Apart from creating a visual spectacle, when students get under the skin of a character, the histrionics greatly helps them learn life skills such as empathy, grace under stress, emotion control and also fires their creativity while smoothening out the emotional creases. All of this contributes towards making them great team players.
The American College of Dubai (ACD) takes theatre seriously and has had a rich history in this field winning accolades over the years. It all started 12 years ago, with the birth of the ‘Drama Club’ under the guidance of Mona Sharma the Dean of Student Services, 2001. The club’s success has spurred their aspirations and the students continue their endeavours in this field. Psychologists would vouch for the powerful role that drama plays as a teaching tool and ACD encourages students to use drama in classroom situations to emote scenes and perform role play as well.
The ACD drama club added another feather in its cap by going ahead and associating with the well-known Indian theatre group named ‘Rangmanch’ and its members received training from veteran Indian theatre personalities such as Kader Khan, Farooque Shaikh and Lillette Dubey.
ACD was also a pioneer in getting many schools and colleges to perform skits and plays in a venture that was named ‘Stagestruck’ in association with Rangmanch. This was an annual event in which 15 or more schools and colleges performed on a common platform and won trophies for the best play, best actor and best script.
The college encourages all its students to join the drama club and every semester they try to put on a play depicting a social message. Last semester it hosted an anti-smoking campaign and did a powerful play on the theme. The drama club has plans to host more such events in their multi-purpose hall in the forthcoming semesters.
The performing students take their work seriously, rehearse hard and produce thoughtful productions on current and topical issues that are not only entertaining but prove to be sharp learning curves for the participants as they not only promotes play acting but encourage cultural integration among the multi-nationality student body.
Recently, Education had the opportunity to speak to some of the drama club members who were in the process of rehearsing a play based on autism. Elaborating on the theme, Hiba Ahmad, the coordinator of ACD’s drama club, said: “This play will be staged during our club week from November 17-21. The ACD student council always works with special needs children and that’s where we got our idea from, to create awareness through the drama club for these special children.”
Gulf News: What made you join the drama club?
Abdul Rahman Abdullah, Egytpian and Script Writer for Drama Club: Actually I was a part of writer’s club and was approached by members of the drama club to try my hand at script writing, which I have taken up as a challenge.
Raheel Waheed, Indian, Head of Drama Club: For me drama was entering a new world where rules and regulations were created by you. It worked as a platform for me to showcase acts that cannot be done in reality.
Lidell Yorke, Ghanian, Member of Drama Club: Well in my home country I wasn’t able to get a lot of opportunity to try out my skills at acting. Hence I jumped at the opportunity when I found that ACD actually had a drama club.
Hiba Ahmad, Pakistani, Coordinator, Drama Club: I joined the drama club because it is exciting to act in different voices, emotions and characters. Drama is fun because you get to act different characters and roles. It’s a platform to be what you are not. It encourages you to come out of your shell and overcome your shyness. It helps you to enhance your personality.
How does it help you to express your generation’s thoughts on various social issue.
ARA: As a writer I was anyway into expressing my thoughts on various social problems of today. I think I got a wonderful opportunity to see my words being enacted in front of a big audience. The best part is I can get to know their reaction immediately, which actually doesn’t happen when my write-ups are being read.
RW: Honestly, many people believe that the our generation’s thoughts seem to differ when it comes to the old and young generation, but in fact when we voice our thoughts it eventually shows that although we showcase it in a different manner in the end we all share a common goal that is to resolve the social issue.
LY: I come from a totally different background and I would like to project my country’s thoughts on various topics through drama.
HA: As we have all heard of the generation gap, so through drama we are able to voice our opinion about the new thoughts and ideas of our generation. Our plays project various ideas and thoughts on a common platform in a very interesting way and help the audience to understand our thinking process and the change that we would like to bring in society.
What life skills does dramatics teach you and how does it prepare you better in terms of adding value to your personality and helping you in problem solving, team working, emotional balance etc.
ARA: Because I need to write a script, I think I learn a lot by actually exploring various information on that particular topic that I am writing on. I think it helps me to enhance my personality because of the knowledge that I gain when I am gathering information on my scripts. Because I work with a team, I have learnt to be flexible on my views.
RW: The utmost skill that dramatics give you in life and adds value to your personality is confidence. With an increased confidence, it gives a fresh new feeling which indirectly is linked to improved problem-solving, team-working and being more emotionally stable. Drama even allows you to relive events that you were never part of. In fact that’s the beauty of drama, where you can learn while having fun, too.
LY: After joining the drama club I felt I was becoming more versatile in many areas of life. I was able to handle a lot of emotional issues in a very rational manner. I learnt to respect other people’s opinions since I was working with a team.
HA: Drama teaches us to be more expressive and confident. We learn to use our voice effectively and get into characters that we normally are not so that we actually learn to feel what a person in that particular emotional moment feels. It teaches us a lot about how to work together as a team because we have to put together direction, action, costumes, stage setting, props and various other material related to drama, in coordination with other members of our team.
