Drama as Self-improvement

I was embarrased that I could be identified in the twilight by my strange walk, that I couldn't catch, that I threw like a girl, that if you put me into water sank. I thought that my ideas weren't worth listening to (not realizing that my speech was often unintelliglible). I was so socially inept that if I forgot something I'd have to walk around the block to fetch it - not wanting to be seen as lunatic striding aimlessly about.

Posture training might have helped but the gym teacher favoured the athletes; singing would have improved my breathing, but I was told just to open my mouth in time with others; relaxation excercises could have loosened me up, but I was urged to "try harder'. Our teachers wanted us to bring "honour" to the school and Quasimodo had been a fine cricketer they'd have been delighted, but they'd have done nothing about the hump.

One might imagine that social preassure would remove aberrations; but contact with other people is stressful (our blood preassure goes up every time someone enters the room), and whatever lowers our anxiety soon becomes engrained. If a fake smile does the trick, or a tight mouth, or planning what to say instead of listening, we'll repeat this behaviour untill we'r convinced that it's "us", just as we believe that our posture and voice are "us".

I remember being held in "detention" and fuming at school's refusal to help me: "So I can't get my tongue round the words, so I lumber like a bear - why isn't that my teachers' responsibility? What's so important about the number of sheep in Tierra del Fuego in 1936 compared to being human? What about relationships? What about shyness? What about fear? Why complain that I needed speech therapy but not tell me what it is or how to get it?

I yearned for something that might have been called Drama as Self-improvement, and I was right to yearn it. If my weight could have been shifted on to my bones my muscles wouldn't have had to keep holding me up. And if I could have learned to "let go ". and to speak clearly, I wouldn't have been so tormented.

Geography students can have tight eyes, and maths students can slur their speech, and this isn't thought relevant, but drama has to consider the whole person. A drama teacher (who isn't overwhelmed by some mammoth production at the end of the school year) can let students experiment with different "selves": the shy can become confident, and the hysterical more at ease. No academic who understands this can dismiss drama as "one of the frills"...

...By happenstance I've spent my life teaching the skills that my teachers had ignored. I encourage negative people to be positive, and clever people to be obvious, and anxious people not to do their best. People are surprised when I give as much attention to the "klutzes" as to the "talented" players.

Keith Johnstone. Impro for Storytellers