I know I'm not a responder this week, but I couldn't help catching a glimpse of Kirsten's post, and how she mentioned that she can't use Buckingham's ideas as they are in her theatre classroom. Specifically saying that she can't teach how media targets its audience, butI Absolutely disagree. I was glad though when she continued on to show how theatre in itself is a media that we can teach in our classroom.
I think that is one of the most valuable things we can teach our students in our day. Especially in a theatre class. Because what is theatre really? It is yet another form of media. Perhaps it has been around for longer than other types of media, but it is definitely part of all of it.
I think that, Especially if our students are interested in theatre, the arts, and are being surrounded by various medias on all sides, they need to know those principles that Buckingham describes.
He lists these key concepts of Production, Language, Representation and Audience to illustrate many things we take for granted our students will know. I think I could make a unit specifically on production, and perhaps integrate it with some technical theatre and even theatre history so that my students get both hands on experience and useful knowledge. In this unit we could talk, like Buckinham mentions, about the technologies involved in theatre practices today, play with some lighting and sound instruments, and then delve into the history of the market of theatre in the US. How did it become what it is today? What is it really today?
I think his second point, languages is probably one of, if not the most important concept we need to help our students understand. There are so many languages being used in our modern day lives, examples of the new hashtag, show the more recent developments, while physical imagery on a stage shows elements that have been developed over centuries. Going over the genres, conventions, and especially the coding of language in texts (whether it be a play script, or a live performance) is something students need to know in order to interact intelligently about the piece. I think it would be fun to do this by reading a play as a class, analyzing it, and then taking a field trip to go see it, and then analyze the language the production used to express the same script.
This last idea bleeds into the third concept of representation where we'd really delve into what was represented in the piece. How things are represented significantly impacts the Meaning the audience takes away from a performance experience. This is where Buckingham's stuff is really applicable to theatre, because theatre, like film, is all about representation. But I think theatre is even more so about representation because of the close proximity the audience has with the actors and performance space. I think we could delve into this idea of representation, perhaps by simulating the same text by reading it in different ways. For instance, one group could be asked to present it in a feminist light, while one could be asked to present it in a Marxist light, or if we don't want to delve that deep (I'm currently thinking of our TIP scenes in 396), we could even adapt the script to different genres. For instance one group does it as a chick flick, one does it as a horror film, etc, so we can see how one thing can be represented by so many different ways.
These all wrap up into the point he makes about Audience, in that each production that is ever conceived is intended for a specific audience. I think understanding that point is the most crucial thing we can teach our students. For one it will help them in producing and marketing their own art and works. And number two, it will help them to be more aware of what sorts of influences the media has in their lives, and how each commercial, play, film, or website they encoutnter was targeted to them for specific reasons.
To teach that, I like the idea of having them create their own commercials to target different groups in their school. This could be incorporated into a unit on script writing, so they could really delve into this process of audience, which is really what media and theatre are all about.
All in all, I thought the concepts he presented were very useful, and that by adapting them to our needs, we can really be effective teachers to help our students realize what is surrounding them on a daily basis, and hopefully to make at least more informed choices, if not wiser, on their production of art and consumption of media, theatre, and stereotypes around them.
I think that is one of the most valuable things we can teach our students in our day. Especially in a theatre class. Because what is theatre really? It is yet another form of media. Perhaps it has been around for longer than other types of media, but it is definitely part of all of it.
I think that, Especially if our students are interested in theatre, the arts, and are being surrounded by various medias on all sides, they need to know those principles that Buckingham describes.
He lists these key concepts of Production, Language, Representation and Audience to illustrate many things we take for granted our students will know. I think I could make a unit specifically on production, and perhaps integrate it with some technical theatre and even theatre history so that my students get both hands on experience and useful knowledge. In this unit we could talk, like Buckinham mentions, about the technologies involved in theatre practices today, play with some lighting and sound instruments, and then delve into the history of the market of theatre in the US. How did it become what it is today? What is it really today?
I think his second point, languages is probably one of, if not the most important concept we need to help our students understand. There are so many languages being used in our modern day lives, examples of the new hashtag, show the more recent developments, while physical imagery on a stage shows elements that have been developed over centuries. Going over the genres, conventions, and especially the coding of language in texts (whether it be a play script, or a live performance) is something students need to know in order to interact intelligently about the piece. I think it would be fun to do this by reading a play as a class, analyzing it, and then taking a field trip to go see it, and then analyze the language the production used to express the same script.
This last idea bleeds into the third concept of representation where we'd really delve into what was represented in the piece. How things are represented significantly impacts the Meaning the audience takes away from a performance experience. This is where Buckingham's stuff is really applicable to theatre, because theatre, like film, is all about representation. But I think theatre is even more so about representation because of the close proximity the audience has with the actors and performance space. I think we could delve into this idea of representation, perhaps by simulating the same text by reading it in different ways. For instance, one group could be asked to present it in a feminist light, while one could be asked to present it in a Marxist light, or if we don't want to delve that deep (I'm currently thinking of our TIP scenes in 396), we could even adapt the script to different genres. For instance one group does it as a chick flick, one does it as a horror film, etc, so we can see how one thing can be represented by so many different ways.
These all wrap up into the point he makes about Audience, in that each production that is ever conceived is intended for a specific audience. I think understanding that point is the most crucial thing we can teach our students. For one it will help them in producing and marketing their own art and works. And number two, it will help them to be more aware of what sorts of influences the media has in their lives, and how each commercial, play, film, or website they encoutnter was targeted to them for specific reasons.
To teach that, I like the idea of having them create their own commercials to target different groups in their school. This could be incorporated into a unit on script writing, so they could really delve into this process of audience, which is really what media and theatre are all about.
All in all, I thought the concepts he presented were very useful, and that by adapting them to our needs, we can really be effective teachers to help our students realize what is surrounding them on a daily basis, and hopefully to make at least more informed choices, if not wiser, on their production of art and consumption of media, theatre, and stereotypes around them.
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