This introduces 'The Water Reckoning' drama project - an international collaboration to explore the application of strategies drawn from the work of legendary drama teacher Dorothy Heathcote. This project will occur from April - June in the lead up to the Heathcote Reconsidered conference in London in July. http://www.water-reckoning.net

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R R
H R
Rolling Role – Heathcote Reconsidered
Project Introduction
www.water-reckoning.net
Sue Davis s.davis@cqu.edu.au

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The Water Reckoning Rolling Role Project for
Heathcote Reconsidered Conference
 The Rolling Role project will take place online and live – in several schools
across the world leading up to and during the ‘Heathcote Reconsidered’
conference
 The conference will be held in London July 5-7 2013. Many leading drama
education scholars and practitioners will be there discussing her work and
her legacy
 Young people, teachers, artists and academics will be able to contribute to a
creative project which will draw on Dorothy Heathcote’s philosophy and
strategies
 Together we will co-construct a story that responds to a common pre-text

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Dorothy Heathcote 1926-2011
She was an innovative teacher whose
groundbreaking work challenged notions of
teaching, of drama and how to work with children.
She entered into the creative space with those she
worked with and pioneered strategies such as
‘teacher-in-role’ and ‘mantle of the expert’.

4. Heathcote Reconsidered
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Many of her ideas and strategies are still
relevant today though contexts have changed
enormously. It is timely to consider her
legacy, how it lives on and may be
repurposed, reworked and extended upon
into the future.
In particular… how do her strategies
translate to drama, education, applied theatre
in the digital age?

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Who is involved?
Young people who study drama –  Drama teachers and facilitators
with each group creating drama and from each site
digital content that will build and
‘roll’.
 Australia – sites in Qld and NSW
 Greece
 Drama researchers who will work
 Singapore with the teacher/facilitator to
document the learning journey and
 USA outcomes

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Rolling Roll – what is it?
(See ‘Contexts for active learning: four models’
By Dorothy Heathcote ’)
 The concept of Rolling Role is to involve different groups or classes
in building a community that then faces some kind of change. The
initiators create a common context and agree to the key
features, affairs and concerns of the community. The students/children
are then involved in building the community, the lives, events and
artefacts of it and add to developments.
 Work is often left incomplete so another group can take it forward and
continue the drama.
 Heathcote suggested this work lends it self to sharing through
something like a website.

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The idea
Discovery of a lost culture of frozen people
underwater who experienced times of crisis
Responding to a message in a bottle about the history
of ‘Ardus Unda’
Who were these people and what happened?
What did their emissaries learn about stories from
elsewhere around the world? Jason
Is it possible to help the frozen people or restore deCaires
them to life? Taylor
imagery

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Questions to ponder
 Why is water so important to our  How do people cope in times of
lives and cultures? water crisis?
 What actions, activities and rituals  Can we do anything to ensure
involve water? water security – so that all may
share healthy, clean water?
 What types of experiences can we  How do we know who to help and
draw on to inform our drama?
how?
 What different roles, dramatic
conventions, movement, music, imag  Why do we help others?
ery can we use to tell our stories?

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How will it work?
o Groups create drama work using different
conventions. Key content and outcomes and
digitally recorded and documented -
audio, text, images, videos
o Selected material is posted to PlaceStories, on
the blogs, on YouTube etc
o Each group begins each session by reviewing
what has already been posted and considering
ways to ‘roll’ the action forward
o There are some session where participants (or
nominees) interact online together
o The drama as it has developed is shared at the
conference and somehow resolved!

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Opportunities and risks
Web-based spaces Creative opportunities
 Today’s young creatives use a realm of
cyberspaces and digital tools to create and
share their work
 We want to position young people as creators
and global citizens, not just consumers of
culture
 We want to capitalise on using different
social media, online spaces and tools
 We need to do so in ways that are
manageable and responsible, especially
where young from school contexts are
involved
 Drama teachers/facilitators will therefore be
involved in uploading and moderating
content.

11. + Suppose that…
I wonder what ….
Ideas we can draw on from If we could only …
Heathcote’s work I bet if we tried hard
we could …
 Drama is about making significant  Finding the universal in the particular, the
meaning through commitment to an emotional connection
enterprise and fiction  Segmenting and selecting focus from
culture:
 Importance of finding and creating work, war, education, health, food, family,
significant
shelter, travel, communication, clothing,
objects, artefacts, images, texts worship, law, leisure
 Teacher often works in-role with the  Find a simple starting point and build
group, manages, questions and belief in stages
facilitates from within
 Participants should have the power to take
action and operate, drawing on what they
 Consider and use dramatic elements know and can do
movement/stillness, sound/silence
darkness/light  Different frame choices can offer
closeness or protection from the main
event or action

12. + p. 166-
Different conventions 167
 Enacted Role  Second hand account
 Effigies  A written account or report
 Portraits  A story told about another
 Identikit creation of role  A letter in the voice of the writer
 Life sized model  Action as if from a film
 A conversation overheard  Creation or re-creation of painting or
photograph
 A reported conversation  Finding or drawing up plans
 Finding a cryptic message  Drawing or map
 Rituals & ceremonies  Rules or instructions
 Formal  Clothes or artefacts of a character, time or
demonstrations, meetings, briefings place

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How does drama work?
SOME KEY IDEAS FROM HEATHCOTE’S WRITINGS
AND WORK
 Drama demands co-operation
 Drama puts life experience to use
 Drama makes factual experience (information) come into active employment
 Drama uses fiction and fantasy but makes people more aware of reality
 Drama stresses agreeing to all trying to sustain mutual support for each other while allowing
people a chance to work differently
 Drama makes people find precision in communication
 Drama stresses the use of reflection
 Symbols become ordinary but the ordinary also can be symbolic
 Drama introduces you to living out crises in a testing kind of way. It tests your attitudes and
your present capacities.
Collected Writings on Education & Drama pp 203-4

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www.water-reckoning.net
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SHARING THE JOURNEY AND OUR
LEARNINGS!