The Purpose of Drama
Calling all budding dramatists

By Dr Shradha Kaul
As children we like to indulge in role play in some form or the other. Many times we see children copying their parents or teachers in conduct or even in clothing. This is the first occurrence of drama in our lives. Literally, drama means a prose or a verse composition, especially one telling a story intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action. Quite similar to what we did as kids only that there wasn’t any written script ready.

Drama is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘action’ or ‘to do’. In olden times, drama dealt with human concerns as well as gods and was patronised by the kings as well as the village folk. These days’ drama is performed in a range of media like theatre, radio, film and television.

Besides sacred classical Indian musical theatre, the general purpose of drama is entertainment. However drama can also be used as an educational activity or for therapeutic purposes or even for a religious service. I am sure all of us have seen enactments from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as children, the purpose here is both religious and educational.

In school we look forward to the annual day where we would perhaps get a chance to act in the show where the play is the star attraction. Famous school favourites down the ages have been the Gift of the Magi, The Face on the Wall, Arms and the Man, Merchant of Venice, The Monkey’s Paw, The Christmas Carol, Midsummer Nights’ Dream, Ole King Cole, or whatever catches the fancy of the drama teacher. Still we have very few schools where drama is taught or is even recognised as a subject that merits some importance.

In school, while studying plays from our prescribed text books, some teachers handle the demands of the subject creatively and make the class emote the lines with the emotion the characters or the lines demand. Even this small effort brings to life the text as well as the entire class with the characters springing to life and assimilation becoming crystal clear.

Some parents do recognise the importance of drama in a child’s life and send their children to theatre workshops or some specialised drama training. I would like to make a point here that it is not necessary that only children with distinct innate acting skills should be earmarked for this but in fact we all should experience this play acting at some time or the other in our lives.

Drama is a holistic way of teaching. Whether it be in a play or by engaging in a role-play situation, participants learn through interactions with others - this allows them to not only learn facts as they would from a book or in a classroom, but to enter the world of another person, to be allowed to explore how they feel about this situation or person, whether it be a city in the US or Portia in the Merchant of Venice. Every interaction with another character or situation gives a greater understanding of what is happening around us. While discussing with children about their specific learning from drama, I was surprised at their reactions. Not only were some of them actually empathising with the emotions of the characters but said that the experience enhanced their personality in some way or the other and taught them to experience a range of feelings that would not have perhaps come their way normally.

Another important facet of drama is the universal appeal of the plays. It is surprising that as children we are able to understand plays from all over the world so easily. It is so easy to understand the anguish of the conflict of the brother and the sister in the play The Bishop’s Candlesticks. The emotions come across in very powerful way. The language of drama is international giving opportunities to us to explore the world of people from other places, times and cultures.

—The author is an academic & writes on varied issues