In Search of Theatre: Ritual,Confrontation and the Suspense of Form

Abstract

Schooling comprehends three forms of theatre. Theatre as ritual is associated with the formal school culture. Theatre as confrontation is associated with the counter-school culture. These first two forms emerge in the daily interactions of school life, the former providing the ground for the latter. The third form, theatre as a deliberate aesthetic enterprise, most often collapses into the ritual of the school play that legitimizes the formal school culture. Creative dramatics programs celebrate feeling and fantasy but avoid the school situation, severing action from the situation from which it is derived. Finally, the possibility of developing theatre in education that will support the transformation of the school culture is explored. It is theatre that contains the richness of ritual but merges confrontation with critique.