Creating Change Quality Principles
Pilot 3 Case Study
Ovalhouse: Future Stage Programme
Ovalhouse is a fringe theatre in South London with a large and thriving participation
programme offering creative opportunities for a range of children and young people including
those who are considered at risk, vulnerable and socially excluded.
Future Stages
Future Stages is a participatory arts intervention programme supporting children who are
considered ‘at risk’. Practitioners such as Augusto Boal and Dorothy Heathcote have
inspired the drama methodologies adopted. The programme is specifically designed to
support children aged 8- 12 years from disadvantaged circumstances who find themselves
on the brink of exclusion or other crises. Working in partnership with local authorities,
schools and pupil referral units, the project aims to use creative processes to give young
people effective lifelong tools that build their resilience and maximise their strengths and so
break the cycle of deprivation, not only for themselves, but also for their communities.
In 2014 the delivery has been in two contexts: a small class of 10 children in a pupil referral
unit in Lambeth who are not in main stream school because they are not able to cope in that
setting and a second group of individually referred children who have been recruited
because they are facing crises in their life such as being in foster care, being bullied at
school or family breakdown.
Ovalhouse commits to working with children for at least year. Occasionally children may
choose to leave before a year has elapsed or may be moved out of borough into new
accommodation or a new fostering setting making it difficult for them to continue their
involvement.
Future Stages is a three year project supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London
Borough of Lambeth commissioning, KPMG, Equitable
The project is the subject of an external evaluation by The Centre for Urban and Community
Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths University. The material in this case study is taken from a
report on the use of ‘In Role’ as a drama technique written by Chrissie Tiller one of the
evaluators from CUCR.
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The use of in-Role in Future Stages
The case study set out below is taken from Chrissie Tiller’s report on the use of ‘In-Role’ in
Future Stages and from reflective notes by Angela Ekaette Michaels one of the Future
Stages practitioners. The case study seeks to describe how ‘In-Role’ work embodies all 7
Quality Principals in a joined up approach.
The Future Stages team is keen to offer the young people who are part of the programme a
range of challenges and opportunities to shine in different ways: sharing the time equally
between focusing on process and creating product. Within these parameters, however, they
have observed that the ‘teacher in role’ method is particularly effective at encouraging the
group to be more co-operative and in developing their team working skills. In needing to
work together to solve a shared problem, the whole group focus remains very much on the
task in hand and the act of playing another character or taking on a role becomes a much
less competitive exercise. Because the teacher in role is able to work within the drama and
alongside the young people rather than directing them from the front, this methodology offers
a much more interactive, two-way model of learning. Importantly, in order for the process to
work, everyone has to engage in 1equal ‘buy-in’ to the story, often by demonstrating their
willingness to meet the ‘in role’ character and creating a complementary character of their
own.
The Future Stages team uses ‘teacher in role’ and more traditional drama and theatre
making practice across the programme. Both offer young people the opportunity to be
creative, use their imagination and develop personal skills such as empathy, by reflecting on
what it might be like to live in someone else’s shoes. However, when it comes to sharing a
piece of theatre, the team has noticed the collaborative approach developed in rehearsal can
often disappear under the pressure of working towards a product for an audience. Although
the opportunity to share newly gained skills, such as the recent creation and manipulation of
shadow puppets, certainly raises the young people’s sense of achievement,2 personal glory
and questions of ownership are often back on the table.
What is teacher in role?
‘Teacher in role’ allows the teacher to draw on storytelling and theatre techniques by
presenting themselves as an imaginary character within a drama. Although it is based on
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Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
Quality Principle 2. Being authentic, Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
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drama and theatre methods it is important for those teachers who have no formal theatre
training to know that being ‘in role’ does not require traditional ‘acting’ abilities; in fact
focusing on your own acting can often be a disadvantage. Part of the success of teacher in
role relies on young people being able to feel they are 3co-creators in the story rather than
members of an audience. In responding to a simple offer made by the teacher taking on a
role, young people realise it is possible for anyone to adopt the attitudes and behaviour of
someone else. Watching the teacher signal they are playing another character by merely
changing their voice, posture, taking up a prop or a specific item of clothing gives young
people permission to practice and try out new roles of their own.
Teacher in role is a technique that, once established with a group, offers endless possibilities
for shaping the learning experience: from within the drama (as a character) as well as
without (as the teacher).
It can be introduced at any stage in the story making, dependent
on the group and what the teacher wants to achieve in a particular session. E.g.

Opening the drama. By presenting a character that arouses the imagination and
curiosity of the young people, the teacher can offer useful information, encourage
questioning and open up a shared fiction. This opening role can be undertaken by
the teacher her/himself or by another colleague. The Oval House team sometimes
use another colleague to play this role in order to create an atmosphere of shared
anticipation.

Developing and deepening the drama. By challenging and questioning the young
people as co- creators of the story, the teacher in role can work with the group to
elicit further information about characters or events, clarify the action, or extend and
deepen their thinking/listening skills by encouraging them to reflect on and
understand someone else’s point of view.

Building, maintaining or heightening the dramatic tension. The character the teacher
has created in role can often be used hold the focus in more significant moments. It
is also possible to create a character that acts much more like a devil’s advocate,
encouraging the young people to defend their position within the story by questioning
and challenging what is happening.

Managing classroom behaviour within the drama. By working with the young people
to create stories and situations where the need to collaborate or negotiate with others
is integral to the action the teacher in role can encourage these qualities through the
fiction rather than imposing them from above.
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Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
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
Concluding the drama. By creating and guiding a moment of reflection from within
the process and while in role the teacher can often encourage more thoughtful and
considered responses.
What skills are needed?
Successful in role work relies on an ability to be flexible about your status and a
preparedness to risk taking on roles that do not reflect the teacher’s usual position of
authority in the classroom. High status is the default position of the teacher in the usual
classroom set up. And, of course, high status roles will be needed at some point within most
dramas. But, with careful thought, the teacher can undercut stereotypes and challenge the
young people’s expectations. E.g. they could decide to play a king but create a character
that doesn’t enjoy his position of power and relies on his advisers (the young people) for
guidance. 4 The most useful roles in getting the drama going are often mid or lower status as
they are already asking the young people for some kind of help, advise, support. E.g. a
messenger bringing the news of what’s happened in the village, an assistant or servant
relaying their understanding of what is going on, a mediator (good for maintaining distance
from hostility and pushing the narrative forward), someone who needs help (good for gaining
advice and ideas) or one amongst equals e.g. a fellow astronaut on a space voyage (good
for problem solving).
Working in role does need a certain amount of confidence on the part of the teacher but,
more importantly, it needs them to take the in role process seriously. If the teacher is clearly
committed to their role the young people soon recognise this and pick up the signals. There
are tools and tricks of the trade that can be acquired with experience, especially when
thinking about possible outcomes, but setting things up clearly, often just by using a signifier
such as a simple prop or piece of costume to indicate when one is ‘in role’ and putting it
down when one has returned to the ‘role’ of teacher, gives confidence and clarity.
In role work should never be seen as any easy option.
Careful research and detailed
preparation, especially if one is working with a historical topic or setting the story in a
particular geographical or cultural context, adds credibility; which in turn encourages the
young people’s commitment.5 Whilst working in role, the teacher needs to be focused on the
way the story is developing and constantly scanning the room can be open to offers. Once
in role they have to be prepared to trust the young people and ready to hand over the action
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Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
Quality Principle 2. Being authentic
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to them. This means a willingness to improvise within the drama, responding to the young
people’s contributions even when they may seem ‘weird and wonderful.’
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Use of language
and register is particularly important, especially when trying to indicate status or encouraging
the young people to think about how a character they have created might behave. It is
interesting how ready young people are to take on the register of another and how
knowledgeable they can be about how someone such as an older bus driver or an ambitious
lawyer or a nervous king might speak.
Although the teacher is always ‘holding’ the session, it’s important to recognise they are only
part of it; the young people are equal players. Questioning needs to be open rather than
closed: phrases such as ‘What if we….?’, ‘I wonder if …..? ensure the young people feel
confident their suggestions will be as valued as anyone’s. This means resisting being too
rigid with one’s own ideas or deciding beforehand exactly where one would like to get to
within a story or a session. The process needs to be an on-going collaboration where the
young people can trust the teacher to be generous and say ‘yes’ to good ideas, even if they
take the drama in a direction no one had expected. Although focused questioning can often
be helpful in reminding everyone they have entered into a shared agreement and these are
the rules of the game, ‘Yes and…’ needs to be the default in sharing the story telling.
One of the most exciting aspects of working in this way is that it allows both the teacher and
the young people to re-examine their relationship in a safe way through the act of cocreation. 7 It turns what Paulo Freire calls the ‘banking’ model of teaching and learning on its
head and creates a much more participatory and inclusive classroom. The teacher is no
longer ‘a figure of authority possessing the only truth’ but someone who is part of the group,
helping to shape the group experience at key moments of cognition. In recognising they are
responsible for their own decisions within the drama, the young people are not only given a
voice but their contributions are validated as part of the shared act of storytelling. 8
Future Stages Teacher in Role
The first teacher in role session with any group in the Future Stages programme will often
begin with the young people encountering a character. Frequently this character is a person
or creature that is lost in some way or needs their help. The narrative of the drama is often
based on around a theme rather than focusing on an existing story. For example, one
popular drama centres round a mission to outer space. It might begin with the young people
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Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
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Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
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being set a riddle, the answer to which leaves them having to decide whether they want to
be part of the team of astronauts who need to find the answer. Some of the early work then
focuses on helping them decide what they might need to undertake such a mission and want
they will need to take with them.
The young people are encouraged to imagine what this new planet might look like:
sometimes through ‘discovering’ or creating their own map. This process offers them the
opportunity to draw on their tacit knowledge of distant planets, from films, stories or science
lessons and what kinds of skills and equipment might be needed for survival.
Once they
have reached the planet they may then ‘encounter’ an alien: one of the team in role. This
alien often doesn’t speak the language of the visiting ‘earthmen’ and so requires help with
translation. Or it might be the alien is also lost on this planet and needs to be introduced to
the ‘imaginary’ environment the young people have created. The young people are invited
to work with them to develop the story and, if necessary, help them solve their problem.
The problem solving can take a number of forms. It might involve thinking creatively around
ways they can communicate with this stranger by developing greetings that show they mean
no harm. It could mean ‘interpreting’ what the alien is saying and recreating something of
the environment s/he comes from so s/he can feel more ‘at home’.
introducing the alien to the way humans behave.
Or it might involve
Helping a character who doesn’t
understand our language or our ways of being, immediately involves the young people in
making decisions about the impression of their world they want to give to strangers,
including thinking about behaviours that will not appear threatening or how best to
communicate with those who do not share our language. Rather than ‘good behaviour’
being something the teacher always feels in charge of, working in role draws on the young
people’s own instincts and knowledge by allowing them to make the offers. 9
Sometimes they may be introduced to the character and the story straight away. At other
times they hear someone’s story but don’t meet her/him in the first session. One group, for
example, were told a good deal about a character called Scorpion before they met them; as
well as stirring great excitement and fascination it also enabled them to think about the kind
of character someone with that name might be. Drawing on their intrinsic knowledge of how
metaphor works, they imagined them to be pretty fiery: someone whose fierceness they
would have to deal with when they met her/him. For young people who sometimes find it
difficult to manage their own fierceness or anger, this was an important challenge.
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Quality Principle 3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging
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The imaginary environments created for and with the young people are almost always
places that, like a character named Scorpion, share things that can be understood from our
own world. But they are also separate and different in that the ‘rules’ are neither fixed nor
known. The young people are the ones responsible for deciding them. Other imaginary
places the group have worked with include a world under the sea, a mystery kingdom and a
desert island. Within all these situations there is a possibility for the young people to look at
their own world from a distance and, within a safe space, shape it into the kind of place they
might want to live. 10
Offering possibilities
Being part of the creation of these imaginary worlds in this way, and in deciding things such
as how one should behave within them, gives the young people a genuine sense of selfesteem. Because they have created the story themselves, their emotional commitment to
the drama is usually greater and the impact of the learning often deeper. Things such as turn
taking, which can sometimes be hard for these particular young people, especially in more
formal learning situations, happen more naturally within the shared creative process.
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Whilst other drama work may teach them specific skills, which they enjoy, it can also seem
closer to the rest of the young people’s school experience where they frequently feel judged
and often found to be failing. Teacher in role work reverses these expectations by placing
them immediately in the role of the expert or the one who has the ideas. Given the remit to
be creative and come up with solutions they frequently find themselves able to do so.
Although nothing explicit is ever said, the young people quickly recognise they are being
placed in a different position to that which they find themselves in other educational settings.
As they engage with the character created by the teacher in role they begin to recognise
their response is what matters and, by accepting this responsibility, take on control of the
story and ownership of the action. 12
By offering them the possibility to project themselves into imagined worlds of their own
creation, in role work can offer the young people the possibility to test out their aspirations or
try out new behaviours.
Not only can they explore different feelings but they can also
experiment with responding differently to social situations and moral dilemmas that may
parallel those they encounter in the real world. Working in role allows them to practice life
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Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
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Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
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skills in an environment that may be distanced from their reality but offers important
parallels.
REFLECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
The young people involved in the Future Stages programme have almost all responded
positively to teacher in role work. For some of them it is the only time they manage to
cooperate and work as part of a group. Once they have got used to the way in role works,
they are usually eager to get straight into their character and work on the stories they have
created; impatient for the weekly check in and warm up game to be over.
Continuity is an
important part of this process. Every week the group work together to recap some of the
things that have happened, recalling how their character behaved and responded to the
events in the story. This way, even if they’ve been absent, which can be an issue for many
of these young people, they don’t feel as if everything has gone on without them; there are
possibilities to share understanding and knowledge as a group and for them to contribute to
the story in ways missing other lessons might not afford them.
Working in this way not only gives them the possibility to be in other people's shoes it also
gives them the chance to see things from another perspective. When they are in role they
are often responding in the moment, behaving as they imagine their character might do:
practising different behaviour without it necessarily being a conscious decision. Although
they are not always able to sustain these behaviours after the session, they do trickle over
into their lives outside. In role work often changes and challenges the usual group dynamic
and creates more of a level playing field, at least for the time they are involved in the drama.
Everyone can be valued for the contribution they make to the drama and so even quieter
members of the group can be seen to have equal status. The teacher in role is often able to
draw them out in ways they don’t necessarily encounter in a usual class situation and to
value their contributions; especially when they are in the role of a character that needs their
help.
Behaviour management is rarely in question.
happening in the story and it’s a shared focus.
depends on their shared commitment.
They are all focused on what’s
They know the success of the drama
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Afterwards they are offered the opportunity to reflect on the choices they made in role and
why they might have been different. It helps them have insight into their own behaviour.
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Quality Principle 1. Striving for excellence
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When collecting baseline data, for example, they often think they are good at certain skills
such as working together as a team and score themselves quite highly at the beginning.
Midway through the sessions and after they have taken part in reflection, they may score
themselves lower.
But it’s a conscious recognition; often based on their reflections of how
their behaviour in role differed from their usual behaviour in the classroom. As one of the
team noted, ‘It’s as if they have moved from unconscious to conscious incompetence by
recognising they still have to work at certain things, like listening and paying attention to
others and working cooperatively.’
Status
One example of the way they learn to adapt their behaviour is the way they begin to use
status. There are some young people who need high status outside the drama; but by
engaging with role they can gradually learn to be more flexible within it, especially when they
see it can help them achieve things. One boy, for example, who always relied on being high
status, resisted taking part in the drama for a time. As the story developed, however, he got
hooked along with the rest of the group. He then decided he would enter as the king, the
most powerful character in the story. But he had clearly recognised high status in this
position might not be earned by being aggressive or bullying others. Instead he chose to
demonstrate power and status by being supportive and caring. Rather than trying to impose
his views on the rest of the group or be destructive towards other’s ideas, as he might
normally have done, he took on the king’s power by being ‘older and wiser’, making
suggestions such as, “I’m not sure they (the young couple in the story) should marry straight
away. I think they need to get to take more time to get to know each other.’ Not only was
his insight really helpful in terms of developing the story, he was visibly pleased with himself
afterwards. 14
Distance and Metaphor
In role work creates a sense of distance from the young people’s own lives, even if many of
the issues are parallel.
By using metaphor and story the group is protected by the fact they
are working with imaginary situations.
It is part of Oval House’s ethical approach that
personal stories are never used. This means the young people can take risks, even chance
they might make the ‘wrong’ decision. Although this would be daunting in their own lives:
dealing with similar questions in an imaginary drama allows them to experiment. This
encourages them to be braver at trying out new possibilities.
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Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
Quality Principle 2. Being authentic
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It has been interesting for the team to note that when a group who had become confident at
taking on character ‘in role’ were introduced to improvisation many of them were afraid of
stepping into the action. Being asked to take part as themselves they feared making a
mistake and having others judging them. Working in role they understand a character one
takes on can make mistakes, do something that might seem silly in the ‘ordinary world’, or
even accept low status, but this is not a reflection on you as an individual. Placing them in
an imagined context has enabled them to take decisions one step removed from their own
reality: allowing individual vulnerabilities to be explored in a safer context. The dynamics
and the pressures of working within a group are often very different within role. 16
The Role of Play.
For many of the young people who are part of the Future Stages programme working in role
is also a place where they can use their imaginations in ways they don't necessarily have
opportunity for in other areas of their lives. Other responsibilities in their families can mean
many of them have little time to spend on imaginative play: despite the fact play is so vital
for their development.
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This can mean they become locked down creatively in other ways.
Working in role can often open this up in extra-ordinary ways. Although they use their
imaginations in the ‘virtual’ worlds much of their ‘play’ takes place in, things like character
and story are often already created. Within in role drama they have to create people and
creatures from scratch and support each other in realising that creation.
In a recent session, for example, one young person who had not really engaged in the
drama fully, keeping his earphones on at the beginning of each session, began to move his
hand continually as the drama developed. Eventually the teacher in role, imagining he was
listening to his music, asked him what he was doing. Immediately he responded that he was
stroking his wolf cub. The rest of the group listened and then quickly bought into his ‘offer’
and, although the drama was taking place under the sea, created a space for the wolf cub
within the story. He became a wolf-like creature who lived under the sea. In subsequent
sessions one or other of the boys in the group would always begin to ‘stroke’ the wolf
creature at some point in the story, letting everyone know it was present and safe with him.
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Recent research in neuro-science has shown that by engaging in imaginative play and
placing ourselves in situations that demand we think differently is one of the best ways to
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Quality Principle 3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging
Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
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Quality Principle 7. Developing a sense of ownership and belonging
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‘rewire’ our brains and assist our creative thinking.
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In role drama allows young people to
draw on their imagination in ways they might not have the opportunity to do elsewhere. It
allows them to enter completely imaginary worlds and ‘practice’ new ways of thinking and
practising their creativity in the same way they might practice other skills. By seeing they
can behave differently in the worlds they have created they can also begin to imagine they
might be different in their own worlds. In allowing them to be caught up in an imagined world
and working in a way that requires them to be present, listening to and being responsive to
the ideas of others, in role drama offers them new possibilities.
Conclusion
Working ‘in role’ can be one of the most inclusive of art forms. Access is not limited to those
who are ‘gifted and talented’. The creation of a good piece of in role drama is as dependent
upon developing qualities of openness, co-operation, trust and commitment to the team as it
is on improving individual skills. It is a methodology that allows the teacher greater flexibility
and creativity in introducing young people to basic life skills like the ability to listen to others,
to work together, to have confidence in communicating their own ideas.
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For many of the young people Future Stages works with it provides a safe context in which
to play out their hopes and fears and offers them the opportunity to think of themselves as
active participants in effecting change.
Postscript: Training others
One of the most useful ways of learning to use in role work is to take part in sessions oneself
or to undertake placements with experienced practitioners.
Understanding the ethics of the work is equally important. It would be great to have a
network of organisations, or smaller hubs, that are working in this way and could regularly
share practice. It would also be great to ensure reflection is planned into every session so
that people can work through the process afterwards. It’s important that people realise it’s
not just what happens in the room but the preparation that goes into it beforehand as well as
the time taken to think about what happened after the session. 21
It needs time to look at how one can meet the individual needs of the young people within
the drama as well as their group dynamics: their creative as well as their social needs. It
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Quality Principle 1. Striving for excellence
Quality Principle 4. Ensuring a positive, child-centred experience
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Quality Principle 1. Striving for excellence
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needs time to develop one’s own learning in terms of exploring new art forms that could be
used within the drama, new approaches to running sessions, sharing some of the barriers
that might face young people in really participating. And in working with others to see how
young people might be supported in recognising some of the behaviours they have practised
in the drama might become part of their reality outside the sessions.
As the young person who created the wolf cub in the earlier story suggested finding
solutions is only a question, ‘..of using use our imaginations. With imagination on our side
anything is possible.’
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