Many teachers have taught us in Schools and Colleges. They contributed to a great extent for making us what we are today. Out of all those teachers (Gurus) we remember only a few impressive teachers and we never wanted to miss their classes. The knowledge gained in their class left indelible impact on our life.
The communication skills practiced by those special teachers were action and emotion packed. Even today, there are effective and impressive teachers who are liked by students of all age. In short, these special teachers are in one way or other are connected with theatre. They may not be staging dramas in theatre but they are excellent story tellers. They use many practical examples; their each and every sentence is self explanatory. Their voice modulations engross attention of listeners. There is a great scope of interaction in the class hence the students are friendly with them. The objective of this feature is to explain the significance of Theatre in Education. Many Teachers Training Colleges of Rajasthan have kept performing and visual arts in the academic curriculum of 2 years B.Ed. course. Many B.Ed. college students have to learn various arts including Theatre to seek the B. Ed. Degree. Let me compare the class room with theatre. Theatre has stage, actors, scripted story with dialogues and actions. It has perfect direction to create an ambiance, stage props, light, sound and sometimes costume, make up and music. But, most importantly, theatre has an alert audience. Similarly all the important aspects of theatre can be visible in the class room. A teacher is an actor cum director. The text book lesson is a script. Students are audience. The area where teacher stands is stage.
The board and teaching aids are stage props. It depends upon a teacher how she (Deliberately- She, as this feature is dedicated to a lady teacher) uses her creativity in making the text book lesson more interesting. She would strive to teach the lesson to the best of her knowledge and experience. The success of the class will depend on the level of interaction. Her objective is to make her students learn the lesson in question thoroughly and energize them to further learning. Music, costume, make up, light and sound do not play major role in class room as the teacher uses her voice modulation with proper facial and body expressions. But, every teacher has not the same background. Many of them come from the background where the performing arts are considered only for entertainment and they have no access to theatrical activities.
Many teachers lack in confidence, no sense of public speaking, flat voice with no expression on face.
How would they teach effectively?
This feature will help those teachers who intend to enhance the theatrical skill for better teaching.
Let me discuss on acting. According to "Natya Shastra" of the great scholar Bharat Muni, there are four types of Abhinayas(Acting).
1. Vachik (Deals with voice modulations)
2. Angik(Deals with body gestures)
3. Aharya(Deals with stage props, costume, make up)
4. Satvik(Deals with inner emotions)
Now we see how they are related with our class rooms. Vachik Abhinaya- A teacher talks to the entire class. She is heard and seen properly by the children sitting on the last benches. Mastering the contents (script) of the lesson, she through her indigenous voice culture explains the lesson and gets instant feedback. Her pronunciation and weight given to different word with required pauses makes her presentation effective and students get engrossed in the class. Angik Abhinaya - A teacher explains the lesson with her body gesture. She frequently uses her hands and fingers in different ways to explain the lesson and gives right facial expression to make her class more attentive.
Aharya Abhinaya- A teaching aids such as black board, chalk stick, charts, scientific apparatus, screen come help the teacher to enhance her expressions so that lesson is properly understood by the students.
Satvik Abhinaya- Satva is the inner strength. Making mood for particular lesson and transferring knowledge through emotional attachments helps teacher to involve students more effectively. In fact, the right expressions come from our memory. It depends upon how fast and effectively we recall similar instances from our memory and use the same in our expressions. Sativk Abhinaya not only enhances
concentration, keen observation and imaginations, it also develops understanding among teacher and taught.
A teacher is an actor, script writer, director, stage designer and a professional presenter. She is an excellent storyteller who has capacity to engross the entire class in the ongoing chapter. She gets the feedback during the class and even after.Now, a question may occur in your mind that how a teacher can learn these theatrical elements? Where there is will, there is way.
There are some exercises which can be done in a group of teachers so that you also enjoy them together.Some Exercises for body- Do some informal dancing keeping your limbs loose. Get ready for body
exercises. Rotate your limbs one by one taking normal breath. Start from neck, shoulders, elbows, Wrists, palms, fingers, chest, waist, thigh joints, knees, anklets, toes and claws. kicking,running,walking,cutting,digging,swimming,throwing,catching,playing games like cricket, basket ball, weight lifting are some imaginary games which will make your limbs flexible. Now some exercises for face- Keeping your neck straight give movements to your eyes, left-right, up down, diagonal, clock wise and anti clock wise. Move your eyebrows, nose, cheeks, mouth, if possible ear. I suggest one very effective exercise to take care of voice modulations, facial expressions, making your body flexible while enhancing stamina. This called "Four in One". Please pronounce vowels of Hindi one by one stretching your body in different angles, widening your facial blow ups and shouting each vowel with exaggeration. While reciting these vowels i.e.; (? ,? ,? , ? ,? ,? ,? ,? ,?,? ,?? ,?? ) you may dance, jump and make varied faces. This exercise can be repeated for 10 times.We have exercises for enhancement of our five senses i.e.; Touch, Taste, Smell, See and Hear.
While doing this round of exercises you have to imagine as you cannot have real objects. You imagine eating fruits, playing different games, working in home, going to shops, hotel, hospital, railway station etc. This is called improvisation. The most important sense is sixth sense that is common sense. This exercise improves our imagination enhancing creativity. We must practice the nine Rasas (Emotions)described by Bharat Muni.
This would give strength to our acting power.These Rasas are -Karun, Veer, Shringar, Hasya, Adbhut, Bhaya, Vibhats,Raudra and Shant. All these Rasas
depict our varied emotions which change according to the situations. We should divide each Rasa in 10
segments starting from 1 degree and concluding at 10 degree. Our expressions on 1 degree are the lowest
and gradually go up giving maximum expression on 10 degree.
These are few tips for the Teachers who love to include theatre in improving their teaching skills.
They should practice these exercises for 20 minutes daily. I am sure doing this they will be physically and mentally fit and also enjoy their most loving profession which contributes in building good character in their students.
