Uploaded: December 2019, Issue 36


Keywords:
Teacher in Role, Drama teacher.

Avra Avdi

Philologist and Drama teacher, avraavdi@gmail.com

Melina Hadjigeorgiou

Drama teacher, melinah@otenet.gr

Abstract

The first part of the book consists of three chapters, in which we examine the invention, the development, and the use of the technique Teacher in Role.In the first chapter, we present the method ‘Group Improvisation with a Teacher in Role’, which was invented by the pioneering Drama teacher, Dorothy Heathcote, who started applying it in the 1960s. This approach gradually evolved and led to the development of the technique Teacher in Role. We, therefore, believe that the historical review presented is necessary not only to honour this great educationalist but primarily because the model proposed by Heathcote

For the use of the technique Teacher in Role continues to be applicable to this day. In the second chapter, we follow the development of ‘Group Improvisation with a Teacher in Role’ through the work of important Drama teachers who worked alongside Heathcote and learned from her. More specifically, we refer to Gavin Bolton, Cecily O’Νeill, Jonothan Neelands, and David Davis, who made use of the method, each adapting it to his or her own approach. In the third chapter, which is the longest, we attempt to provide the main guidelines for the use of the technique Teacher in Role independently from each approach. We refer to the aims and the advantages of the technique, point out the main elements and types of the role for the teacher and analyse the process of preparation for and the actual improvisation with a Teacher in Role