VINE PROJECT PAKISTAN - JANET

Monday 26TH February:

The time for presentation of our work to date has arrived. With more time (it was ever thus!) we could have added further Episodes… However, we do not have the time and, all things considered, I have to say that I am very happy with our progress and what we have achieved. The two hour rehearsal time on Friday allowed all of the pieces to be put together. Two aspects of our presentation still require a small amount of work - and we have a half hour time slot prior to performance to attend to them - then, we will be ready! One issue is the “babel” sequence, when students speak in a variety of languages to tell their stories. On Friday, with all students speaking at once, the effect of a range of languages was lost. Today, to correct this, we arranged for four students to stagger the start, then the remaining students joined in, to create a cacophony, which ended the “Voice of the People” segment. The audience was then able to hear that speakers were using different languages. The only remaining issue was how to conclude. After the Exodos, we decided to return to the opening chant of “Planting ideas … ” etc, followed by “Global vision through local knowledge”, chanted four times by the Chorus. During this chant, the Chorus joined hands which were raised on the final word of the chant and lowered as the students bowed. THE END! DEAFENING APPLAUSE!

The applause wasn’t deafening but so heartfelt from the audience of approximately forty. The BEd students obviously enjoyed performing and were justifiably very pleased with their work. A question and answer session followed. A number of the MEd students were interested in resources books for Drama in the classroom. There was discussion of ways for Drama to be integrated into units of work across the curriculum. One member of staff commented on the fact that we had created an effective presentation without using elaborate back drops, scenery, props etc, pointing to the often limited financial resources available in many schools in Pakistan. Our precious resource was the mental and physical commitment of the students - the human resource! Students spoke of their learning from the process, through a deepening of their understanding of the text and its themes, and through a growing awareness of teaching techniques and strategies that they could employ in the future. I pointed out the obvious growth in the students confidence in their own creativity and ideas, which had enriched our work in its final stages of development. I also commented on the the increased fluency of expression evident during the process - for many students English is their second (or third!) language. So much was learned, by all involved in the Vine Project.

THANK YOU NOTRE DAME INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION!

To all who made me feel so welcome, especially Sr Margaret Madden, the Director, who was kind enough to trust me with her students; to Ashar who supported me through-out the process and ably took responsibility for the computer side of things; to Cynthia who got the students started with Medea; to George for videoing the students’ performance, and finally, to all of the BEd students themselves, for their trust and willingness to immerse themselves in the work with intelligence and enthusiasm. Pakistan is enriched by teachers such as you!

A final “final word” to Jo Raphael, who initiated this project. What a great idea! The Vine Project has enriched the learning of so many through the power of Drama! Well done.

Friday 23rd February: Our last day to work together!

Today we had a one hour session, with each group, first thing in the morning and a combined half hour, immediately after the second group session, to link things together. Then - HALLELUJAH!! - a two hour time slot in the afternoon. To say we needed this time is a huge understatement. Many thanks to NDIE staff whose cooperation made this time possible. I appreciate the level of commitment to the project.

What can I say? Friday was running through, running through… At first slowly, with tinkering, when we were in separate groups. Then, slowly with more tinkering, tweeking, fine tuning, coordinating of the two groups in our half hour together in the morning. Each group filling the other group in on decisions made in the separate groups. After lunch, from 3-5pm, we went from start to finish twice. The first time, very slowly… the second with an acceptable pace. There was a discernable mood of getting down to serious business. On Monday it will be there! The whole thing runs approx. thirty minutes - shorter than I had expected. With more time, a third Episode could have been added to develop ideas of how we might address the “global vision through local knowledge” aspects of the IDEA conference theme. We will have to leave our work open-ended… However, the future is bright with young teachers like these working to shape the world view of young Pakistanis.

OUR PLAY (We haven’t thought of a name!!??)

CAST:

NDIE BEd students
COSTUME: White shalwar/kameez

ENTRY: 4 Drum beats then Chorus begins chant:enters in two lines chanting/dancing
“Planting ideas… we create our world”
line circles space, forms Chorus in two arcs - stage Right and Left

PROLOGUE: Rahana and Shahbaz provide context to our play and pose questions.

PARADOS: Chorus chant Medea’s themes (groups 1 and 2 move into position)

EPISODE 1: “Quotes” interpreted in relation to Medea’s themes

CHORUS: Chant key words from presentation 1 and 2, as group 3 move into position.
CHORUS: Chant key words as group 4 and 5 move
CHORUS: Chant as group 6 and 7 move
CHORUS: Chant as group 8 moves

MESSENGER: “I am the messenger…let me through…” etc

CHORUS: Breaking news… News flash… Breaking news da dat dat dat dat …Pink Panther
TV presenters move

EPISODE TWO: Medea’s themes evident in contemporary society
News bulletins x 5 - first presenter “Welcomes” final presenter “Over to …”

CHORUS: “Have your say! Voice of the people! Have your say!” Repeat x 2

Roving reporters introduce the show and interview peoplewho comment on news bulletin items or current issues of their choice.

CHORUS: “I want to have my say!” or “I have a comment!” etc
Several students tell their “story”; make their comment in a variety of languages. Presenters close show but one voice must be heard…

CHORUS: Chant “EXODOS” X 4

EXODOS: Goher delivers closing comment

CHORUS: Chant “Planting ideas we create our world. Global vision through local knowledge”

Thursday 22nd February:

Today, we began by finalising Episode two and removing inadvertent areas of overlap with news items selected in the two groups when we met separately. We went back to Medea’s themes and chose five stories, from the many that students had prepared, to create a more balanced news bulletin. Everything we do now is with an awareness of imminent performance before an audience!

Incidental work needed to be done on physical placement of groups in the performance space and the arms of the students creating the “TV screens” around the presenters needed straightening! We also decided that the faces of these students distracted the viewer from the TV presenter, so we positioned them with their backs to the audience - everyone felt this was an improvement. It is really satisfying to see students creativity expressed more freely now, creating a sense of collaboration and shared “ownership” of our work. One student has suggested that we need rehearsal time on Saturday afternoon. I wholeheartedly agree that we need a time slot with the whole group before we will be ready for an audience! This may not be possible on the week-end but negotiations are afoot for a two hour session with the combined groups tomorrow afternoon.

We also decided that the transition from Episode One needed strengthening, so we added a Messenger who will break through from the back line of the Chorus saying urgently: “Let me through. Let me through. I am the messenger… let me through. I bring news of events - great and powerful, tragic and true”. The Chorus then says in unison: “Breaking news! Breaking news! News flash! News flash! Breaking news… da dat dat dat dat …” This morphed into the Pink Panther theme, which was cute and pretty effective so we kept it in -despite the tendency of students to laugh! Movement of TV presenters from the Chorus lines is done during this Chorus chant. A second Chorus chant: “Have your say! Voice of the people… Have your say!” covers the transition from the end of the news bulletin into a Vox Populi style program on the streets of Karachi. Suddenly, during rehearsal of this sequence, students improvised crew - a camera man and cable man - and the impromptu addition of a “rubber necking” onlooker craning his neck to get his face on camera from the crowd was highly effective. Great fun and very effective for the work but … very disruptive to the decorum of the Chorus members!

We are all feeling really happy about the progress we are making. We seem to be over that inevitable hump when everything seems to stall, progress is slow and it seems that things will never come together in time. It’s a mystery but things have coalesced and a final form is emerging. Students are now writing the Prologue and Exodos to “book end” the performance. These will be added tomorrow! In’shallah!

Tuesday 20th February: Playbuilding continues…

Today we worked on Episode two in our play structure - we only have time to create two! Students had been asked to come to the session with a “story” which demonstrated Medea’s themes at work in today’s society. The source could be personal experience/knowledge, newspaper etc. After some time spent refining the movement and chanting for our entry on stage, which served as a warm-up, we shared our stories. It was apparent that we needed to condense the stories if they were to fit in with a news item format, so students spent a couple of quiet moments mentally shaping their story into four to five sentences. Also, we needed to keep an eye on our overall run time! Knowing that the students spoke a range of languages, including English and Urdu, I asked them to simultaneously tell their stories in a language of their choice. This could then serve as a Stasimon evoking the idea of cultural diversity and the difficulties inherent in attempts at meaningful communication. It’s also indicative of the range of points of view and the ways in which geography can shape our ideas. I liked the effect and the students enjoyed using a language other than English!

Improvisation of “news” items (two students creating a box with their arms in front of a third student to suggest a news presenter on TV) and a Vox Populi-style TV show, where students could express an opinion based on their own story or one of the news items, was our next focus. We will have to spread the coverage of Medea’s themes over the two classes as I think we ended up with repetition. This is tricky when working with a split group but we will sort it out in Thursday’s class.

We then spent time on working out movement from the Chorus for these presentations and once more we were out of time…

Only two hours left and we are still creating rather than refining and polishing for performance! We are now presenting to an audience of NDIE staff and MEd students on Monday 26th February, when we will have a half hour run through time before our performance. The curtain creating a back drop to the “stage” space will be up for Thursday’s class which will surely motivate all of us! I’m looking forward to pulling all these threads together.

Friday 16th February and Monday 19th February: We haven’t really b(l)ogged down (I just wanted to use “bog” and “blog” together in the title!) rather we have slowed down, as we work on the logistical issues of moving fifty people into the performance space. I’m writing up these sessions together as the focus of each class was the same - the one being a continuation of the other.

On Friday, we began work on ritualistic movement appropriate for students entering the performance space and positioning themselves to easily move centre stage for presentation of the Episode on “Quotes”, which had been developed in previous classes. We also made a start on Chorus comment on this action - the Stasimon. A minor aspect of the presentation of student’s work on Quotes was the opportunity to polish/rehearse/refine the work. Group positioning and ordering of presentation was more the focus.

Monday, we continued with these aspects but, as we were now a combined class, some things were changed as we integrated chanting by students of the Vine Project theme as they entered. We added ritualistic movement to illustrate and emphasise the words chanted. A diagonal step to the right with arms dipping downwards to suggest “Planting ideas” and a diagonal step to the left with a clap to emphasise “create our world”. In this way students moved forward to a tabla beat, circling and crossing to form the Chorus up stage right and left. It should look really effective when students are dressed in white shalwar kameez, as they will be to perform. A small gap was left in the middle to facilitate movement of students from the Chorus to perfom and then return to their places. Some time needed to be spent practising stepping and co-ordinating movements to the beat. We also worked on chanting Medea’s themes as a chorus comment.

Slowly our work is gaining shape and form. I’m happy but felt sadly pressed for time an issue which has been resolved to a certain degree. We will now have next Friday’s session for rehearsal and perform on Monday in joint class time. We will also have time for a “run through” prior to performance. Our audience will comprise NDIE staff and the MEd students and the work will be videoed.

More good news is that our “buddy” school in Mandurah, Western Australia, has opened a site and Marion and her students are set to start blogging their own Medea paybuilding process on the Vine theme!

Thursday 15th February, we began the playbuilding process.  If time constraints had been less tight, I would have spent a couple of hours on a Greek theatre workshop.  As it is, we need to introduce students to Greek performance techniques as the process develops.  Students had been asked to bring a quote/s to class which addressed themes raised in our text - Euripides’ Medea - such as: the outsider/”other”; family; honour; marriage; motherhood; power - in human’s relationships with one another and with the gods.

To open the session we broke down the structure of a Greek tragedy to fit our joint and individual group meeting times over the next week and a half.  Monday will be our only remaining joint session, prior to our performance day, so we will use it to create the Prologue - spoken by two characters as the Chorus (ie the remainder of the students) appears.  This will provide the context for understanding our play.  The Parados - a song sung by the Chorus as it enters and dances - will also be created in this session.  I hope we can integrate some typically Pakistani dancing! In the small group sessions - five in total! - we will create a First and Second Episode - when characters and chorus talk - and a First and Second Stasimon - when the chorus dances and sings a reflection on things said/done in the Episode preceding.  These will probably only loosely conform to the traditional choral ode of Greek tragedies!  These Episode and Stasima  can then be integrated into the final structure for performance.

We began building our play by applying some characteristics of Greek tragedy in performance - large gestures, strong vocal projection, chanting/repetition/echoing - to quotes chosen by the students. This work quickly ate up all our time and we didn’t get to planning a Stasimon. 

Students worked with strong focus and commitment to the task.  Results, when presented, were very promising.  Mainly needing greater strength of execution and a more controlled coordination of voice/gesture/movement.  An excellent and satisfying beginning! 

Tomorrow….  we can add the Stasimon and polish today’s work.  Well done!

 

Background to the Vine Project in Pakistan:

In July 2006 I received the e-mail which informed me of the Vine Project.  I had recently returned from Pakistan, where my husband works for a mining company, and which I visit often.  As I had lived in Karachi in 2002-2003, I had a circle of friends and contacts there and I had met the Director Of Notre Dame Institute of Education, Sr Margaret Madden, at an Aussies’ lunch in the home of a mutual friend.  The conversation had turned to talk of our teaching experiences and Margaret invited me to come and speak to her BEd students.  Somehow this never eventuated but, emboldened by that invitation, I immediately thought of Margaret’s  BEd’s when I was mentally casting about for some students to work with on this project.  I am grateful for Margaret’s response, which was both immediate and enthusiastically accepting of my proposal.  I attended the Australian National Drama in Education Conference in Sydney, in late September 2006, where Marion Palmer, current President of DramaWest, offered her students as a ”buddy” group for my group in Pakistan.  I flew to Karachi in early October 2006, where I met, and was lucky enough to work with, the students I would be working with on the Vine Project, scheduled for February 2007. 

 Our approach to the Vine Project: 

It was decided that the NDIE BEd students would substitute a play for one of the novels they would normally have studied in their English program.  We decided on Medea, by Euripides, to act as our springboard into the task, by linking Medea’s themes with the Vine Project theme. Planting ideas - with our thoughts we make the world.  Our “buddy” group in Mandurah, Western Australia, will also study Medea. It was necessary for us to build assessment tasks into the process to satisfy requirements of the BEd program.  (NDIE students graduate with a degree from both Karachi University and the Australian Catholic University.)  Therefore, we will require students to post blogs with a specified word count in response to some Medea related topics, as well as their own informal comments on the playbuilding process as it develops.  They will also be required to submit an analytical essay on Medea.

What have we done so far? 

Friday 9th February, I met with the students.  They are divided into two groups - Science/Computing and Humanities.  I worked with each group for an hour in a pretty conventional “chalk and talk” format so that I could assess understanding and knowledge of the text’s themes/plot/characters motivations and justifications for their actions.  The students had read the play and done some preliminary work on it prior to my arrival.  I felt the choice of text had been a good one as the students responded thoughtfully and enthusiastically.  I explained briefly how we would be using the ideas presented in the play to link with ideas which are affecting/directing events in contemporary society - both within Pakistan and globally.  I set a debate topic and divided the groups into “for” and “against” teams.  Students were asked to prepare points and record supporting detail, with the word count, from their text.  We would use this work for the session on Tuesday (and also as analysis in preparation for their essay topic!)

Monday 12th February, we met as a complete group.  This session was to introduce and explain fully just what the Vine Project meant and entailed, how it was linked to IDEA 2007 in Hong Kong and what “playbuilding” was all about.  We had decided to use the structure of a Greek tragedy and performance elements of Greek theatre, with a Pakistani flavour!  The episodic nature of a Greek tragedy will fit nicely with my limited access to the group as a whole and allow for a series of discrete Episodes and Stasimon created in the smaller group classes, linked by Prologue, Parados…Exodos created in the joint sessions.  That’s the plan!

Tuesday 13th February.  We met as split groups for an hour each.  (This will continue for the remainder, Monday 19th February being the only other joint session prior to performance on Friday 23rd February.)  The ”great debate”!  The students came well prepared with their arguments and supporting detail.  Initially, they compared and numbered their points in small groups, then… Medea madness was unleashed!   Tragically, for my poor students, I switched the teams - the “for” team was now “against” and visa versa.  (Thank you, Kate Donelan for a memorable undergraduate experience!  Having experienced this switch myself I knew it would work for my students)  Some wails of despair and some stricken faces but then, they settled down to the serious work of finding the opposite argument to each of their points.  Firstly, in their previous, small groups, then, in their larger team to plan and nominate an opening speaker.  It was an informal debate refereed by me.  What good work!  Great points, animated debate/rebuttal and even some arguments supported by contemporary situations in Pakistani society.  This group is a gift from the gods!  Some students were frustrated to have to leave the debate in full, passionate flow but hopefully their first blogs will offer scope for further comment.  Homework: bring a personally meaningful quote, which offers a great idea, to the next class on Thursday.  Also, a relevant “story” which fits with Medea’s themes - either from personal knowledge, newspaper - editorial, letter to the editor, article.

 

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