An example ‘Bite’ from the Drama Series – “The Messenger”
Introducing a messenger into a drama or story is a useful vehicle for moving the story on. Let’s suppose your group is in a village gathering in the harvest of corn and you want to introduce tension into the drama. One way is for a messenger to arrive telling of some danger that is just over the horizon.
The teacher narrates to draw the group’s attention to the messenger: “As the people were gathering the corn they saw in the distance a figure……”
The teacher then becomes the messenger [or another member of staff takes the role if one is available] and positions herself at the side of the room and begins to run on the spot going faster and faster and looking over her shoulder every so often at the imagined danger. The drama can pause here to discuss what the students can infer from what they see.
The messenger then arrives amongst the harvesters out of breath and delivers the news “They are coming! They are coming! What are we going to do?”
How you decide to portray the messenger will make a significant difference to the opportunities her/his arrival presents to the drama. In the example above – messenger running full tilt will give the chance for urgency. If a more considered discussion is wanted then the messenger could wander into the village and wonder whether there will be enough corn this year to last the winter.
