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Green Drama: Training Course: Influencing Choices and European Youth Work
Green Drama: Training Course: Influencing Choices and European Youth Work
06.-11.03.2009
Hyvärilä Youth Centre, Nurmes
Metsäkartano Youth Centre, Rautavaara
Finland
INTRODUCTION
Environmental Education through Drama: Green Drama
Text: Jaana Hiltunen, Heli Konivuori
Translation: Tarja Malmi-Raike
Sometimes environmental issues, and personal values related to them are being dealt with and
clarified using self expression and other elements of drama (learning through Drama). This method
of working we call the Green Drama. The Green Drama shares values and goals with the
environmental education. The ultimate goal is to transform individual actions and lifestyles to be
more environmentally friendly.
In the Green Drama everybody can be involved in the action. A theatrical performance is not being
produced, and there is no audience present. Instead, group interaction, active partnership and
personal experience are essential. These are also key elements in drama in general.
The learning experience in the Green Drama is based on the previous knowledge and experience of
the active partners. Together they create an evolving story combining various viewpoints. At the
same time everyone can evaluate his/her own thoughts and opinions. We don’t see the Green Drama
as an art form, since in it environmental issues come first instead of f.eg aesthetic or other artistic
elements.
The instructor of the session also has an important role to play. She/he monitors the process, helps
in keeping it going, and creates a safe working atmosphere. The instructor also encourages the
partners to experiment on new ways of acting, and respects individual insight. The Green Drama
has been successfully performed by different age groups from 13-years on.
Improvised performances can introduce us the role play characters and their actions in various
hypothetical situations, or illustrate the next step in a continuum of events. The performances using
acting or mime are not rehearsed or planned ahead. Sometimes set lines or other attributes are
given. The other workshop members form an audience. The content and the message come first in a
Green Drama performance.
Source
Hiltunen&Konivuori.2005: Vihreä draama – draaman keinoin kestäviin elämäntapoihin.
Hiltunen&Konivuori.2005: Vihreää draamaa tavaramaailmassa
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A person is in interaction with his/her environment, and is influencing it
during the whole lifetime. Therefore Environmental Education is life-long
learning process, which is not only for children and youth. Also adults need
space for personal reflections to support the knowledge, to become aware of
the personal values and to realize the effects of ones own actions.
The methods of drama education are perfectly suitable for Green Drama and
Environmental Education. Drama education enables the learning through
experience, has background in the learner’s own experiences / geographical
world and knowledge, and uses the person’s natural ways to express
him/herself. Methods leave room for individual creativity, new thoughts, and
focus on deeper understanding through one’s own ways of thinking and
problem-solving. This is central for the goals of Environmental Education.
Drama enables action and dialogue with one’s own self and with others.
The body, expressions, and “inner world” of the participants are used as
working tools in Green Drama. Thought, images, verbal expressions, body
language, senses and presence are important elements. Varied,
participatory dialogue and group work is essential in Green Drama, like in
Drama Education.
The structure of the Green Drama program consists of (1.) warming up (2.)
working with the theme, and (3.) `”Final Act” . These work stages include
for example the methods and practices mentioned below.
1. Warming up
Icebreakers and focusing to the theme, getting-to-know-each-other-,
contact-, concentration- and sense-activities, body- and movement
exercises and other so called group activities, stories, music, painting and
drawing
3. “Final act”
Promise, concentration- and sense-activities, body- and movement-
exercises, games, stories, music, writing, poems
Methods to make drama are various. The activities used in Green Drama
were chosen from field of the drama education because they promote
well the goals of the environmental educational and because they are
challenging, but not too difficult. Here few working methods are
introduced more carefully:
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Role-taking/Role-playing is the most important method of drama and it is
used in Green Drama too. The point of it is, that one steps into a role
which is pre-decided together, for example “Eco” or “Öky” and the
participants are acting in the situation like it would be real.
Through the role one can try out and train new issues and ways of action.
Stepping into a role enables access to ones own, or other peoples, inner
world and opens perspectives. It is safe to say and try things through a
role.
In Green Drama, working with role is not the same as in a theatre, but is
used as a good tool to learning.
IMPROVISATION
In improvisation one is acting in an imaginary situation. The
performances are not rehearsed, but they can be planned in advance.
Besides acting, also pantomime can work. To help with planning, the
trainer can give for example some lines or other frames. In Green Drama,
the most important is the content and the message.
DRAWING ROLE
The participants are drawing characters together in small groups. They
can also write down some common features of the character, for example
name, gender, age, hobbies. The characters will be used in the role
playing.
STILL-IMAGE
The participants create in small groups a still-IMAGE, “a photograph”
about an event or an action. The pictures are shown to other participants.
Other participants wait eyes closed, until the group is ready with the
picture. If groups want, they can comment the pictures or develop them.
Still-pictures can be made as improvisation.
Green Drama sets free the creativity of the participants and therefore enables
reflection and self-knowledge. With the help of reflection, the participants can
put their experiences into words and concepts. This helps in organizing ones
own thoughts and learning process. It enables the realization of the goals of
Environmental Education, and especially the needed change in the
actions/behavior of the participants.
The Green Drama activities issue sustainable lifestyle and ways of life from
different perspectives. The activities can be used as described, or each
trainer/multiplier can adapt the activities suitable for their group. The activities
can be used as orientation, inspiration, or repetition of the learned subject. All
the activities have been tested in practice.
The description of the programs include the goal, theme, target group, group
size, duration, needed equipment, special requirements of the room space and
other tips. Scissors and tape are needed in all the activities.
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Each description includes the purpose from the environmental educations or
drama works perspective.
Most of the programs are suitable for youth and adults, except the “Weird
Object of a Fairy” –activity, which has been used with 7-10 year olds. The age
of the target group is only suggestive. The programs can be used with younger
participants, if the amount of knowledge of the group is sufficient. In some of
the programs the participants might need some basic knowledge, knowledge of
the concepts and certain level of thought. Most of the programs have been
developed so, that perceiving the big picture and reflection are needed to
reach the goal of the activity. This is why some of the activities are not suitable
for very young participants.
The programs have been developed so that the minimum size of the group is 8-
10, and the maximum is 25. The exception is the activity “The Connection of
Three Corners”, in which the maximum group size is 12. The duration of the
programs is 1,5 – 2 hours. The programs are supposed to be made without
breaks.
In the end of the programs, the participants make promises for the better
future of the world. There are different ways to make these promises. The
feedback of the participants can be asked in the end of the program or later.
The trainer can adapt the programs for example by adding to the end of the
activities a feedback discussion for reflection: How are you feeling now? What
thoughts this activity raised?
It is important to keep always in mind the general goal of Green Drama, and to
remember environmentally friendly ways of working also during the process.
INFLUENCING CHOICES
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own consumer habits and their
environmental effects
Comments:
When starting to draw Eco and Öky, you should define the gender of the
character for the groups.
Everybody stands in a circle. The leader starts the exercise by taking an eye
contact with someone in the circle. When the person in the circle notices
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this, the person will nod his/her head and say “yes”. After this, the leader
will walk towards that person to change to his/her place in the circle. Next,
the person who lost the place needs to continue the same practice. This
exercise lasts, until everybody in the circle has changed their place.
In the next round, in stead of saying “yes”, the person needs to say the
name made up in the previous exercise.
In suitable moments, the leader will interrupt the game by saying “stop”.
The leader will read a claim (annex 1.) to which the participants are
answering no / yes. The persons answering “yes” have to go down on their
knees, and the ones answering “no” have to stand up and raise their hands
up. The leader gives the right answer, after which the game continues.
(Please see the annex 1.)
Dates – testing the ways of life and comparing them, role-playing, discussion
The leader informs everybody taking part to the “dating program” that
he/she has found company to the participants. But unfortunately there has
become a computer failure, and therefore the partners are not totally
matching the hopes of the date.
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Each one is Öky or Eco according to their group. The Ecos and Ökys are
made into couples, who are meeting on dates. The dates are made
simultaneously by acting. The leader is saying the time and the place, by
choosing one of the dating announcements.
The experiences and meeting with people with different ways of life are
discussed together in small groups (not being in roles anymore).
Stepping out of the role. The participants are walking around in the room
and shaking hands with each others by saying their real full name.
The leader has small pieces of paper and three boxes, which have the
following texts: FACTS, OTHERS, and ME. The participants write to the
papers their own shopping criteria, the reasons to what they buy and why (1
thing per paper). After this, the participants are putting their papers to the
appropriate box.
FACTS = papers including things, which the person feels that she/he can’t
influence her/himself.
OTHERS = things, for which the reasons are other people
ME = things, to which you can influence yourself.
The participants choose themselves, which subjects they put to which box.
In this exercise, there are no wrong or right answers, as everybody are
thinking their subjects from their own perspective. One subject which can be
a fact for one person, can be a “me” –subject for another one. For example,
that there is not an ecologic coffee in the local supermarket, can be a fact to
one person, but for another a subject to which they can influence.
After the distribution to the boxes, the leader is throwing away the boxes of
FACTS and OTHERS by saying “We can’t do anything for the facts, and to
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change other persons is difficult. First, we need to examine our own choices
and behaviour. The real change is starting from ourselves.”
d) Conclusion:
The groups are distributed the papers from the ME –box. The groups are
making a poem, where these words are included, and possible problems are
solved. The groups perform their poems with choreography to the other
groups.
10. FEEDBACK
The leader has a dice. Everybody throws the dice in their turn and describe
their feelings and thoughts of that moment by so many words as they throw
with the dice.
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Target group: From 13-year olds to adults
-paper
-an outfit for “the specie protector” (the trainer), eg. a hat and a cape
-pens
-cards of “dimensions of sustainable development”
-3 big-sized papers
-music player
-frames of a “tv-screen” made from cardboard.
-tape
-scissors
-music CD’s with rhythmic music
Comments:
The activity can be made with one trainer, but it is easier, if another trainer
acts the “specie protector”. In the activity “Triangle run”, the trainer can make
the triangle to the floor by using tape already before the program starts.
Each participant receives 6 pieces of paper and a pen. The participants write
to the papers 3 things about themselves and 3 things about sustainable
development. All the papers will be mixed. Each participant gets 6 new
papers (3 with personal characteristics and 3 with sustainable
development). If necessary, the participants can change the papers with
each others. If a participant is not satisfied with all the papers s/he finally
has, it doesn’t matter. In the end, each participant reads the papers to the
others.
In the room is formed a line, which has two poles. One pole is “Agree” and
another one is “Disagree”. Trainer will say few claims, and the participants
find their place in the line according to their opinion. The participants must
explain their opinion to the person standing next to them, or if being in
small room, to everyone.
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Claims:
a. Promotion of sustainable development is a task of a state and
municipalities, not of an individual person.
b. Science and technology can solve environmental problems.
c. Environmental protection is protection of the humankind.
d. Be ready to reduce your own quality of life for the sake of the
sustainable development.
If Specie Protector is an assisting trainer, s/he leaves the room after this
exercise, because there are many species in the Universe, who are in
trouble on various reasons. S/he leaves the task by giving 3 cards to the
trainer.
Each group will get a big piece of paper, to which they list 10-15 topics
according to their topic. These listed things they want to take with them to a
new planet.
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The papers will be put on the wall for the other groups to see. If other
participants are not sure, why some listed issue is brought up, the group
must explain it so, that others accept the reasoning.
The trainer brings out “a TV-screen”, which sends internal news of the
Universe. Groups (or part of the group) come one by one to perform as a
newsreader, to tell what they wished for and what their good wish will bring
along.
After the news, the trainer will give a signal, which returns the participants
back to the real time.
One of the participants is in the middle of the triangle, and tells about some
activity of her/his everyday life, such as brushing teeth. After this, the ones
in the corners start to act (pantomime) this activity from the perspective of
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the topic in their triangle. Usually each activity is connected to all these 3
perspectives. If necessary, it is possible especially in the beginning, to take
few activities and to clarify their influences.
After the participants in the corners have acted, all of those, who are doing
that activity in their own everyday life, go to that corner of the triangle
which is their reason for eg. brushing teeth. After this, the participants
return to their own place in triangle.
h) Conclusion:
DARK THING!
Comments:
The lights must be turned off during the part 4. The lights will be put on after
the activity. If you have flashlights, they can be used as spot lights during the
presentations.
16. TREE – WIND –SUN –introduction to the theme, division into groups
Energy sources:
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The last group size is formed depending how many persons there are
participating in total.
The trainer chooses the energy forms used in the exercise according to the
goal, knowledge of the participants and group size. The trainer is writing the
energy forms in the pieces of paper, giving one theme per group. The
groups are choosing their own theme.
The groups are thinking, what that energy form is about and how it is
produced. After this, each group is making a poem or a story, to which they
make choreography. The result is shown to the other groups. If necessary,
the other groups are guessing, which energy form it is about.
Groups discuss, which way to produce energy they consider the most
environmentally friendly, and what kind of energy they use themselves.
The trainer is closing off the lights in a suitable moment of the exercise.
After this, new groups are combined. This time the group chooses 3 matters,
which would be done, if the power would come back for 2 hours. The idea is
that in the end of the activity, there will be 2-3 groups.
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b) a month
The still-pictures are shown to the other groups. The viewers can comment
the pictures, if they like.
The participants will become newspaper journalists, and each one chooses a
pair. The journalists have experienced the power cut, and have noticed how
important it is to save energy. They want to inspire everybody to energy-
saving. The journalist pairs will make attractive articles about the topic.
The pairs will receive paper and pens from the trainer. After each article is
ready, each pair will read out their articles for the other participants.
Journalists are marketing their newspaper by shouting the texts in their article,
everybody at the same time. Next, the journalists will form two lines facing
each others. One can barely walk between these lines. From the end of the line,
the participants will start walking through the middle of lines, one by one. At
the same time, the other will try to advertise their articles to the person
walking in the middle, trying to say the most attractive things about the article.
After going through, the person stands again in the line and starts marketing
his/her article.
When everybody have gone through, the participants go back to the original
groups.
The groups will think ways to save energy. They choose one of them, and it will
be performed as a pantomime to the other participants.
l) Conclusion:
The leader puts a candle going around in the circle. The person who holds
the candle, can say his/her thoughts to the other participants.
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LINKS:
ANNEX 1.
Claims:
b) 4/5 of the world’s natural resources are used by 1/5 by the world
population. (right answer: yes, but the difference is getting wider)
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d) If the consumption of the developing countries would reach the
consumption levels of the industrial countries, the use of natural
resources is going to double.
(right answer: it is going to increase 4 times)
g) So that the use of the natural resources would be equal between the
people of the world, the people in the industrial countries should
decrease their consumption about half of what it is now.
(right answer: 1/10 of what it is now, 90 %)
ANNEX 2.
ECO 20
ÖK
Y
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