Alright, this post is a self reflection for my workshop today.

The workshop happened at T642, a.k.a. the BLACK box, with AP Joe Winston.

I was first to arrive, which was quite awkward but I suppose he remembered my name? And my classmates were to last to arrive, cuz they went for tutorial...which I thought we were excused from. ): My bad.

So anyway, the workshop kicked off with 2 name games, Shark pool and another introductory game where you get participants to go around saying "Hi, I am *Insert Name*. (Puts hand over heart: which means I like you) Lets have fun today!" - just to get the mood going. Then we moved into the story of The Sea Woman. Which kinda goes between one story to the other.

The story itself had 2 open loops which is a style of writing that I enjoy. Yay that. This was the story which we explored through the day. First we had it told to us by the facilitator (Joe Winston), then we went through the process of acting it out with a magical story wand - note: dramatic convention for story telling - with people going into the circle being whatever they wanted to be at their own chosen time. Of course, the ever so popular, tableau for the cover page of this story book. And after lunch we created a sequel to the story.

The progression of these different styles of portraying the story conveyed 1 key message from Joe Winston which is that PLAY is the crux of drama and FUN is the experience that the participant and facilitator should feel. It kinda goes like you are teaching people how to PLAY so that in a playful manner, they will be able to bring to surface issues which are not commonly discussed.

A rather interesting thing about this workshop is the fact that we are learning both a students and as potential drama educators. I found myself thinking about the pedagogical skills he pointed out, such as a singular, common signal to control the class - one feature that stood out, a Gavin Bolton idea, the magic chair. Where the children would naturally stop what they do and gather around the chair whenever the facilitator is on it.

I suppose after going into this workshop, I found myself thinking too much about the whole process of drama. It can be something that comes from simple flow and "feel" of the workshop, where the main focus is to have fun while fulfilling objectives. It will always be a continuum where we fall upon, but thinking about it only makes an individual more inflexible with time.

yay, self reflection done. I am not very good at this...but the experience stays.