Changing the Scene

Paul Moclair is an international consultant with twenty-five years of experience in the fields of teacher professional development, curriculum development and theatre for development. He lives in Ireland and is currently working on an MA in writing poetry and is a consultant on Seenaryo’s Scenechangers project.

The Scenechangers project aims to develop an authentic form of theatre in education, using drama in classrooms as a medium to enhance curriculum-relevant learning. 

I’ve been doing similar work for fifteen years now, working directly with teachers and teacher trainers in over sixty countries, trying to introduce theatre and arts-based approaches. Teachers are my tribe and every single workshop I’ve done with them over the years is a precious memory to me. But this project with Seenaryo is the first time I’ve been working side-by-side with theatre trainers and I’ve found the process unbelievably rich and exhilarating. The calibre and dedication of Seenaryo’s trainers encourages me to believe in the ultimate success of this programme. That’s not to underestimate the scope and scale of the challenges facing us.

Majd Madanat, Ali Al Samra and myself began by creating a set of ten workshop plans, addressing topics including bullying, digital safety and conflict resolution. The exercises within the workshops have been chosen to help young learners develop life skills such as critical thinking, communication and problem-solving. Once we’d designed the workshops, we got together to give a training to Seenaryo trainers in Amman and Beirut on how to train a group of 18-30 year olds, who we call ‘Scenechangers’. These Scenechangers will be leading the workshops for youth in community-based organisations. We want to run a pilot in such settings before negotiating with Ministries of Education to get access to classrooms – no easy task.

Often, theatre in education amounts to little more than theatre groups visiting schools to perform plays linked to the curriculum. The desire for character and narrative means that performances are predominantly linked to arts and humanities  subjects, particularly history and literature. There is usually no collaboration with learners around developing the play, no co-authorship. Laudable attempts are sometimes made to add information packs on the chosen theme but the performance remains essentially a performance. There is no genuine dialogue, no debating, no dialectic or any process that might bridge the gap between actors and audience, educators and learners as envisaged by Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. 

Developing a more appropriate practice is our first challenge. The Scenechangers project is positioning theatre exercises in much more of a participatory manner. Furthermore, it is presenting theatre as one method within a bigger toolbox that includes other active-learning and arts-based methods. Our hope is that teachers will be inspired by the Scenechangers to welcome them in, emulate their methods and change the scene. 

The second challenge is engaging the good will of teachers. All around the world teachers face the same problems. They are frequently under-trained, relying predominantly on a lecture-based, rote-learning pedagogy. They are generally overworked and underpaid. Whilst we can never address their financial woes, we can help them rediscover the joy of teaching by offering a more creative, learner-centred approach. And we can help free them from the role of authoritarian expert in which many of them have unwittingly become trapped.

If we can persuade teachers that theatre can transform the classroom, and if our Scenechangers are perceived as a support resource rather than a form of competition, the sheer joy of the process should be enough to get us over the line. Seenaryo’s trainers and Scenechangers embody the idea that teaching can and should be serious fun and I’m honoured to be working alongside them.