Drama was a program that to my knowlege only existed at Fort Scott as a stand alone program for the last two or three years of camp. Two of the principal counselors for this program were Dan Phares and Cath Hellman.
People were of two mindsets about Drama, they either loved it or hated it. The interesting part about it was that you could almost never predict which campers would love the program and which would hate it. Counselors were a bit easier because over time you would get to know their likes and dislikes. I was a person that really liked Drama.
One of the activities that I learned in Drama, that I still use today in certain teaching settings was called Mirrors. When "playing" mirrors, all of the campers would pair up and face each other. One person would be designated as the leader and the other would follow. The leader was allowed to make a gesture, facial expression, or other movement and the follower was to try and mirror the movement. The leader was not allowed to move his feet, and you were not allowed to touch each other. The counselors would try to encourage the campers to use movements that were fluid and broad so that the mirrors could follow the leads.
The fun part came when a counselor would call "Switch". At that point the roles would reverse and the leaders would be mirrors and the mirrors would be the leaders. As the game progressed, the time interval between calling Switch would be shorter and shorter.
Almost every time we had this activity, and interesting thing would happen. It would start out the the normal sillyness that you would expect from teenage boys and girls, but once the game went on, the group would become noticably quieter. Without any instruction, the movements would become more and more fluid, and the concentration levels of the campers would get higher and higher. The longer the game went, the more intensely the kids would be concentrating in each other, and the quieter things would be. It was odd to have 30 kids being almost completely silent standing on the Boys hill in the middle of the day.
After a while the game got very fast, with Switch being called every second or two. Eventually we would end the game, and then ask the campers if they knew who was the leader and who was the mirror when the game ended.
They almost never knew.
At the time I thought that this was just a fun, mind expanding game that gave the kids an idea of how to concentrate even with distractions. However, as I look back, I realize that there was a certain genius to the game. When we work together as a team, and can forget about who is the leader and who is the mirror, we can work with a single mindedness of purpose that is amazing.
Bob
People were of two mindsets about Drama, they either loved it or hated it. The interesting part about it was that you could almost never predict which campers would love the program and which would hate it. Counselors were a bit easier because over time you would get to know their likes and dislikes. I was a person that really liked Drama.
One of the activities that I learned in Drama, that I still use today in certain teaching settings was called Mirrors. When "playing" mirrors, all of the campers would pair up and face each other. One person would be designated as the leader and the other would follow. The leader was allowed to make a gesture, facial expression, or other movement and the follower was to try and mirror the movement. The leader was not allowed to move his feet, and you were not allowed to touch each other. The counselors would try to encourage the campers to use movements that were fluid and broad so that the mirrors could follow the leads.
The fun part came when a counselor would call "Switch". At that point the roles would reverse and the leaders would be mirrors and the mirrors would be the leaders. As the game progressed, the time interval between calling Switch would be shorter and shorter.
Almost every time we had this activity, and interesting thing would happen. It would start out the the normal sillyness that you would expect from teenage boys and girls, but once the game went on, the group would become noticably quieter. Without any instruction, the movements would become more and more fluid, and the concentration levels of the campers would get higher and higher. The longer the game went, the more intensely the kids would be concentrating in each other, and the quieter things would be. It was odd to have 30 kids being almost completely silent standing on the Boys hill in the middle of the day.
After a while the game got very fast, with Switch being called every second or two. Eventually we would end the game, and then ask the campers if they knew who was the leader and who was the mirror when the game ended.
They almost never knew.
At the time I thought that this was just a fun, mind expanding game that gave the kids an idea of how to concentrate even with distractions. However, as I look back, I realize that there was a certain genius to the game. When we work together as a team, and can forget about who is the leader and who is the mirror, we can work with a single mindedness of purpose that is amazing.
Bob
2 comments:
Just a little toot of my own horn to let you know that I started the Drama Dept in 1984. I think it may have existed once before...but Debbie Bonekamp gave me the green light to run with it. We had fun. I can't remember who all worked with me...but I know one period it was Eric Frayer and Amy H. (just drew a blank on her last name) That was my last year..so I don't know who took it from there.
Good memories!!
Hi Sharon,
I am glad you caught that and I will consider myself corrected. :)
I am probably going to talk about Drama for the next couple of posts, so please feel free to chime in!
Bob
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