Fictional Worlds and the Real World in Early childhood Drama Education

Abstract

This chapter seeks to broaden the scope of research in theatre/drama education by placing the neglected issue of the child as spectator in the mainstream of thought on the uses of drama in education. The fine boundary between imagination and reality is studied from the viewpoint of the child watching a theatre performance. This is based on observational research in which I examined if and how children aged 5-8 live the aesthetic experience of a performance, and how their involvement in the performance affects the reduction of aesthetic distance. Research on the young child as spectator and his or her perception of aesthetic distance in a theatre performance is new and ground-breaking. It aims at developing an instrument for assessing aesthetic distance in early childhood. FRAMEWORKDeclarations such as "Drama develops the imagination," "Drama means self-expression," and "Drama has a therapeutic effect" are frequently made. But such claims could also be made for music, painting, and dance. It is therefore important to present the special nature of theatre as distinct from the other arts. Its uniqueness lies in its materials and its tools. The essential elements of drama and theatre are human materials; the themes are always associated with people, their spirit and body in the context of life and death. The tool of the theatre is the actor's body. The actor has no violin or piano or paintbrush or anything else with which to realize his or her creation. Body language, movements, gestures, and mimicry serve to unfold the actor's art. The unique advantages of this form of expression also give rise to its dangers. Theatre art is direct; it has force, power, and influence. Plato understandably excluded drama from the arts in his ideal republic, although he allowed it as something "which only the slaves may perform."Drama education theorists as well as practitioners have long debated issues of the playing child, arguing about the purposes of play: promotion of personal growth, a means of social development, or a learning tool. They have not addressed the child as spectator. In this chapter I argue that this void signifies the problematic of understanding the elusive concept of aesthetic distance. The chapter discusses how aesthetic distance operates in early childhood, opening a wide vista for understanding the child as spectator, territory as yet uncharted in the domain of aesthetic education. Children's theatre is a late-blooming artistic phenomenon. It began to develop in the first decade of the twentieth century, emerged side by side with the development of 139 L. Bresler and C.M. Thompson (eds.), The Arts in Children's Lives, 139-151.

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