An approach to script
fifth and sixth classes

This is a series of drama activities rather than a single activity. The purpose of the series is to indicate how the children can be led to see script as an invitation to create action and how that action can be used as a pre-text for a fuller drama. They also indicate how script can be used in the teaching of Irish in schools where English is the medium of instruction. (It goes without saying that in scoileanna lán-Ghaeilge and scoileanna Gaeltachta Irish is the vernacular, as English is in this curriculum.) These activities are only examples, and many other good opportunities for using script will present themselves.

It should be pointed out that the learning of script should never be done independently of the action created, and it bears repeating that the benefits from drama will be in proportion to the quality of the drama. Whether in Irish or English, the action arising from the script should be perceived as fun by the child, something to be done simultaneously in groups and never ‘produced’ by the teacher for communication with people outside the classroom.

The children should develop the habit of taking these scripts at their own speed and, when they are finished, beginning them again, thus allowing themselves to drift out of synchronicity with the others. This gives the children more freedom to explore the text (not script) in their own way.

The teacher should also be wary of using scripts to teach the facts of geography or history or some such topic. While this can be done in certain circumstances, it can lead to bad drama and to boredom for the children. The drama activity for third and fourth classes is an example of how drama can open the way to factual learning.

Although this approach to script is given primarily as a drama activity for fifth and sixth classes, it will be possible in a school where drama is taught earlier to begin such an approach in third and fourth classes— as soon as children are comfortable with reading.

While each of the following might be regarded as a drama activity, we label them session 1, session 2, session 3 etc. in order to avoid confusion.

Session 1

Divide the class into pairs, give them the following script, and tell them to do it simultaneously.

A: Let’s run on the spot for a while.
B: Right.
A: (After a while) Faster. (They go faster) Lift those legs.
B: (After another while) Faster.
A: (After another while) I’m so tired.
B: So am I.
A: Let’s sit back to back and rest against each other.
B: All right. (They do) Oh, I’m so tired. I feel like going to sleep.
A: Sssssssssshhhhhh.

(They close their eyes and rest quietly against each other until they recover.)

Stop now and again to tell them to really run faster, to go on until they really feel tired, to experience this as happening to them. Point out that script should always suggest an action for them to try to experience.

Session 1A

Divide the class into pairs, give them the following script, and tell them to do it simultaneously.

A: You remind me of a man.
B: What man?
A: A man with a power.
B: What power?
A: The power of hoodoo.
B: Who do?
A: You do.
B: What?
A: Remind me of a man.

The cyclical aspect of the script will soon be obvious. In engaging with it the children, in pairs, will be involved in simultaneous but unsynchronised action. They should be encouraged, where appropriate, to experience and explore the feelings of frustration that may arise from the script.

Session 2

The children are given the following script.

Pat: Abie see the birds.
Abie: (Grunts)
Pat: The birds.
(Pause. Abie looks)
Abie: Them aren’t birds.
Pat: They are.
Abie: Them aren’t.
Pat: They are.
Abie: Okay they are.

The group is now divided into pairs and, simultaneously, the children act out the script in pairs for a few minutes.

Now the first children are asked to imagine they see the birds, to decide what kind of birds they are and to find a reason why they should want to tell Abie about them. They perform the script a few times more.

The teacher says, ‘Now Abie is under the desk fixing it, and he wants to stay fixing it. The birds can be seen only from a distance from the desk, so the other person has to bring Abie to this point, despite the fact that he doesn’t want to go.’

Allow about five minutes working simultaneously before watching a few at random. Watchers’ activity: How is the physical relationship between them coming on? Is it as it might be? Should they not be pulling Abie by the legs etc?

Teacher says: ‘Now go over it again simultaneously for a few minutes, and this time, Abie must decide for himself exactly what he’s doing to the desk and concentrate on doing it, while the other person must decide for himself exactly what sort of birds he’s seeing and why he is excited enough about them to want to show them to Abie.’

Allow three to five minutes before watching one or two at random. Watchers’ activity: Why is he/she excited by the birds? What exactly is Abie doing? Would you know that Abie didn’t want to go with him/her?

The teacher says: ‘Now go over it again and, this time, introduce, at some point, a caring relationship between you. Don’t talk about what this relationship might be at first but just do it a few times, trying out various caring relationships before deciding on one.’

Watch one or two. Watcher’s activity: To spot the caring relationship. Why did they introduce it?

Now do it again, but this time the relationship is very caring all the time. See what difference it makes.

Session 3

The following script is given to the children.

A: Ná déan é sin.
B: Déanfaidh mé é.
A: Cén fáth?
B: Mar is mian liom é a dhéanamh.

The delivery of the teacher’s instructions and the ensuing conversation should be in Irish as far as possible. This is the language development.

Start with the script. What does it mean? Make sure the children can say it.

This can be any two people with many kinds of relationships. Try it as friends, mother and daughter, father and son. What are they doing? Does that make a difference? Try it by performing it a few times in different ways.

Now examine each line for possibilities and try them out.

Line 1: How angry is the person who says it? Try different levels, and let B respond.

Line 2: Does B find it hard to go against A? Does he/she have to think for long before deciding to? How sure is he/she?

Line 3: Is A surprised? indignant? angry?

Line 4: How sure of himself is B now? Is he actually angry? Could he have changed from his first reply?

Note that these questions relate to character, relationships and emotions, rather than to ‘different ways of expressing’ or ‘saying it a whole lot of different ways.’

Simultaneously, in pairs, the children enact it as various situations and people. Look at and read meaning coming from a random few.

Again in pairs: do the situation again, this time adding in whatever extra lines, movements, incidents etc. are needed.

Look at a random few.

Take one of them and, as a whole class, describe, in Irish, what happened in it. Describe the emotions, characters and movements, and the meanings made.

Write down the description.

Session 4

Adopt the same kind of approach with the following script, which suggests action in the physical world of the riverbank. Create the whole world and characters.

A: Féach. Tá greim agam.
B: Fan. Ná tarraing an líne go fóill.
A: Ach éalóidh sé!
B: Ní éalóidh. Fan go fóill!

Session 5

Now apply these ideas to a playlet for four people:

A: Féach air sin.
B: Sílim go bhfuil sé ag féachaint orainn.
C: Níl. (Sos) An tarbh é?
A: Sílim gur bó í.
D: An rachaimid thar an ngeata? Nílim cinnte.
B: Rachaimid.
C: Cé a rachaidh ar dtús?

The same principles apply to longer scripts, which should be broken up into manageable sections like this and experienced as action by the participants. These work best if less than a page long, if they have punch, and if they invite the children to play in an imagined world that they find funny or stimulating in some way. If the script is dull the lesson will be dull and the children will not give it their full energy.