiction being collectively built.
26. Sound Collage Soundscape- children are asked to find, make and organize sounds using their bodies and
anything available in the room. Used to explore ways of creating sounds
27. Talking objects- the children become the objects and once in place are able to tell a little about themselves, the
person they belong to and maybe open in answering questions. Used to encourage and require active listening
and cooperation.
28. Teacher as Narrator and as Story Teller- the teacher can act as a narrator or storyteller for parts of the drama
for various purposes. Used to model how drama can be told as a narrative and to stimulate prediction about
what happen next.
29. Teacher in Role- this is potentially the most important and enabling strategy that drama teachers have at their
disposal were the teacher is a co-participant in the drama. Used to focus, facilitate and enable children working
in role, from a position within a drama and to give or gather information in the drama as an active and
interactive co-participant.
30. Thought Tracking- this is a way of finding out what characters are thinking at a particular moment in the
drama. Used to deepen the level of engagement and to gather and share the possible thoughts of one character.
31. Working in Role- children are acting and interacting deliberately as if they are someone else. Used to enable
children to think and feel themselves into another person’s shoes and situation.

Thank you very much and God Bless us all.