What is rolling Role?
Here Dorothy Heathcote explains it in her own words. This extract is from a series of videos that Heathcote created in the early 1990s.
Background to the project
This website was set up as a space for planning and sharing a Rolling Role project that occurred in the lead up to, and as part of the 'Heathcote Reconsidered' conference convened by National Drama (UK) in 2013. The project concept emerged from discussions at the International Drama In Education Research Institute in Limerick in 2012, where a group of drama researchers (who have all been practicing drama teachers/facilitators throughout their careers) agreed to collaborate on a project of this nature.
The Water Reckoning Rolling Role project took place online and live – in several schools across the world leading up to and culminating at the conference. This conference was held in London July 5-7 2013. Many leading drama education scholars and practitioners convened to discuss Heathcote’s work and her legacy. Young people, teachers, artists and academics contributed to this creative project which drew on Dorothy Heathcote’s philosophy and strategies. Together we co-constructed a story that responded to a common pre-text. Five school groups were involved from Australia (Qld & NSW), Greece, Singapore, and the USA..
The project ran from April to July 2013. Each group created content using a variety of digital technologies and web based applications (including PlaceStories and Google+) to respond to the pre-text and contribute to the story. The process for this drama was a form of interactive drama. The project focused on exploring ideas that related to the UN Year of Water Cooperation in keeping with Heathcote’s concern for using drama to raise awareness about human understanding and experience. For her, drama had to be about things ‘that mattered’. Our drama explored how humans cooperate to share and manage water and deal with situations such as drought or extreme weather events. It was explored through the collective creation of a fictional culture’s history, but with the potential to draw on local experiences of water crises and cooperation.
We look forward to sharing this journey with you!
Project team
Sue Davis (Project Coordinator & Qld site), Pam Bowell (UK), Angelina Ambrosetti & Glenn Taylor (Qld Aust), Xenia Simou (Greece), Prue Wales, Mei Yee Chang & Jeffrey Tan (Singapore), Chris Hatton, Jenny Nicholls, Mary Mooney & Julian Kennard (NSW, Aust), Jen Kulik (USA) with input & advice from Paul Sutton & Max Allsup (C & T, UK) & John O'Toole (Aust).
Heathcote and her legacy
Dorothy Heathcote's influence within the realms of drama, applied theatre and education more generally is unquestionable and strategies she pioneered are now part of the every day (drama) education lexicon. Through using stretegies such as teacher-in-role and ‘mantle of the expert’ she engaged children and young people as valued participants who together could interrogate problems, issues and ideas and consider the implications for decisions made. With later processes such as ‘rolling role’ her focus was on harnessing the collective efforts of different groups to explore a problem where the focus of the learning was generally not ‘drama’ learning but learning across different curriculum areas and human experience more generally.
Thousands of people experienced Dorothy’s demonstration classes and workshops during her lifetime and documentaries of her work and publications by and about her helped spread the word of her methodologies far and wide. In the wake of her passing in 2011, it is timely to revisit her work anew and discover its enduring relevance for the 21st century. Her understanding of the way drama is about collaborative group processes, human interactions, communications and meaning-making deserves reconsideration in a digital age, when a whole new suite of tools and processes are available. How might her teachings, her strategies and her legacy be reworked and repurposed in a digital age? That is what this projects sought to explore.
If you wish to find out more or contact us, s.davis(at)cqu.edu.au
The Water Reckoning Rolling Role project took place online and live – in several schools across the world leading up to and culminating at the conference. This conference was held in London July 5-7 2013. Many leading drama education scholars and practitioners convened to discuss Heathcote’s work and her legacy. Young people, teachers, artists and academics contributed to this creative project which drew on Dorothy Heathcote’s philosophy and strategies. Together we co-constructed a story that responded to a common pre-text. Five school groups were involved from Australia (Qld & NSW), Greece, Singapore, and the USA..
The project ran from April to July 2013. Each group created content using a variety of digital technologies and web based applications (including PlaceStories and Google+) to respond to the pre-text and contribute to the story. The process for this drama was a form of interactive drama. The project focused on exploring ideas that related to the UN Year of Water Cooperation in keeping with Heathcote’s concern for using drama to raise awareness about human understanding and experience. For her, drama had to be about things ‘that mattered’. Our drama explored how humans cooperate to share and manage water and deal with situations such as drought or extreme weather events. It was explored through the collective creation of a fictional culture’s history, but with the potential to draw on local experiences of water crises and cooperation.
We look forward to sharing this journey with you!
Project team
Sue Davis (Project Coordinator & Qld site), Pam Bowell (UK), Angelina Ambrosetti & Glenn Taylor (Qld Aust), Xenia Simou (Greece), Prue Wales, Mei Yee Chang & Jeffrey Tan (Singapore), Chris Hatton, Jenny Nicholls, Mary Mooney & Julian Kennard (NSW, Aust), Jen Kulik (USA) with input & advice from Paul Sutton & Max Allsup (C & T, UK) & John O'Toole (Aust).
Heathcote and her legacy
Dorothy Heathcote's influence within the realms of drama, applied theatre and education more generally is unquestionable and strategies she pioneered are now part of the every day (drama) education lexicon. Through using stretegies such as teacher-in-role and ‘mantle of the expert’ she engaged children and young people as valued participants who together could interrogate problems, issues and ideas and consider the implications for decisions made. With later processes such as ‘rolling role’ her focus was on harnessing the collective efforts of different groups to explore a problem where the focus of the learning was generally not ‘drama’ learning but learning across different curriculum areas and human experience more generally.
Thousands of people experienced Dorothy’s demonstration classes and workshops during her lifetime and documentaries of her work and publications by and about her helped spread the word of her methodologies far and wide. In the wake of her passing in 2011, it is timely to revisit her work anew and discover its enduring relevance for the 21st century. Her understanding of the way drama is about collaborative group processes, human interactions, communications and meaning-making deserves reconsideration in a digital age, when a whole new suite of tools and processes are available. How might her teachings, her strategies and her legacy be reworked and repurposed in a digital age? That is what this projects sought to explore.
If you wish to find out more or contact us, s.davis(at)cqu.edu.au