Self-reflection through Drama Arts Class at Junyi
Golden Bell Awards Best Actress Wang Chuan was invited to lead Junyi School of Innovation’s Drama Arts class, to incorporate drama arts into teaching and learning at the school. The aesthetics of art, music and dance is combined to stabilize each students’ inner core for the seventh to ninth-graders. Students get to be in the state of play with their voices and bodies in the process of working together, communicating and performing. Through the Drama Arts class, students learn to step out of their comfort zones and to complement each other in different roles. Wang regards the change in the students as a beautiful process.
ACF and Junyi Chair Stanley Yen once gifted Junyi teachers with the book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education” by Fareed Zakaria. In it, Zakaria shares how in learning history, philosophy, literature and art through a broad-based education, students gain critical thinking and communication skills. In recognizing the importance of a liberal education, Junyi restructured its high school curriculum introducing mandatory creative course content with three areas of focus – Food & Beverage Operations, Green Architecture & Design and Modern Arts. Wang, an experienced performing arts educator, has written books on drama in education, and was artist-in-residence at other schools, leading workshops and camps. She accepted the opportunity from Junyi readily to lead the Drama Arts course.
As a graduate of Taipei National University of the Arts, Wang is currently in the Graduate Institute of Children's Literature at Taitung University and is trained in Waldorf teaching. In 2015, she joined like-minded collaborators in starting Taiwan Youth In Play, a platform which uses drama and arts to help youths with self-discovery, determining life values and directions. Wang understood how the pursuit of literature, arts, music and dance, as well as character observation and psychoanalysis helped in self-development and loving oneself. The nurturing effect of drama arts is what she hopes to share with the young.
When Wang was in her thirties, she taught drama at Taoyuan Women's Prison with the Greenray Theatre Company. She learned how good-hearted and sensible several of the inmates were and had only violated the law due to their male partners. She worked with school dropouts through the Pai Hsieh-yen Cultural & Educational Foundation and helped many discover drama arts through other social causes. She came to an understanding that these victims alike need neither sympathy nor judgment, but appreciation and understanding. It is up to the individual to interpret their own roles and be in control of their own lives.
To Wang, drama provides a secure environment to learn about feelings, role-playing, emotional management and expression. This creates a safe zone for teenagers who crave self-expression. Upon return to real life after expressing themselves through drama, teenagers can be more confident and have a better understanding of boundaries. Combined with literature, she hopes her Drama Arts course takes students out of the gadget-obsessed world, focusing on emotions and face-to-face interactions. In summer 2017, Wang was invited by the National Taichung Theater, to work with Shakespeare researcher Dr. He Yi-fan, and Liao Yu-yan in a drama camp for teenagers.
Wang seeks to make the Drama Arts course at Junyi meaningful despite varying interests in acting, through enriching content and encouragement for students to embark on a self-discovery journey through drama arts. Students learn about voice projection and clear speech, and recite lyrics of songs of their choice, incorporating emotions and actions. They also expound on news reports to show their viewpoints. Wang chose excerpts from Marcia Grad’s “The Princess Who Believed in Fairy Tales” and Robert Fisher’s “The Knight in Rusty Armor” for role-playing for the students to rehearse in small groups.
Witnessing the students’ transformation through the drama arts class, Wang said education brings each life to its most ideal state, helping individuals to reach their fullest capacities to lead colorful lives. Drama is a relaxing experience of focus, and can be combined with appropriate pedagogy. She likes to observe how students view others and the world differently after having undergone drama training. Looking on with love and patience, she believes that children are capable of creating much more than what they have been taught.
Taiwan Youth In Play
Witnessing the students’ transformation through the drama arts class, Wang said education brings each life to its most ideal state, helping individuals to reach their fullest capacities to lead colorful lives. Drama is a relaxing experience of focus, and can be combined with appropriate pedagogy. She likes to observe how students view others and the world differently after having undergone drama training. Looking on with love and patience, she believes that children are capable of creating much more than what they have been taught.
Taiwan Youth In Play
