Enthusing People about Drama Theory

[Jim]

I want to share a very positive experience that I had yesterday in my role as a lecturer in an HEI who has (and seizes!) the occasional opportunity to introduce DT to diverse groups of students.
This time my 'audience' was a group of post-experience students studying for an LLM (a Masters in Law) and the module was on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), something about which it was evident that they were extremely sceptical, but which they felt they should learn about because it is a 'hot issue'.
I just had a 2-hour slot within what is a whole semester module, so there wasn't a lot of time available to me. Nevertheless I was able to outline the DT framework and to introduce some examples that seemed relevant to the students' focus. However I was apprehensive about their response at the end of this presentation.
I needn't have been. Instead of slating me for producing something too technical or just dismissing it because it seemed irrelevant, they were REALLY POSITIVE. I was thrilled. It seems that the majority of the module (and this year, because the regular lecturer was away on maternity leave, it had been been pulled together around a number of 'guest teachers' like myself) had been far too 'fluffy' for them! As one student said 'We haven't paid these inflated course fees just to come to sessions where the tutors ask us to 'get in touch with our feelings''. The students really liked the firm analytical structure of DT and saw at once how it related to their own expertise.
Why am I telling this story? First because it just shows how much we drama theorists need to reach out to new audiences, and how easy it is to prejudge their interest. Second because it confirms the value that many people still see in rigorous analytical approaches: we shouldn't be afraid to shout about our contribution here. And third because it make me realise just how much potential there is for DT 'out there'!
What can we do about it? Perhaps one 'resolution' we could each make is to undertake (as well as our own circumstances permit of course) at least a few speaking engagements - face-to-face beats e-communication every time - every year, making sure that at least one of these is not to the 'usual crowd' but that it take us way beyond our comfort region. Another might be that we encourage members of such audiences (as I consistently try to do) to come to this forum with their situations, confident that someone in the forum will kick-start some analysis for them. And third, we must be much more active in telling other people about our achievements. I've drawn enormous inspiration from the work that members (especially Manuel and Nigel) have posted here and have shamelessly used their examples to introduce DT to others. While not stopping to talk to each other, let's also try to talk outside the forum.

[Manuel]

Jim,

Thanks for sharing your experience, it's interesting to know how people react to DT. I agree with you that there is potential for DT 'out there', and I have also had some very positive reactions while using it in various situations, most frequently helping friends untangle personal conflicts - many of which are posted in this website. However, the challenge seems to be to get people consistently interested and engaged in the long term. My experience is that DT tends to look appealing, but also too analytically demanding and that puts people off.

One way of overcoming this is to develop products with specific appeal to some people, so that their buy in is facilitated. This is the purpose of this forum, which tries to identify ways of making DT useful to organisations and managers. Other initiatives are also mentioned in this website, e.g. the use of DT for making movies. And yet other potential applications are to be discussed and developed, e.g. the use of DT in journalism, politics and business intelligence - the Politics forum is full of examples of how this could work. All this is not a straightforward task and we need the contribution of potential users with fresh ideas to develop it right and make it work.

Another approach is, as you say, to talk about DT to other people and show that it works and that it necessarily isn't overcomplicated, particularly if there is a network of drama theorists ready to help. We should definitely encourage more engagement and participation, because that is the way DT can evolve into something useful, used by many.

New opinions and contributions can only be beneficial so, please, keep encouraging people to visit us!

[Moulton]

Here is yet another system model for drama theory.