The Magic of Drama

TO THE STUDENT (p. xix-xx)

Welcome to the world of performance and presentation, a world of unlimited possibilities where you can be anybody you want and where anything can happen. It is a place where you have the opportunity to experiment with communication in all kinds of ways: with your voice, your face, your body and your imagination. In the world of performance, you will develop effective ways of communicating, you will learn the elements of drama, and you will apply these skills as you perform dramatic presentations based on famous movies and plays. Nothing is ridiculous or embarrassing. Nothing is perfect.

Here you are more interested in the process than the result. Like scientists in a laboratory, you are constantly trying things out. Every creative endeavor is an experiment that will have some success and some problems that can be addressed in future experiments. From time to time, you may use the wrong expression or convey the wrong message with your voice or face, and that is all right. The key is to try to find out why the wrong message was conveyed and how in the future you can be more accurate in your delivery. There will be many times when you will surprise yourself and perform more effectively than you had ever imagined was possible. Those moments will be exhilarating. You will feel as though you have won a contest, and you have! You have overcome a personal obstacle and progressed.

Throughout the high points and low points of your gradual development, you are never alone. You and your classmates are members of an ensemble of performers. Together you will help each other become more effective communicators in all kinds of interpersonal and public situations. By participating in the activities in The Magic of Drama, you have endless occasions to practice speaking, to use your imagination and to work with others. You will often be asked to pretend you are different people who are overcoming obstacles in a variety of situations. Pretending is good, it is healthy. It is often the first step toward changing your perception of yourself and your ability to do something.

Let me give you an example to demonstrate what I mean. In the book Speech Can Change Your Life, the author, Dorothy Sarnoff, wrote that Eleanor Roosevelt (the famous wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt) overcame her youthful shyness by pretending as she was entering a room that she was a queen who was approaching her subjects. She studied the movements and mannerisms of a queen, emulated them and successfully presented herself in the most challenging public speaking situations, including a speech before the esteemed members of the United Nations (Sarnoff, 1983).

Though you may not be ready for such high-powered performances yet, by constantly engaging in the preparation and performance of activities that are in this text, it will not be too long before the idea of such a presentation is at least a possibility. You will expand your vocabulary, improve your listening skills and develop your ability to accurately express your thoughts and feelings in English. You will also gain confidence in yourself as a communicator in any language. Eventually, it will not matter whether you are speaking to one person, to four people, or to an audience of one hundred and four.