What would you like to teach through this educational scenario?
It’s about the right to individual freedom and decision. Relation between individual and collective needs. Conservatisms/traditionalism in democratic society.
Which subject and which part of the curriculum does this educational scenario address?
Citizenship, civic rights. Freedom of choice and expression.
Which work of Art have you selected to use your lesson?
The short play by Bertolt Brecht, HE WHO SAYS YES / HE WHO SAY NO.
Written 1929-30. Collaborators: E. Hauptmann, K. Weill
He Who Says Yes /He Who Says No were inspired by the Japanese Noh play Taniko. IT was first performed in 1930 at Zentralinstitut für Erziehung und Unterricht [Central Institute for Education and Teaching], Berlin. It belongs to the Brecht’s serial of so-called learning- plays [Lehrstücke].
“…Brecht suggested that “[t]hese experiments were theatrical performances meant not so much for the spectator as for those who were engaged in the performance. It was, so to speak, art for the maker, not art for the consumer” (Brecht, 1964, p. 80). …Brecht’s texts do not reiterate a larger goal of teaching a specific idea; rather, they teach to think, or, as Mueller paraphrases Reiner Steinweg, “the Lehre is to be understood not as ‘recipes for political action,’ but as the teaching of dialectics as a method of thinking.”
Erika Hughes, Brecht’s Lehrstücke And Drama Education [Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education]
Have you adapted this work of Art in order to fit the purpose of the lesson? If yes, how?
No. It is a very short play in two parts when most of the text in the second part is identical and only end change. If needed one can do minor cuts in some parts.
Which work of Art have you selected to use your lesson?
The short play by Bertolt Brecht, HE WHO SAYS YES / HE WHO SAY NO.
Written 1929-30. Collaborators: E. Hauptmann, K. Weill
He Who Says Yes /He Who Says No were inspired by the Japanese Noh play Taniko. IT was first performed in 1930 at Zentralinstitut für Erziehung und Unterricht [Central Institute for Education and Teaching], Berlin. It belongs to the Brecht’s serial of so-called learning- plays [Lehrstücke].
“…Brecht suggested that “[t]hese experiments were theatrical performances meant not so much for the spectator as for those who were engaged in the performance. It was, so to speak, art for the maker, not art for the consumer” (Brecht, 1964, p. 80). …Brecht’s texts do not reiterate a larger goal of teaching a specific idea; rather, they teach to think, or, as Mueller paraphrases Reiner Steinweg, “the Lehre is to be understood not as ‘recipes for political action,’ but as the teaching of dialectics as a method of thinking.”
Erika Hughes, Brecht’s Lehrstücke And Drama Education [Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education]
Have you adapted this work of Art in order to fit the purpose of the lesson? If yes, how?
No. It is a very short play in two parts when most of the text in the second part is identical and only end change. If needed one can do minor cuts in some parts.
Which theatre techniques are you going to use in the classroom. How are you going to organize the activities of the children? Please describe what you are going to do in phases (phase 1, phase 2 etc)
We are going to use performing arts techniques (role playing, text analyses, role switch, forum theatre alternative ending …)
- Short introduction to the methodology of the lesson [what we are going to do today]
- Short warming up [body/voice] exercises
- The group will read a play divided by roles [randomly] as much as possible. Others listen.
- Group discuss the story itself and retell it by their own words. If bigger group pf students, we can split in smaller groups.
- Perform the Play, taking the characters from the original play: The Teacher
The Young Boy, The Mother, The Three Students and the rest of class performs The Great Chorus. Teacher divide the roles. Possibility to give the additional role of the Village/Community to one groups of students. Both parts of the play performed one [He Who Says Yes] after other [He Who Says No].
- Discussion about what they experienced.
- Second round of the performing the Play, with new role division, and playing in their own words. Teacher stop and change the Actor/Student in one role, repeat the “scene”. Teacher can change the gander of the role [the Boy-Girl, Man Teacher-Female Teacher etc. ] Teacher invites students/actors to propose/act a third, alternative ending.
- Share of impressions and ideas.
How are you going to organize the debate following the artistic activity? Are you going to organize any follow up activities?
- The students are invited to tell what they saw, experienced. Important is to refer to what happened in the classroom, not to “read in” their own concepts.
- The group discuss the topics that emerged and share their points of view.
- Discussion how the play is related to the contemporary situation in the society (which phenomena they recognize].
- What role switch and gander changes brought to the story and topics?
- Teacher’s conclusion- stimulating reflection on the topics in the spirit that “Brecht’s texts do not reiterate a larger goal of teaching a specific idea; rather, they teach to think…” Encouraging students to reconsider established ideas, laws, and traditional cultures according their own experience, needs and free mind, in responsible way. Acknowledging the importance of dialogue in modern democratic society.
- Fallow up task for the next lesson: to bring examples from the life [from their own experience, fiend’s story, news, family history…] and to share with a class and with potential alternative end of the concrete life story.