Critical Response

Devising Ensemble Plays- At Risk Students Becoming Living, Performing Authors, 2009 Carol Cabrera

It seems that there is an implied research question of, How can writing and performing a piece of theatre provide an opportunity for marginalized voices to be heard? There is a lot of wonderful work going on in this particular piece of research. I agree with a lot of what is happening here, especially regarding marginalized voices, which is a direction I didnt think to go in with my playwriting research with my students. I think it is of extreme value because it made me see my playwriting research in a different lens. Ive been thinking about creative writing and playwriting as opportunities to see every childs individual voice, but it was interesting to think that I would get to hear from voices that I dont normally get to hear from--that playwriting/creative writing can give us access to untold stories and marginalized perspectives. I am thinking in particular of some of my IEP students who must have very interesting thoughts and stories throughout the course of the day. I wonder what their stories will tell. This piece of work focuses on devised, ensemble work which is very different from the individual playwriting project/process that I would like to research in my classroom. The article makes a case for devised work in particular as an amp for marginalized voices. I think what is the most useful regarding this is the fact that devised, ensemble work essentially requires (the articles says encourages) dialogue. There is a sense of community, family and buy-in that comes with any ensemble piece of theatre (devised or not devised). With playwriting, I think my students are going to get a chance to explore the individual terrain of their own minds before coming together to build a piece of ensemble, group theatre. Ensemble, devised theatre is not the norm in schools. I know that High Tech High isnt the norm in general, but its true that even our school is doing A Midsummer Nights Dream as the annual production. I dont discount classic theatre or created theatre as important and interesting projects for students to tackle, but I do wish the opportunity to write (in this article devise) original stories were more available to all students, everywhere. In this article, there was a lot of work with a class of English students. There is a natural, very real, very meaty marriage that exists between theatre and literature. There is an investment--a desire for success that can be gained through theatre that can transfer directly into a students work in literature and writing. I know that there are people and students who say that theatre isnt for everyone. Not every student is willing to get onstage, to step into the limelight. Not every student is willing to spend hours writing theatre. I do really honestly believe that every student has a story worth telling and that with a group of students made up of so many individuals with different preferences, theatre is always possible. Devising Ensemble Plays: At Risk Students Becoming Living, Performing Authors; Laura Beth Feffer. The English Journal Vol. 98, No. 3 (Jan, 2009), pp. 46-52. National Council of Teachers of English

Critical Response

No Pain, No Gain: Student Playwriting as Critical Ethnographic Language Research Carol Cabrera

It seems that there is an implied research question of, How can high school students, through writing, act as researchers of culture and language in their own school communities? The last article I read made me think a lot about playwriting as an avenue for marginalized voices. It seems that this particular series of articles Im reading are steering me in the thematic direction of finding voices for marginalized stories and experiences. This article has a play called No Pain, No Gain inside the article and its a theatrical presentation of how hard it is to get ready for an oral presentation in a language that you are learning or uncomfortable with. The last article I read talked about marginalized students, and this article focuses on cultures and aspects of different cultures that are marginalized and how ethnographic writing can help give voice to these populations. I really love that this piece includes an entire piece of writing and then goes in and analyzes it. I really would love to do this in my own work. I want to show student work, and student stories, and analyze how one builds on and comes from the other. I also really liked that they talked about the different, specific activities that they did.There were activities that I recognized and have used in my own practice how to write dramatic monologues and dialogues and create a monologue, dialogue or a short play about an experience they had. The first description of designing activities discussed how they encouraged the participants to recall and articulate their experiences of learning English and working across linguistic differences at school. This is something that Im not sure would be super applicable in my classroom, but I do think about how I can adapt it. While all my students speak English (from what I can garner, very comfortably), I do have a variance of culture, so while they are speaking the same words, sometimes I still think students are speaking different languages. My students here, in many ways, sound so different from my students in the South--culture is its own language, too. I wonder how I can design something that could draw those particular stories about language barrier out. A section that stood out to me was the pieces definitions of critical ethnography--a form of representation and interpretation of social reality and a methodological approach to qualitative research research that pursues the goal of challenging unequal relations of power and works towards free individuals from sources of domination and repression and research that is sensitive to the dialectical relationship between social structural constraints on peoples lives and the relative agency people have in their lives. I wonder about how I can use critical ethnography in my own research or if it is even applicable to what I want to explore in my actions. I am extremely interested in all of the three definitions of critical ethnography that are provided in this piece and I have done social justice work with my students (reading/analyzing and looking at different historical situations, etc.), and it could be interesting to combine my interests in social justice and studying social constraints with my interest and love for theatre and creative writing. Goldstein, T. (2002) No Pain, No Gain: Student Playwriting as Critical Ethnographic Language Research [Journal Name Here--Katie, do you have this?]