The Head of Drama at Maida Vale School Andy McNamee on why the subject is a great vehicle for inspiring both creative expression and personal perspectives
In GCSE Drama, I teach Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. When I talk about it to anyone outside of education (or even just outside of English and Drama departments) most will do one, or both, of the following: ‘The Crucible, eh? The play about witches?’. A hearty eyeroll in preparation for a lecture from both you and Arthur Miller.
Even with this dreary perception, The Crucible is still very much the GOAT (greatest of all time) when it comes to challenging students to engage in creative expression. It forces students into roles that feel uncomfortable. It takes them into a world that is so like ours but so removed – and into a community that demands empathy and sympathy. In short, the play says to young people: present this community in your own way; show the world how you see these injustices; express your perspective via this narrative.
In many ways, living our lives demands creative expression – what we wear, how we talk, where we go. However, in the context of a young person’s life, I’d argue that it is best when actively encouraged. Students thrive when they’re in an environment that allows them to believe in the possibilities all around them. The sense that ideas can be made physical, thoughts can be made manifest, that creativity doesn’t just exist as an intellectual idea.
The Crucible is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to creative expression. Just look at the myriad different versions of the same play you can see – all with actors and directors taking different tacks and exploring different ideas. The best thing about teaching it, and encouraging young people’s creative expression when staging it, is that it changes over time. It is a play that is simultaneously timeless and shape shifting.
“Students thrive when they’re in an environment that allows them to believe in the possibilities all around them”
Case in point: The Crucible‘s Proctor is a tragic hero, yes, but in today’s world isn’t he also a foolish and shameful man, out-of-his-depth and rightly receiving his comeuppance for past bad behaviour? Hale is an investigator in the traditional sense, but what’s to say that a student couldn’t see him as a modern-day keyboard sleuth who arrives in Salem wanting to find one thing, but learning something different? Abigail is a villain in Miller’s original work. But young students today (especially girls) often see her as someone who was manipulated and used – maybe even abused – by the generation above her and who, over the course of the play, takes back control.
This fresh perspective can be seen in startling new plays that use The Crucible as a jumping off point. John Proctor is The Villain by Kimberly Belflower and Witches Can’t Be Burned by Silva Semerciyan are two such examples. Such reconsiderations are exciting and, when they are bolstered by a play that is so timeless, fireworks really begin, creatively speaking.
Creative expression is relatively easy to make use of in the arts, but I’d argue that it is an essential tool for all of us, especially young people. Today’s students have an important role to play in our shared future world, so encouraging them to engage and express perspectives in the school environment is essential. Drama allows students to identify that they, as individuals, fit into the work they’re studying and explicitly reminds them that they can play an active role.
Maida Vale School maidavaleschool.com
Further reading: Warwick Schools Foundation on celebrating music
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