Theatre artists have to work together. Here are ideas about how to do that so everybody does well and has a good time.

Click on My Vocabulary to write in the drama words you want to put in your dictionary.

imagination, create, original – These words are related.
imagination – a picture in your mind. Coming up with
wonderful mental pictures to solve problems.
create - make something new, come up with new ideas
original – your very own ideas, new to you

brainstorming – a group of people come up with ideas to solve a problem. Don’t worry about one correct answer. Instead, get as many ideas out as possible. Get someone to write down each idea. Make certain that you get ideas from everyone.

selecting and organizing ideas – After you and your
group brainstorm lots of ideas, it’s time to see which ideas are similar. Write the ideas that are pretty much the same together. Then see which ideas can be combined. Finally, choose the ideas that seem the best to solve your problem. You may need to compromise. (See compromise below)

While putting a play together it is a good idea to try one way to do the play. Then try another. Then choose the one that works best for you and your group.

If an idea is not used, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. It just doesn’t work this time!

consensus, cooperation, compromise – these ideas are related. Members of a group need to cooperate and compromise to reach consensus.

consensus– everyone agrees, or makes compromises so
they can agree. This may mean changing or giving up your idea so that the whole group can agree on the solution. This is not always easy, but the end result will be better. In drama, everyone has to work together to get the play on the stage – or to get it videotaped.

compromise – changing your ideas so they can fit with
the ideas of someone else. For example, when we put on plays about Tempe, our hometown, we used pictures to give us ideas for characters and settings. Each of us chose a picture, but then in our small groups we selected one picture for our drama. We listened to everyone’s ideas then chose a picture of a store so that we could include the characters from several other pictures. We included the blacksmith and his kid from the blacksmith picture. We had Mr. And Mrs. Peterson from the Peterson House picture. These characters then became customers in the store. To check out our pictures click on http://artswork.asu.edu/arts/students/comdrama/les4.1_07.htm and the following several pages.

cooperation – working together to solve a problem or to get a job done.

casting the play – deciding who will be each character.
This is not about being with best friends. It is about making certain that everyone has a role. It is about making certain that everyone will be able to do well with the role he or she has.

      

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