Setting the stage for Mono-Acting @ VNGS...

The teachers of all the VNGS South schools who have been working toward integrating Theatre in Classrooms (TIC) for the past Academic year were in for a surprise on Saturday 27 July. Our ELT and Theatre Trainer Ms Kritika Dhiwahar, put our learning so far and facilitation skills to test. We were asked to facilitate the warm up and ice breaker session for the day, in her place.

Mr. Rajesh the English teacher from VNGS Shollinganallur opened the session to a unique focusing game which was a mix of ‘Simon Says’ and ‘Do as I Say, Say as I Say’. Even as westruggled to keep pace with his instructions, we were visibly enthused at this welcome break from a hectic schedule. This warm up was followed up by Ms. Sharmila from VNGS Medavakkam facilitating a round of ‘Let us pass the beat around’, a game that builds our sense of rhythm. Ms. Usha from VNGS Madipakkam, Ms. Josephine from Shollinganallur and I led us through some very refreshing energizers and category building (Sociometric) games.

As we caught our breath from peels of laughter, we were asked by Ms. Kritika to look at a half empty, big, plastic bottle of water. Little did we expect that this ordinary ‘object’ would catapult us on a exciting journey to understand the nuances of Character building and Mono-Acting. A group of five teachers built an impromptu story ‘One sentence at a time’ about this ‘Object- Character’. The story was recapped in the circle and key elements were illustrated on the floor using chalk. We never thought, that using the floor as our canvas, we could learn and teach concepts like- Characters, Setting, Conflict and Resolution. The Beginning, Middle and End of the story were carefully illustrated, and showcased the unique journey of the ‘object-character’. Further, when shown a powtoon video about Mono-Acting created by Ms Kritika, we realized that using a ‘Role on the Wall’ or as in our case ‘Role on the Floor’ template we can help our learners not only skim and scan the text/story for information; but also provoke them to use their own imagination, to expand on any characters’ feeling, intentions and objectives.

The commonplace bottle was infused with life when Mr Neville, the English teacher from Medavakkam stepped into the shoes of this character and took the ‘hotseat’ to face a volley of questions by co-actors. He then based on the descriptions and inputs from the ‘Role in the wall template’ wrote and enacted a short emotional monologue. While reflecting on this Mono-Acting piece, our attention was drawn to how if we created a back storyfor the character we would realize what caused his/her present mental state. Our facilitator pointed out that probably ‘The Alien Bottle’ felt abandoned, ashamed and scared because it was made of toxic plastic unlike his forefathers who were hand crafted in stone, wood, clay or metal. This extrapolation using ‘inquiry learning’ alongside Theatre in the classroom resonated with most of us and was an eye-opener for our new VNGS teachers from Adhanur.

With all the videos and job cards as take aways we can’t wait to take this learning to our own classrooms to prepare our learners for the upcoming Skills day. We hope our learners too will enjoy their journey from ‘Page to Stage’ and make us proud by performing with the correct VEG and T (Voice, Expression, Gesture and Text).

Blog post by
Ms. Vidhya Murthy

HRE,
VNGS Medavakkam