C. Do you think that it is important for our students to study plays by local playwrights?
We were discussing this on Tuesday, 13/3/12, in the module Contemporary Theatre in SG and SEA with CK. I feel that students should know and study plays by local playwrights. It would be shameful if students do not know them because, afterall they are Singaporeans. It is like not knowing your own biological body. Local playwrights shoudn't be strangers to us. Moreover, the plays that they have written were based on real life issues in local Singapore. If they don't study plays by local playwrights, they would be seen as ignorant Singaporeans who don't care about their country. According to the desired outcomes of MOE (uuuggh..), teachers are to build students into self-directed learner, active contributor, confident, and concerned citizens (MOE, 2010, para 3). Dramatic art can definitely do all these by studying local playwrights.
Firstly, local playwrights gives knowledge and information about current issues in Singapore. It raises the awareness of issues among students. As Hornbrook (1998) suggest that 'This eclecticism insists that the word 'drama' must be allowed a wide interpretation and cannot be unilaterally confined by a section of the dramatic community and employed exclusively to describe its own idiosyncratic and limiting practices.' (Pg 134) The skills, knowledge and whatever else that students obtained in any kind of dramatic form of art can be applied elsewhere. I feel that students should not only be concerned about issues within their context (Eg. school and home) but they should explore and bring it out to the society. Through the process of studying the play, they are encouraged to find out more about the issues in the play. They find different resources such as the internet, newspaper or by asking their parents about these issues. Once their curiosity is aroused, they are encouraged to share their thoughts with others (not necessarily in drama lessons) and reflect upon these issues. These issues must be in a form of two way communication so that they have a wider perspectives of issues and are able to critique their views. In a way, they are being self-directed in their learning process because they explore and ask questions. This learning process is a lifelong one.
Secondly, responding to the issues in these playright develops them to be active contributors to society. After acquiring the knowledge about these plays and issues raised, drama can spur them to think and contribute their ideas. In one way or another, empathy develops as they begin to understand and see from different points of view. Their mind is more open to opinions and willing to accept. 'Play' allows students to become active and be involved in as they improvise. Baker (2010) said in his journal that '... the explanation of any given response is not a matter of simple alternatives, but whatever the reasons may be, 'play', like 'drama', is essentially a means of discovering how to make effective responses and adjustments to life situations and to make them in such a way as to provide a feeling of personal satisfaction and communal acceptance.' (Pg 36) It makes students think of how to solve issues that are in the heart of Singapore, their own country. Once they realize how serious the problems are, they will try to improve the situation. Improvisation then enables them to think, evaluate, see different points of views and respond accordingly and appropriately. They not only have to respond in these activities, but also into the open society in Singapore so that Singapore will be a better place to life in.
Finally, I think that if teachers and educators were to use external plays to study, students may think that foreign plays are more superior than local plays. Personally, I feel that Singapore has not achieve much in the Arts and the world, especially the west, may not recognize local and asian playwrights because the fact that we are asians, who are 'suppose' to be the weaker power. If we keep on studying foreign plays, students will think that Singapore is not capable of writing such good plays. I have to agree that there are many good playwrights in Singapore, like Haresh Sharma and Chong Tze Chien, and they have to be recognize. There are so many capable people in Singapore that we fail to give them credit, or not enough credit.
Not that I am trying to say that students must only study local plays. Foreign plays are good and they still can make students think about issues that can be seen here in Singapore. But it would really be a shame that we don't know our local playwrights, which means we don't know much about Singapore's context, which also means we may be ignorant people. All in all, I feel it is important to study local playwrights because it has more impact on students' learning and develops them into active, concerned, considerate and responsible citizen of Singapore.
References
Hornbrook, D. (1998) The Drama Curriculum (2nd Ed.) Routledge: London.
Baker, D (1973) 'Drama and Theatre in Education' Journal of Curriculum Studies, 5:1, Pg32-45
No comments:
Post a Comment