Debriefing Process Drama in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 09:11
So, this morning, I got up at 4:45 so I could participate in an experiment in Process Drama in Second Life. About a dozen of us gathered on Godot Island to act out how our characters in the fictional town would have reacted to efforts to impose Internet regulations in response to the famous Serenity Now bombing of a World of Warcraft funeral.
For those not acquainted with the bombing, the short version of the story is that a woman, who was very active in World of Warcraft, died of a stroke in real life. Her friends organized a funeral in a player versus player combat area in World of Warcraft. Members of a rival guild attacked the funeral. You can read more about it, along with various reactions in this blog post.
In process drama, the focus is on pedagogical outcomes as opposed to the therapeutic outcomes of psychodrama, but in my mind, these are fairly similar goals and I invited friends from the group psychotherapy world to participate or follow along.
Those most acquainted with psychodrama as well as with the use of the Internet showed some disinclination due to the amount of time that learning about psychodrama and/or learning about acting online requires. There is merit to their concern. I have too much on my plate as it is, and I don’t think we are close enough yet to make significant pedagogical or therapeutic use of drama in Second Life. However, today’s experiment, I believe, was a step in the right direction.
After we had been assigned our roles, we all went to the island where the drama was to take place. The island was nicely set up for the purpose. Unfortunately, with the limited time and perhaps a sense of time pressure, people started interacting with each other, in role, without spending time exploring the setting. People didn’t get a good sense of who the other characters were.
I found a few characters compelling and believable and some, seemed to me, to lack credibility or verisimilitude. Some seemed too much like caricatures of the people they were supposed to be. Also, it may be that I am being a bit generous to describe what happened as people interacting with each other. Too often, it seemed, people were saying what they thought their lines would be, without really listening to the people around them or paying attention to the set they were on.
A side result was that I changed my avatar for the event. I didn’t save some of my settings, so I’ve gone back and changed my avatar yet again. Most of the focus has been on my head and hair. It still doesn’t look as realistic as I would like, but I think I’m making progress.
It does seem like there is a lot of work needed to learn how to set up proper structures for the pedagogical and therapeutic use of theatre in Second Life. This morning’s even seemed like a nice step along the way.
saying what they thought their lines would be
Submitted by dr bob on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 10:39.Maybe that shouldn't be so surprising, since they weren't trained actors. What if people had just "played" themselves? Or if there were additional sessions that could build on this first one?
Thanks for letting us know about this.
The concept of warm up and deepening levels of spontaneity
Submitted by Peter5601 on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 20:19.Dear Aldon,
It strikes me that possibly people simply needed more to to settle into the place and then into their roles and then time for further deepening of their roles.
A sociodramatist friend of mine suggests a step wise process as a sociodrama deepens and the spontaneity levels rises and this probably applys here. The first thing that people do is act from a stereotypical viewpoint. Until this is done enough or until someone points this out this stage can go for quite a while and usually engages all the worst stepeotypes people have about other groups or people. i.e.police are all racist bullies etc. If deepening occurs - sometimes through whole group or individual role reversal or taking on other roles then a person becomes more like someone they know in that scene though still a stereotype of that person, then more actually like another person and eventually like themselves in that other role.
It has to do with warm up and perceived levels of permission and perceived levels of authority in a situation.
Some of your description I thought could just as easily be about many social groups or social settings. Have you see or read the bok called "The art of play" by Adam Blatner - he sets out a social psychodramatic process for adults to play games in a convivial and playful manner and on reflection I think it might have quite a bit to say/consider/suggest about what you are mucking around with. Adam's email can be found through a google search easily - he is a prolific writer and has had a book on psychodrama go through 4/5 reprints over the years.
Some thoughts from the silly bugger exploring this!
Submitted by kimbowa on Fri, 11/30/2007 - 01:29.Hi Aldon,
It's my project you're talking about here. And I note that you made many of the same observations as me - my first impressions are in the Facebook group DEISL.
Yes, there are limitations to what can be handled with Drama in Second Life. Mine is a research project where one of the main goals is to identify the poetics of leaderly facilitation in such environments. The virtual world version of the process includes attempts at trying to let the environment and social engagement facilitate some of the usual teacherly functions - at times the tests will show we need to look at other ways of using the resources available.
The full background to the project can be tracked through my blog at http://www.dramanite.com.
I am quite familiar with Adam Blatner's work (I've recently contributed to one of his books), and I am also quite familiar with the work of Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton, Pamela Bowells, Brian Heap, Cecily O’Neill, Jonathan Neelands, Brad Haseman, John O’Toole, John Carroll and many, many others who have contributed to the field of Process Drama.
Let's be clear - Process Drama is used in thousands of teaching and learning contexts around the world on a daily basis, part of my investigation is to explore how that might translate into a virtual context. Process Drama has been in common use for over 30 years and has been theorised, formulated and refined by many teachers over that time.
It is simply intended as a playful attempt in applying principles of Drama pedagogy in a games-inspired way within a virtual space. And after a first attempt in a large context last night we discovered there's still a lot to learn... and that's why I will continue to test and refine the processes.
The focus topic on internet governance issues is relatively arbitrary - but I think its an interesting meta-layer to the study. The stories I could tell about trying to use new media and new technologies in institutional settings is fraught with frustration!
The WoW bombing video from YouTube – I’m using it as a PRETEXT to the drama – the actual scenario is fictional and extrapolated from that real event. It could just as easily have been a newspaper cutting, or a photograph, poem, short story, etc. I like the WoW scenario because it did draw so many responses when it was first released – it is now a part of internet gaming history – what the drama hopes to do is explore some of the issues that arise from such things but the bigger picture is about internet usage, governance and social action…
The drama last night was the first foray into all this - the roleplaying didn't really get beyond simple role-taking and the pace of everything was compressed. I have noted and begun planning changes to the process - I think we just expected a little too much too soon last night. The next encounter we have will start more slowly with much clearer limitations on what characters are to do - it will be broken up into smaller sets of activity - beginning with individual exploration (in role), feedback (out of role) to the group, small group engagement (in role), out-of-role reflection and and group discussion, larger group structured activities, feedback, reflection and debriefing.
Last night we barely got out of the starting gate. But it was exactly what we needed to discover.
The conventions being utilsied are all drawn from established Educational drama work such as Jonathan Neelands "Structuring Drama Work", modified where necessary to account for the virtual context.
The investigation can only continue with the assistance of people like those who came along last night - with an open mind, a curiosity, a sense of enquiry and a willingness to tinker on the edges of the unknown.
Of course I have a vested interest - the whole process feeds into whether or not I'll eventuially be awarded my PhD - and having quit my career to pursue this higher degree study it is important to me and my family. I thank everyone who came along last night - and invite them all to stay involved - and anyone else who'd like to help chip away at discovering the possibilities and affordances of these new environments.
You can stay abreast of further developments via the group DEISL (Drama Educators in Second Life) on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6709958766
Cheers
Kim