Incite/Insight Spring-Summer 2019 Incite_Insight—Spring_Summer 2019 Final | Page 27

geographic boundaries and linguistic
barriers, I have been looking for areas
of possible convergence between
the process drama and the theories
and methods unique to Francophone
contexts.
I speak of “possible convergences”
because the question remains
open. How compatible are the
approaches of traditions that have
their own cultural and pedagogical
values, historical movements, and
lived experiences with theatre and
drama in their communities? I
embrace process drama because
I find that it welcomes the many
possible dramatic forms that
arise from the cultures and lived
experiences of the communities
doing the work. However, I recognize
that methods in theatre education,
as Helen Nicholsons puts it in
her book Theatre, Education and
Performance, “have always been
interwoven with the dramatic and
educational innovations of their
day.” Theatre education in Québec,
too, carries a history of development
in teaching practice which reflects
an evolution of beliefs about the
purpose of education in theatre
and drama. Some findings arising
from Québécois practice run
counter to recommended methods
in process drama and vice versa.
For example, there is little to be
found in Francophone literature
that explores teacher-in-role. In my
reading of Francophone literature
and discussions with Québécois
practitioners, I have attempted to
center my research on questions
that Francophone and Anglophone
practitioners have in common.
One area that I believe holds
resonance in both traditions
surrounds the conditions that incite
learners to engage in dramatic
action. Francine Chaîné identifies “the
taste for entering action” as one of
the qualities necessary for dramatic
play. Hélène Beauchamp defines
“dramatization” as “the putting into
action (la mise en action) of images
that arise in the individual and in the
collective.” I have found inspiration
in Dorothy Heathcote’s description of
the dramatic process as, “the miracle
of how thinking about a dramatic
idea can in an instant become that
of carrying it into action.” Jonothan
Neelands expands on this principle