1. Drama Hot Seating from characters Freeze framing & Thought Tracking Conscience Alley Forum Theatre Role Play from characters

2. Hot Seating

3. Hot Seating This activity provides the children with an opportunity
to explore the feelings and actions of different characters in a text.
A child or adult becomes a character, and answers the children’s questions in role.
It is an excellent preparation for writing.
See “Writing in role” activity under the Writing section of this resource

4. Hot Seating Opportunities
Grandma, Josip, Anna and Mr Miah’s characters – some questions
These are some of the possible questions the writer, director, designer or actors might think about if they were hot seating characters in rehearsals for the play Jumping on my Shadow:
Where have they come from?
What was it like in the place they came from?
What do they miss about that place?
Who is important in their lives, and why?
What do they want to do now?
Where they would like to be, if they weren’t in the bakery right now? (or in another location)
What makes them sad or happy about the place they are in now?
What are their hopes for the future?
Can they describe something huge and important in their life?
Can they describe something tiny, or a detail about their life?
What are they thinking / feeling right now?

5. Hot Seating Opportunities
Possible moments to explore:
Grandma as she hesitates to put the photograph in the oven (p. 8)
Josip after he has been interviewed by the Officials (p. 21)
Josip after he has been given the address by Mr Miah ( p. 23)
Josip after discussion with Mr Miah about the possibility of returning to his country (p. 30)
Anna and Josip to investigate their views on ghosts (p.47)
Anna having told Josip to return home (p. 48)
Grandma after leaving the family home without her sister’s passport (p. 48)
Mr Miah’s feelings when Josip’s letter arrives (p.65) and at the end of the play (p.74ff)

6. Hot Seating into Writing …
Participating or watching a character in role can offer a starting point for creative writing.
See ‘Writing in role’ under Writing (Fiction) and Poetry
Diary entries
Letter writing s
Tweets
Character autobiography

7. Freeze Framing

8. Freeze Framing
This activity re-creates scenes from the play and is useful for close scrutiny of an incident or situation, as children represent the characters at a significant moment.
Positioning, facial expressions and body shape have to be considered carefully in order to represent ideas, thoughts or emotions.
Sequential frames can be used to represent the key events as a narrative progresses or story board.
These can then be put together and children can move from one frame to the next as the teacher counts a rhythm.
(This ‘storyboarding’ process can also be explored through drawing, and for developing narrative structure, bringing the latter to life for the class).

9. Freeze Framing
For example: Teacher counts, “One” – children present freeze frame “Two” – hold freeze frame “Three” – continue to hold frame “Four” – move into next frame “One” – present second freeze frame “Two” – hold second freeze frame “Three” – continue to hold second freeze frame Freeze frames can be used as the basis for thought tracking (See slides below).

10. Freeze Framing Questions
Scenes between Grandma, Josip, Anna and Mr Miah’s characters…or on their own…..or with the Emperor’s Officials – some questions
These are some of the possible questions the writer, director, designer or actors might think about if they were hot seating characters in rehearsals for the play Jumping on my Shadow:
Who is in the frame?
What is happening here?
What does the character’s physical relationship show us about their personal relationship?
Who is the main focus of this moment? Is there more than one focus?
Who is in control of the scene at this moment? How do we know this?
How is each of them feeling?
What might they be thinking in this moment?
Who is listening to other characters and who isn’t?

11. Freeze Framing Opportunities
Images of travel and migration in the opening scene – p (see images in the Resource Bank)
An overloaded boat carrying migrants from North Africa to Italy/Greece;
A coach of women leaving Srebrenica during the Yugoslav wars;
A group of young men disembarking in the UK from the Windrush in the late forties;
South Vietnamese civilians trying to get into the American embassy in the early seventies;
A group of East End evacuees is welcomed by rural foster parents in WW2;
A line of cars at the Kosovan / Macedonian border during the Yugoslav wars;
Palestinians waiting at a West Bank checkpoint in the Occupied Territories;
Refugees walking along a road after the downfall of France in 1940;
Children arrive for a new life in post-war Australia; /continued

12. Freeze Framing Opportunities
Images of travel and migration in the opening scene – p (continued)
American farming families leave the 1930s dustbowl;
Adults and children being rescued by coats guards in the Mediterranean now;
Hungarian/Serbian/Bulgarian police beating back migrants at an informal border crossing now;
West Africans waiting at a Spanish enclave now;
East Africans of Asian origin arriving in the UK in the 1970s;
A Chinese businessman waits in an airport hospitality lounge now;
Migrants trying to board lorries leaving Calais for the UK now;
Iraqis attempting to enter Australia now;
Displaced people traversing the Indian sub-continent by train after Partition in 1947;
European immigrants arriving and being vetted at Ellis Island in the early C20th.

13. Freeze Framing Opportunities
Scenes in, or moments made up from, the play (See JOMS script in the Resource Bank)
Grandma and Anna making bread together (p. 11)
The Officials interviewing Josip (p. 21). Consider the fact that the interpreter and Josip could talk and understand a language the officials don’t know. What could their conversation be?
Josip’s first day at school – this could be a bad first day or a good first day (p. 26)
The kitchen scene including Josip, Anna, Grandma and Mr Miah
/ continued

14. Freeze Framing Opportunities
Scenes in, or moments made up from, the play (continued)
Grandma as a girl, being interviewed by officials (p. 39)
Grandma and her family leaving their home (p. 49)
Grandma diffusing the tension between Anna and Josip (p. 62)
The coming together of the characters at the table (p. 71)
The family are ignoring the knocking at the door but they know that the Emperor's men are trying to get in and there is fighting in the streets (p. 75)
The Emperor's men arriving in the family home (P. 78)

15. Thought Tracking
Using the freeze frames suggested above, characters can be tapped on the shoulder and asked questions which they answer in role in the freeze frame.
This will deepen the children’s understanding of characters’ emotions and actions further.
(The questions suggested in slide 10 above are a starting point for asking the freeze frame characters).

16. Conscience Alley

17. Conscience Alley
This technique explores any kind of dilemma faced by a character.
It provides an opportunity to analyse a decisive moment in greater detail.
The class forms two lines facing each other.
One person walks, in role, between the lines, as each member of the group speaks their advice to him/her.
When the character reaches the end of the alley, she makes her decision after reflecting on the advice she has been given.

18. Opportunities for Conscience Alley
Scenes in, or moments made up from, the play (See JOMS script in the Resource Bank)
Grandma as she hesitates to put the photograph in the oven (p. 8)
The Officials deciding whether Josip is allowed to stay or must leave (p. 21)
The officials deciding Grandma’s future (p. 40)
Anna not wanting Josip to stay (p. 48)
Grandma wondering if she should return to the house to collect her sister’s passport (p. 51)
/ continued

19. Opportunities for Conscience Alley
Scenes in, or moments made up from, the play (continued)
The Officials deciding on Mr Miah’s future (p. 58)
Mr Miah deciding whether or not to open Josip’s letter about his deportation (p.59)
Grandma allowing Josip into the house in spite of Anna’s feelings and behaviour (p. 61)
Grandma protecting Josip from the Emperor's men (p. 75)
Anna at the end of the play, unsure of her future (p. 77)

20. Forum Theatre

21. Forum Theatre
Forum Theatre allows an incident, event or life experience to be seen and understood from different points of view.
It was created by the Brazilian theatre maker and politician Augusto Boal,
Forum Theatre is designed to help an audience think about, and potentially change, their life circumstances.
It has been very influential in many forms of modern theatre, especially political theatre and in Theatre in Education.

22. Forum Theatre
In Forum Theatre, a small group acts out a scene while the rest of the audience (class) watch them. Once the scene has been seen, and perhaps discussed, it is played out again.
Any audience member can stop the action and suggest an alternative course of action for the character(s).
Or an audience member can stop the action, and take over a role to explore their ideas or suggestions for that character.
From this, the class can work as directors of the group in role, e.g. asking them to act or speak in a different way, suggesting that a character might behave differently, questioning the characters in role, or suggesting an alternative course of action.

23. Forum Theatre
The audience, known as ‘spect-actors’, to indicate that they are not passive watchers of the play but participants in its telling).
The spect-actors are shown a short play in which a central character (protagonist) encounters an oppression or obstacle which s/he is unable to overcome.
The subject-matter will usually be something of immediate importance to the audience, often based on a shared life experience.
The aim is to have the spect-actors step in and change the action of the characters in order to produce alternative outcomes.

24. Forum Theatre The Joker:
Augusto Boal describes the teacher or facilitator acts as the ‘joker’ who leads the session.
The joker will lead the class in using Forum Theatre strategies to change the outcome of the story.
Questions the joker/teacher can pose:
Who is the protagonist?
What is the protagonist’s problem?
Did it have to be that way?
What could we do differently to help the protagonist?

25. Forum Theatre
After the first intervention the joker can ask the student who changed the action:
Did you succeed in doing what you wanted to do?
If not, why?
Was it difficult?

26. Forum Theatre
The joker should pose questions to the rest of the spect-actors:
What was different in the drama this time around?
Did we make the protagonist’s situation better?
Was there progress?
How did this intervention change things in the drama?
Was it a realistic approach?
Does this particular solution work or not?
How did this change affect the other characters?

27. Forum Theatre Important point for the joker:
The intervening spect-actor can’t change the given social circumstances of the problem, the familial relationships between characters, their ages, or background, etc.
Or change the motivation of the characters.
The spect-actor can, however, change the ‘characteristics’ of the character’s motivation – how the character behaves in the face of what they have to deal with.
Question the spect-actors to prepare their actions.
Push the spect-actors to find more active solutions.
Allow for healthy debate on the subject.

28. Opportunities for Forum Theatre 1a
(These activities link with the Reading & working from the play script PowerPoint under Reading)
Take the Jam Scene (Scene 11, from page 59).
After recalling it from the production, and/or reading it, ask the ‘cast’ to improvise the scene, or rehearse it beforehand before presenting it to the class.
Invite the ‘spectators’ to halt the action if they think a character can say or do different things that might help their situation or be more constructive to it.

29. Opportunities for Forum Theatre 1b
(These activities link with the Reading & working from the play script PowerPoint under Reading)
Take the Final scene (Scene 14, from page 70).
Ask the ‘cast’ to recreate the ‘final supper’ between the four main characters.
When they have played out the whole final scene, invite the ‘spectators’ to halt the action if they think a character can say or do things differently that might change what happens in the future (after the play ends).
In particular, what advice might the spectators give to Grandma in this situation?

30. Opportunities for Forum Theatre 2
Yemisi’s Story
The following story was used by the Dublin company TEAM Theatre when they produced Jumping on my Shadow in schools in Ireland in 2008/9.
Read the following story of a refugee girl being bullied in class: The story of Yemisi text is adapted from Different But the Same: An Anti-Racism Teachers’ Pack Different But the Same, An Anti-Racism Teachers Pack, Dr. Margo O’Sullivan, The School of
Education, Trinity College
You can use this story, or similar accounts, to devise or improvise a short play or scene that can be used in Forum Theatre.
(Ask the class how Yemisi’s story from Ireland compares with Meherit’s story used elsewhere in this Resource)

31. Opportunities for Forum Theatre
Yemisi is 10 years old. She is from Nigeria. She is a refugee. Her family had to leave Nigeria because the military government of the day said they were going to kill her father and mother. Her father and mother had been complaining about the military government. The government did not like people to complain about them. She found it very difficult to leave her grandparents, cousins and friends and move to the UK. She missed them very much here. However, here she felt safe. She knew her parents would not be killed. People were nice to her.

32. Opportunities for Forum Theatre
Yemisi started school three weeks after they had arrived. She was in fourth class. On her first day of school, her teacher welcomed her to the class. The other children in her class were very friendly. The teacher had prepared them for her arrival. She told them of her escape from Nigeria. She also told them about Nigeria. They knew about her country. However, during break time some of the children in the other classes began to call her names. One group of bullies followed her and yelled at her. She didn’t understand why they were calling her names. She had done nothing wrong. She became very upset and started to cry. ‘These bullies are prejudiced about black people and have fixed ideas about me without knowing me.’

33. Role play from characters
See the example of the JAM scene from the play from the Reading the Play script PowerPoint under the Reading section

34. …for other drama activities please see PSHE activities…