Diploma in Applied Drama + Psychology

DADP Videos

2011-12-27T23:33:00.000+08:00

Here's a short video that sums up what DADP is all about.

Watch this video to find out what you can do as a DADP graduate.

Want to know how you can use applied drama and psychology to touch lives?

So why DADP? Here's why. ;)

Find out more about the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology at our official website here. :)

Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology at Singapore Polytechnic

Playback Theatre Workshop with Dr Fe Day

2011-11-04T12:57:00.001+08:00

There are 18 years of Playback experience in those hands. :)

The wonderful Fe Day :)

The "Ka Mate" Haka. We started the workshop with a chant and ended with a chant.

From left to right : Teller - Actor - Conductor

Here, the actors are retelling a story generously shared by a member of the audience.

Thank you Fe!

(one more for good measure)

kidz HOPE with Singapore Children's Society

2011-10-29T00:11:00.000+08:00

In October 2011, a group of youths comprising Year 1 and Year 2 DADP students and 2 students from Clementi Town Secondary School presented a Theatre-in-Education (TiE) programme for Singapore Children's Society's Children's Service Centre in Bedok North.

So what exactly is a Theatre-in-Education programme? A TiE programme consists of a performance and some pre- or post-performance activities. This means the audience do not just watch a play; they watch a play AND participate in fun activities (related to the play) after the play.

Helping the children remember what they watched in the play.

Getting the children to suggest possible ways the play could end.

Called “Happy-Nest”, this 2-hour TiE programme revolved around the theme of “Happiness” and was presented to a group of 40 children living in rental flats in the Bedok area one sunny Saturday morning.

Playing warm up games with the children before they watch the play.

“Though nerve wrecking at first, working on this project showed us a whole new meaning to the word Drama and how drama is not just about entertaining people with a play. It can also work wonders OFF the stage,” said Zenda Tan from Clementi Town Secondary School.

Playing drama games with the children after the performance, to help them reflect on what they have just seen.

“When both of us started rehearsing with the DADP students, we were really nervous. We were worried about sticking out like sore thumbs because we had never worked with older, poly students before. But once we stepped into the rehearsal room at SP and saw all the warm smiles and welcomes, we immediately loosened up”, she added.

For this project, Zenda took charge of music and her schoolmate Chua Si Ai took on the role of one of the characters in the play.

“Observing how the DADP students improvise during rehearsals was definitely intriguing and both of us learnt so much just watching them,” said Si Ai.

“Because the theme of the TiE programme was Happiness, it also set us thinking about what happiness meant to us and one of the most memorable points of this experience was when someone said during rehearsals, ‘we can’t be happy all the time’. Those words hit home hard and even made us feel a little embarrassed because we were fretting over a small incident in school at that time,” added Si Ai.

“The most meaningful part of this whole experience was carrying out this programme for the children. As we worked with the children, we learned with them, and even learned from them.”

Drama Workshops at Kinderland Child Care Centre

2011-09-18T00:51:00.000+08:00

During the one-week September holidays, a few DADP students ran drama workshops at the Kinderland childcare centre located at SP. It was an interesting three afternoons working with the K1 and K2 children. On the first day, the drama workshop focused on the importance of washing our hands. On Day Two, we looked at the importance of brushing our teeth. On the last day, we taught the children how to stay Dengue-free. :)

Of course, all the workshops involved lots of drama activities, games and most importantly, FUN!

Sahana:
Before we started at Kinderland, the group of us sat and discussed in detail how we were going to conduct the workshops. We knew that we would have to be quick and flexible on the day itself, when conducting the workshops. True enough, some of our original plans had to be scrapped on the day itself because the children behaved differently from what we expected.

They were very enthusiastic and excited about our workshop. Kids being kids, they expressed their excitement by laughing and talking very loudly. Every one of them also wanted us all to themselves and during the first workshop, we had great difficulty in controlling their energy. To prepare for Day Two, we thought of new strategies to engage them more effectively.

Truthfully speaking, I still feel that I'm not 100% confident in teaching and running workshops for young children but this valuable experience has taught me so much about classroom management. I can honestly say that I am now one step closer in feeling more comfortable about working with young children. :)

The facilitators playing games to warm the children up at the start of the workshop.

Drawing pastries that can be found in a bakery. There were angry bird cupcakes and transformers cakes!

Mrs Baker (left) and Ms Cake (right) asking the children for help to bake the King's birthday cake.

Breaking up into small groups.

Presenting... the birthday cakes the children created for the King!

In the "Dengue workshop", the children were enroled as "Mosquito Busters" and tasked with the responsibility of hunting down mosquitoes!

Creating a "Get Well Soon" card for a character in the story who had contracted dengue fever. :(

The DADP students and Kinderland children.

Kenny :

"The experience at Kinderland was really an eye opener for me. The children had so much creativity, it was fun working with them. They were all unique in their own little ways and as much as they learnt from us, we too learnt so much from them."

Elizabeth :

"During every workshop, we ran around trying to settle hyper children down, we shouted for attention until our voices were hoarse, and we tried our best to match the incredibly high levels of energy given by the children. So my experience at Kinderland was a tiring, but definitely fruitful one! As a facilitator, the biggest lesson I learnt was to trust my instincts more than my lesson plan, because anything can happen to change your plan!"

Workshop Facilitators:
Sahana Hemanthbabu, Noor Saleha, Kenny Yaw, Leon Guok, Darlene Hong, Elizabeth Kow, Tan Chia Wei, Clara Ang, Wu Minyu, Carin Tay, Amanda Lee, Veronica Chan, Muhammad Shafarie and Chng Yi Kai

Photographer:
Chng Yi Kai

Who is DADP?

2011-07-01T10:21:00.001+08:00

DADP Year 1s

(2011 Batch)

DADP Year 2s

(2010 Batch)

DADP Year 3s

(2009 Batch)

DADP Alumni

(2008 Batch)

Legislative Theatre and Invisible Theatre Workshops with Dr Christina Marin

2011-06-01T12:59:00.000+08:00

Ever since I first learnt about invisibletheatre, I've been rather interested in this branch of Theatre of the Oppressedbecause of how effective it can be when applied to social activism. I have to admit that a large part of my motivation for attendingthis workshop is my desire to learn more about invisible theatre so as topursue my own personal projects. Of course, there are issues regardinghow ethical invisible theatre is and the controversy rages on, but I believethat invisible theatre is an interesting and valuable form of applied drama andwe shouldn't avoid putting it into practice despite the clear risks that areinvolved.

Overall, I enjoyed the workshop very muchand benefited from it too. Christina walked us through the process ofbuilding an invisible theatre performance from conception to review with areally cheerful, engaging and energetic style of facilitation that I reallyliked. Although time constraints meant that we couldn't actually put togetherand perform an invisible theatre piece in a real setting, we still managed toget some hands-on experience - by creating short scenes in groups and performing them in simulated external environments.

I enjoyed the workshop and it's great that we get to attend workshops that go beyond our standard curriculum in school. These experiences give us ideas, inspiration and knowledge that we can tap on in ourfuture work.

Written by:

Alvin Wong

We love our warm-up games!

One of the short scenes we created - what do you do if someone is talking REALLY loudly on the MRT train?

With 2 rows of chairs, the classroom transforms into an MRT train.

Here's another scene we worked on - what do you do if you get pushed and shoved at the MRT station?

Dr Marin and us :)

The effervescent Dr Christina Marin!

stereoDADPical 2011

2011-05-03T22:55:00.013+08:00

In the true (crazy?) spirit of DADP, we welcomed our fourth batch and said goodbye to our pioneer batch with a (what else?) party - stereoDADPical (say stereo-DEE-AY-DEE-pical).

Everyone came dressed in a "stereotype". There were nerds, princesses, emo kids, cheerleaders, biker chicks, slackers, K-Poppers... the list goes on!

It was a night to just have fun and not worry about school. There were...

... games,

... good food,

... crazy hosts,

... lots of prizes

... a photobooth,

and of course, all sorts of stereotypical 'costumes'!

There was a Playback Theatre segment too.

'Til next year... ;)

Main Organising Committee:

Toh Wee Peng

Gail Yeo

Joween Chong

Chen Siru

Kimberly Arriola

Mark Ng

Deborah Emmanuel

Facilitators:

Elizabeth Kow, Shalyn Yong, Sulaihah, Polly Seah, Sharon Wee, Jeremiah Chen, Harsha Channa, Jose Yip, Sylvester Goh, Tan Zi Yang, Natalie Yeo, Hanisah and Fatin

Playback Actors:

Mark Ng, Kimberly Arriola, Sebastian Ng, Constance Lim & Chng Yi Kai

Music:

Asaph Teo

Photographer:

Gregory Low and Nicholas

kidz HOPE with Singapore Children's Society

2011-04-02T11:23:00.008+08:00

Created by a team of 6, The Red Bandanas (Shafarie, Leroy, Leping, Juanita, Veronica and myself), Who Is the Bully? is a 2-hour Theatre-in-Education (TiE) programme that we designed for our final assessment for the similarly named module, Theatre-in-Education. The purpose of our programme is to show our audience how anybody can be a bully, how anyone can be a victim and how so many of us are bystanders who watch on instead of doing something.

When we brought Who Is The Bully? to the Singapore Children's Society, we were joined by 5 more - Shalyn, Leon, Camillia, Clara and Zi Ying. After months of working on the programme, on 2^nd April 2011, we finally executed our original TiE programme. Presenting it to the group of 9 to 12 year olds was a great learning experience because we got to facilitate a real audience. Now we could see if our programme worked. (Or not!)

I observed that the children did NOT see bullying as a small matter. When asked to share their own encounters and create freeze frames, the stories and images they shared were so raw and most importantly, so REAL. I'm glad we also encouraged them to think of solutions for those encounters. It was wonderful how they were willing to share serious experiences of being a bully, being bullied and watching bullying happen.

Leroy, Zi Ying and Junie were the main facilitators of the programme.

Leroy playing a warm-up game with the children.

The children watching the performance.

Shafarie was a facilitator too and he stopped the show at points when someone was being bullied to ask the children why the situation was happening and what they could do about it.

Post-show activities included small group work and discussions...

... and freeze-frame work.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say it was "awesome" and "a life-changing experience". In fact, it was hard work and not easy all the time! But I will say this - I have learned some valuable from this experience. As a facilitator, it is so important to listen and observe. I have learned so much just from watching the children as they work. Even though our play was funny, they could grasp the seriousness of the topic and they understood the matter much more than I did, much more than I expected.

To end off… here’s a photo of the amazing, amazing team I worked with. :)

Zi Ying, Junie, Leroy, Yikai, Shafarie, Leon, Camillia, Shalyn and Clara

Not in picture : Veronica and Leping

Written by:

Chng Yikai

Photographs by:

Chng Yikai and Yeo Leping

Photographs

A Workshop with THE Joe Winston!

2011-01-22T16:18:00.013+08:00

Written By Shaun Lee, DADP 1B 01 (AY10/11)

Photos by Polly Seah, DADP 2B 02

Having Associate Professor Joe Winston come down and conduct a workshop for us Applied Drama students is like the Business students getting a lecture from Bill Gates on how to start a multi-billion dollar company!

In November 2010, AP J. Winston conducted a 4-hour workshop for us on how to use stories when working with children. He demonstrated many drama conventions - freeze frames, hot-seating, teacher-in-role and story-telling. These were activities we had done before but his style was so refreshingly different, even the warm-up games felt different! It was so very very fun and we were all laughing non-stop.

We always start off workshops with warm-up games!

I especially enjoyed the part of the workshop when he told a story and got everyone, anyone, to jump into the circle and improvise and act out what they heard. It was on a purely voluntary basis and a highly engaging and terribly hilarious activity. We went crazy laughing as we watched our peers and teachers re-enact, sometimes wrongly, the different scenes of the story.

That's us dramatising the story as AP J. Winston tells it.

Watching AP J. Winston facilitate a workshop was like watching a pro at work. When we created our freeze frames, he created a really thick atmosphere of importance and made our work feel so significant. In instructing us to applaud only after every group had shown their work, every one of us felt equally important. Most importantly, only positive comments were allowed. It's all these details that contribute to building an interest and a desire to participate in the drama.

A freeze frame is like a frozen photograph. It captures just one moment in time but it tells a big story!

What do you think is happening here?

Besides the workshop, AP J. Winston also gave a lecture on how drama can be used in education. At the end of his lecture, as he was signing autographs like a Korean popstar (!!), I asked him this question, "How do I successfully facilitate a drama workshop every single time?" His reply? "It comes with experience."

Perhaps there is no shortcut to the age old art of practicing until perfect.

Final Year Graduation Projects 2010

2011-01-12T15:55:00.012+08:00

DRAMATIC ENCOUNTERS : ART

by Thomas Lim Ting Wen, He Jieying, Pearlyn Pua Hui Yi, Nur Haziqah Binte Zainol, Noor Izzaty Binte Ishak and Randee Wee Qi-Zhen

When the Singapore Art Museum presented us with the opportunity to design an applied drama programme that explored contemporary art, we jumped at the chance to do something totally new to all of us.

This programme was designed to meet the Singapore Art Museum's objectives of increasing secondary school students' exposure to the arts and arts education. To make the programme relevant to secondary schools, we tied it in with the school curriculum.

Using the Drama-in-Education form, our programme brought together visual art, drama, as well as elements of the school curriculum. Through this we were able to build a great sense of awareness and appreciation for contemporary art among the students.

It was a great learning experience and it feels really heartwarming knowing that our workshops had impacted 265 students.

WHAT CAN I SAY?

by Jeremy Lee, Vivian Lim, Gina Lim, Ahmad Ezzat Alkaff, Amanda Nicole Ng and Nor Khairiyah Binte Kamarrudin

What Can I Say? was an HIV/AIDS Theatre-in-Education programme for youths, designed in collaboration with the Health Promotion Board. The programme did not expect its participants to embrace HIV-positive individuals and its message was not one of sympathy but rather one of understanding.

Working on What Can I Say? increased our own awareness of this disease. Talking to our participants and reading personal stories penned by HIV/AIDS sufferers touched us in ways that we could never have imagined.

But He Is My Boyfriend begins with a teenage couple deeply in love. However, when they discover they are both HIV positive, they question if they are really meant for each other. The story shows how each choice has its own consequence, and what people do to cope with their choices.

I Don't Want To Play With Her tells the story of a pregnant HIV-positive woman who gives birth to a healthy baby with the aid of antiretroviral drugs and other measures. However, the child is later diagnosed with HIV. The story questions society's perceptions of this mother and child.

LET'S FIND OUT!

by Schweitzer Noor Azouline, Yeo Sin Ying, Bernie Low, Lim An Chun and Esmine Teo

One thing all of us in the project team had in common was that we all really love children. And that was how Let's Find Out! was conceptualised. We wanted a programme that tackled the problems children faced so we designed one that addressed the issue of making the transition from kindergarten to primary school.

Let's Find Out! aimed to provide an avenue for the participants to seek their own answers and learning. The children were brought on a journey to identify and deal with their insecurities and also fears of making the transition to primary school.

The programme ran for five weeks in July 2010 in two different kindergartens : Kinderland @ SP and Brain Buttons Kindergarten. We met the 6 year olds once a week and let them take part in role-plays, story drama and forum theatre.

The type of activity depended on the area of interest that was being covered during that particular week in the kindergarten's curriculum, such as communication skills, peer relations and bullying. The participants left the programme with an awareness of what they could expect in primary school as well as skills needed to deal with the various obstacles and challenges that may arise in the future.

PROJECT : VAN DER WAALS

by Toh Wee Peng, Charlene Poon, Nurul Jannah, Stacey Sanchez, Gail Yeo and Alena Lim

Peer Chemistry refers to the interaction of individual traits and behaviours in a friendship. A friendship is like chemical composition because it contains different chemical solutions, or individuals with different traits and behaviours. And like all chemical compositions, it could be stable or unstable.

In collaboration with the Health Promotion Board, this programme, with the fictional concept of Peer Chemistry, was born. Project : Van der Waals was a Theatre-in-Education programme about building positive friendships, for secondary school students. The project had two phases - a performance cum workshop and an exhibition at Celebrate Drama! 2010.

From working on this project, we gained various personal lessons for ourselves and the project helped us to work out the differences within our own team. But the absolute best thing would have to be seeing how our work made a difference in our participants' lives. That was truly magical.

UNIQUELY ME!

by Santhiya Subramaniam, Charmaine Seet, Tan Hui Ling, Janel Wong, Jitenram Kiran Bala and Liyana Zainudin

In our opinion, play is seriously underrated by the majority. Through play, children learn social skills, morals and how to follow rules. It plays a crucial role in optimizing growth, learning and development of skills throughout infancy and adolescence.

When we started on our project, we wanted to work with children and to frame our programme around the idea of play. That meant lots of drama games, imagination and definitely a whole load of fun for both parties - them and us!

Uniquely Me! aimed to highlight a child's individual uniqueness through eight sessions of process drama workshops. Dramatising the story of Lester, a shy and reserved 10 year old, our participants worked hard in the drama to help Lester overcome his social problems and flourish.

The best thing about working with these children was watching them grow and shine. They showed us how creative they could be when it came to puppet making and staging their own puppet show, all with minimal help from us. They truly made us proud and we were thrilled to have worked with them.

f(S) - FACTORS FOR SUCCESS

by Jasvindarpal Kaur, Joween Chong, Chen Siru, Nicholas Chen and Nabila Talib

In our first two years at DADP, we had the chance to work with young people, but never young people at risk. When we first started planning our FYP project, it was unanimous that we wanted to work with youths at risk despite the many challenges and obstacles.

f(S) - Factors for Success was a series of workshops that aimed to explore the theme of success by focusing on self-image and anger management. Various drama activities were employed over the course of the workshops and through the activities, participants identified their strengths, weaknesses and factors that triggered negative emotions in them. The last part of the workshops then focused on the different ways the participants could overcome these negative emotional triggers.

The participants were enrolled as students in "Galaxy High School" and they each had a superpower which was stolen by a villain. Together, they worked in groups to defeat the villain. Besides considering the situation from their own perspectives, they were also presented with the point-of-view of the villain. At the end of the 4 weeks, they had to put up a final scene in which they defeated the villain. However, they did not just want to defeat him, they wanted to help the villain change for the better.

It was very enriching for us as well as the participants, and we enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

RECESS TIME

By Mitchell Poon, Erica Lee, A Santhiya and Lisbeth Ng

Adolescents, their eating habits, body image and self esteem; how are each of these related? Well, many of today's teens have had or are having experiences with various eating disorders.

For this project, we adopted the Theatre-in-Education approach and wanted to reach out to teenagers, with the aim of informing and educating them about the various eating disorders, dispelling certain dieting and exercise myths and emphasising the need for teenagers to recognise the importance of their self-value.

The interactive performances were a big success as the participants were truly engaged and contributed far more answers and responses than we had initially expected. On top of that, we also benefited as we learnt how we could help provide care as well as social support for our friends and families who may be struggling with similar issues.

All in all, it was a great experience working on this project and all of us truly had an enjoyable time.

Journeys: DADP Graduation Show 2010

2011-01-06T14:46:00.025+08:00

Youth Speak 2010

2011-01-06T14:36:00.017+08:00

National Youth Environment Coalition (NYEC) 2008: Programme Execution through a Forum Theatre Performance

2011-01-06T14:27:00.010+08:00

Story Drama: A Practice at Kinderland

2011-01-06T14:11:00.012+08:00

By Lim Wanting, DADP/FT/2B/01 (AY 10/11)

On 25th November 2010, a group of 10 students from DADP (Diploma in Applied Drama & Psychology), including myself, went to Kinderland (Singapore Polytechnic), a kindergarten situated near our school.

Our lesson was based on the book, “Back into Mommy’s Tummy”

We were there to facilitate a workshop that we planned from scratch. We were all excited because the audience were as real as they could get and we would be able to “test” the effectiveness of our workshop plan.

So, how did it go? The workshop was a success! Despite the exhaustion of maintaining engagement with the children, the satisfaction of witnessing the joys of learning was great. In fact, we received positive feedback and comments from the principal of Kinderland! Awesome.

Here are are the comments from all of my team mates who facilitated the workshop.

It was really fun and exciting, being able to have a firsthand experience of what is it like to work with young children and to be able to put what we learn into ‘actions’! I am looking forward to having another external facilitation! (Lim Wan Ting)

It was a very enlightening and fun experience for me to get a chance to facilitate a workshop with the kids! I learnt a lot on facilitating participant groups this young. If there’s a chance next time, I would like to try my hand again at facilitating with children. (Jill See Pei Ting)

Prior to the workshop, I was pretty apprehensive about facilitating it as it was going to be done with children ages below 6. Children that age can get pretty scary and rowdy which was why I kept thinking that I would not be able to do a good job for my part of the workshop. However, with the support from my team members, we all went through with it successfully. My thoughts on the whole experience are that it really was a learning adventure and gives me a sense of exposure. Lots could be learnt from the workshop; self-confidence, managing the class, pitching of instructions, etc. On the whole, I would say that it was an enjoyable and fulfilling time spent at Kinderland which taught us to be better facilitators. (Leon Chen)

The experience was unexpected but really experiential; the children were full of energy. (Beatrice Lim)

Reinforces even more strongly to why I choose this path of course! (Shahira Binti Madzan)

I like how everyone had worked together to get the children to focus on the facilitator. The children were very enthusiastic and many good ideas. All of them were very bright and they were co-operative most of the time. I have learned a lot during the workshop. This was a very unforgettable experience.

This was a real experience. Beyond the "simulated" classroom environment, the facilitation with children from Kinderland showed me that no matter how mentally prepared one is when going into a workshop, we are never fully prepared. We needed specific skills and knowledge when things don’t go as planned. The children gave the whole workshop a new dimension based on their contributions and behaviour. I felt that as a whole, the workshop flowed rather well and met the objectives. The learning point of the importance of classroom management did come through quite clearly through the workshop and it was an insightful takeaway for me as a facilitator. (Leroy Yap)

It was a rather interesting experience to say the least, considering I have never really worked with a lot of kids before, especially in a classroom setting. It was hard to manage the kids in general, but I've learnt a lot during the workshop itself and in the planning phases, which I feel would be vital and easily applicable in future projects and workshops, as well as in assignments in school. (Jeremiah Chen)

It’s time to pack my bags...

2011-01-05T18:25:00.004+08:00

Toh Wee Peng DADP 3B01

As a graduating student from the pioneer cohort of the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology (DADP), I must say that the course is nothing short of astounding. In the span of three years, my classmates and I were deeply immersed in the practice and theory of applied drama as well as psychology. Grounded in an institution that greatly supports the field of our study, with passionate and well-informed lecturers who allow us to experiment within safe boundaries, we were offered many opportunities to engage with the public in the programmes we create. Through our efforts, the industry is beginning to realise the potential of DADP, and understand the methodologies that we utilise.

In the past three years, I have had the opportunity to take part in several works, some student-led, some lecturer-facilitated, all wonderful. The drama-in-education facilitation techniques used in our responsible pet ownership workshop for the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA); the crafting of a theatre-in-education programme on the definition of success as well as self-identity for our Hong Kong study trip, are but two examples of the work we engage in.

Most importantly, I believe that DADP exposes you to the two essentials in everything we do: the collaborative nature of creation and facilitation between you and your participants, and the conflicting nature between compassion and sympathy for the community we work with. If these are topics you are intrigued by, we welcome you to knock at our door.

A Journey of Different Projects

2011-01-05T18:21:00.002+08:00

Polly Seah Qin Wei (DADP/FT/2B/02)

As a Year 2 DADP student, I am thankful for the opportunities that I have been given to participate in projects involving industry partners.

“Getting Over” and “Fiery Love” were the titles of the Forum Theatre performances I was first involved in. I used to be afraid of facilitating and performing in front of others but participating in these two projects has helped me overcome that fear.

The Forum Theatre performances were created in collaboration with Health Promotion Board. The first was put up in Singapore Polytechnic and the second was done in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Bishan and Macpherson. I was glad that both were successes! The students in both institutions were enthusiastic and active; they were very brave to go on stage to replace characters they felt they could help. I was impressed and touched by the honesty of some of the students’ intervention.

My favourite DADP project would be the “Responsible Pet Ownership” workshops, created for the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority Singapore (AVA) Roadshows at the Singapore Expo this year. I was the main facilitator for one of the sessions. It was first time facilitating such a young group of participants and I was happy that I was able to engage the children!

When asked to participate in a Reminiscence Theatre project this year, I took it on without hesitation. Working with the senior citizens would be a fresh and different experience! With support from NTUC Eldercare and Jurong Spring Community Centre, the DADP team is to create a performance with a group of seniors based on their childhood stories. We have interviewed the seniors. Using their stories, we would, together with the seniors, devise a performance in 2011.

As I become more and more involved in DADP projects, I saw more meaning of what my course was about -- helping people. In the process of helping others, I feel that the projects helped me a lot in my journey in this course. I am now looking forward to graduating from the course because I would really want to make a difference in Singapore's applied drama scene

A Newbie

2011-01-05T14:24:00.010+08:00

Elizabeth Kow (DADP 1B 03)

I started on the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology uncertain and unsure of what I would face. Never before had I heard of the term 'Applied Drama'. I have to admit, I was sceptical at first because I never thought that drama could go beyond entertaining people. But now, after 7 months as a DADP student, I have learnt many things about applied drama - what it can do and how I can use it, and also, how psychology is linked to it. The course has really changed my perception of what drama is – it’s not just entertainment but can also serve as a source of outreach and as a tool to teach and raise awareness.

It has broadened by horizons in Drama and I have found new ways to connect with the audience be it through workshops or performances. The audience and the performers are no longer separated into two different worlds. They CAN cross over. The audience CAN fully experience drama.

The best thing about being a DADP student is how fun our lessons are. We don’t just sit behind a desk and listen to lecturers talk all day. Our lessons are very hands-on. We get to do a lot of practical work in the classroom – play drama games, conduct group discussions, participate in drama lesson demonstrations, facilitate drama workshops etc. We basically practice the craft and reflect on the theory at the same time. It’s a really fun way of learning.

I am confident that one day most of the world will be inspired by the work of this new generation of applied drama practitioners. It has changed my life and made me a better person, and I feel that it can do the same for many others.

Reminiscence Theatre Project 2010/11

2011-01-04T14:32:00.012+08:00

By Tan Chia Wei and Pearlyn Goh, DADP1A03 (AY10/11)

Reminiscence Theatre is about using memories to create a performance. In doing so, memories of these participants are honoured.

When my lecturer asked for volunteers for this project in August 2010, we signed up immediately. We feel that there is a need to contribute to our society and to make a difference to others. What better way than doing a project with a group of seniors! Since then, we have not regretted signing up, even though our schoolwork has been piling up.

Supported by Council for Third Age, NTUC Eldercare and Jurong Spring CC, nine DADP students are currently working with 15 seniors on this Reminiscence Theatre project. Central to this project is providing a platform for them talk about how their childhood has influenced them. At the end of this project, they will be able to watch their memories being re-enacted in a play. Some of them will be part of their memories again as they will be the actors themselves.

PHASE 1 – Chit-chat Sessions

The first few sessions were chit-chat sessions. We listened to their amazing stories of how life was back then. We heard of mischievous antics of “torturing” insects, eating cockroaches as well as bitter-sweet recounts of first loves and hardship.

PHASE 2 – Devising Sessions

The chit-chat sessions will form the basis of devising sessions. We will use drama activities to incorporate their stories into a performance. We are looking forward to that!

My Thoughts

I liked the moments of joy that came from watching the participants remember about their childhood. It was amazing to see how a small incident could brighten their faces as they retold stories of their lives. Their enthusiasm to share was obvious as a few participants wanted to get up to demonstrate what they were trying to say. It could be a game that they were talking about, or how they climbed trees, or how they had to squeeze into a truck to return home from school as a state of emergency was declared due to the racial riots.

We witnessed how a simple re-telling was rewarding for the seniors because it meant that someone cared about their history.

We cannot wait for the performance when their collective “histories” are shared with more people.

'Fiery Love': a Forum Theatre Performance for Institute of Technical Education (Central)

2011-01-04T14:25:00.012+08:00

'Run Nora Run': a Forum Theatre Performance for Institute of Mental Health

2011-01-04T14:21:00.008+08:00

Rehearsals for 'Run, Nora, Run' and 'Getting Over': Forum Theatre Performances for Health Promotion Board

2011-01-04T11:30:00.013+08:00

School Teachers Experience Programme 2008: A taste of Applied Drama & Psychology in Action

2011-01-04T09:43:00.013+08:00

Pieces of Me: An Interactive Museum Theatre Performance at the Arts House

2011-01-04T09:30:00.019+08:00

Hong Kong Study Trip 2010

2011-01-03T17:25:00.069+08:00

Wong Tai Shan Memorial College

DADP students getting things ready for the programme

Actors warm up

Rehearsing the dance sequence

Waiting for another class to turn up

What are the girls telling us through this freeze frame?

The stage can be anywhere for DADP students

A DADP student facilitating the drama work of students

Everyone is engaged

St John Baptist School Trip

A beautiful school

A drama activity

Seated on the ground yet enjoying the performance

Minimal props but maximum engagement

Participants are real close to the action

Participants are proud of what they have created during the workshop

PLK Sixth Form College

Participants are eager to start the workshop

Over 400 Form 4 (secondary 4) participants
DADP facilitators show off some choreography chops

A freeze frame

Another freeze frame

And another

Happy participants and DADP facilitators

Another photo for the road

Laselle Trip

Some participants and DADP facilitators

Arriving at Laselle

An all-male audience

The performance gets going

Listening, sharing, discussing

More fun

What does this freeze frame say?

Kornhill Primary School Trip

Is this scenario familiar to the participants, we wonder?

Those at the back try their best to catch the action on stage

These primary school participants are most attentive

Participants take a photo before the performance

No mics so participants need to project their voice

Participants think about what they have seen during the performance

Participants having fun doing warm-ups

Another satisfying end to the day

An interesting moment on stage

Hong Kong Art School sharing by lecturer

Everyone listens attentively to Ms Chan

Ms Chan explains how a facilitator can be in role to highlight issues in performance

Ms Chan explains how the set relates to the theme

Ms Chan demonstrates how a simple drama activity can engage participants

DADP students having fun during a drama activity

IDEA World Congress 2010 - Belem, Amazonia, Brazil

2010-09-27T14:56:00.015+08:00

By Thomas Lim, DADP3A01

A performance by Young IDEA at the Secondary Education Special Interest Group

I had the privilege of attending the International Drama Educators Association World Congress with my lecturer, Ms June Wee, earlier in July this year. The congress, held once every three years, brought together drama educators and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, cultures and communities to share their work, practices, and further the field of drama education and applied drama.

I, being a student, did not have with me a fraction of the experience that the people I met did. I however, did bring a large fraction of their experience back with me.

The conference was packed with workshops, paper presentations, Special Interest Groups and performances.

Some paper presentations I remember:

1. A Canadian Juvenile Prison Project
Helmed and conducted by a Canadian lady by the name of Diane, the project saw the use of drama in the juvenile prison for development and rehabilitation. At the end of the project, the material created was presented in the form of a play by professional actors

2. Sichuan Earthquake Project
A group of Hong Kong practitioners dedicated their time, using drama and creative arts with children affected by the Sichuan Earthquake.

The above two projects (as well as several other papers I attended) had a magnitude and scale that I have never encountered. The constant bombardment of projects of such scale at the congress was enlightening. Knowing that such projects have been done and have succeeded opened up many, many possibilities in my head.

I was most engaged however, in the Special Interest Groups. These are ‘focus groups’ in which participants of the congress attend to discuss about a specific type of applied theatre. There were SIGs for Primary Education, Racism, Gender, Interdisciplinary Methods, but the one I attended was Sustainable Community Development.

This SIG attracted practitioners and educators who work in various community development projects. A large part of the subgroup I was a part of raised and discussed many ethical concerns involving the design and conduct of community projects. What came out of this SIG were not answers, but questions to consider when working with communities, like:

1. What is the role of the facilitator in a community? Where should he/she draw the line?

2. Whose objectives are we suppose to fulfil – the agent that brought the practitioner in or the community itself?

3. Who decides what is the problem – or if there is a problem at all?

4. What stand should the facilitator take with the issue? Does a neutral stand actually exist?

Those are questions that no one really has the answer to. Different circumstances demand a different set of practices. But these are key things we should always consider before we work with communities.

Aside from papers and SIGs, there was a lot of mingling, meeting new people, talking and discussing. That was amazing. Amazing to know that all over the world, there are people with the same fire and drive for drama, and amazing to talk and learn about the different ways they do their work. And of course, in the process, I gained an awareness of the state of systems and cultures all over the world.

The market by the docks

Of course, we did have some time to go around the city to sightsee, buy some local crafts and see the local people. It’s tough to describe everything in detail, so I’ll just list a few observations that I made:

1. Brazilians are extremely expressive.

2. South Americans are very spontaneous. If there’s a lot of waiting time, they might just burst out in song and dance.

3. Most Brazilians don’t wear watches, so their concept of time is well, different.

4. They don’t eat spicy food! I had a tough few days going without spicy stuff.

5. They take many things in their stride, and that, I’ve learnt to do more.

When there was too much waiting to do, everyone, led by the delegates from Hong Kong, did Tai Chi

Photographs of the indigenous people of the Amazonian region

Works by the indigenous people

If ever I have the opportunity to go to Brazil or attend another IDEA Congress, I won’t hesitate. The amount of things that you get to see and learn in that short week or two is somewhat… life changing. So where’s the next IDEA conference?

In Paris! Will I see you there?

DADP Study Tour: Hong Kong 2010

2010-04-05T09:02:00.002+08:00

By Thomas Lim, DADP3A01

Over the span of 5 days in March, we performed two Theatre-in-Education pieces to 5 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, visited the Hong Kong Arts School, visited Victoria Peak, Ladies’ Market, Mens’ Market, Citygate Outlets and had a lot, a lot of Indian food.

Our Theatre In Education (TIE) Performances
Two performances that were devised and created during the previous semester were reworked and brought to Hong Kong.

For the two primary schools we visited, we performed the piece Successfool, which explored the question, ‘What is success?’ The piece What Is My Colour? was performed in three secondary schools, and discussed self-identity, self-image and peer pressure.

TIE programmes have two main elements – a performance and workshop. So for each of the two pieces, we first performed for our participants, and then conducted a workshop for them.

One of the main obstacles that we encountered were the language differences we had to work around during our performances and workshops, especially in the primary schools, where their level of comprehension and expression of the English language were not very high. When spoken to in Mandarin, some of them screamed in joy for finally being able to understand us. I don’t think any of us had expected that some of our workshops would have to be conducted in Mandarin!

Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun working with the students there. In particular, I think most of us enjoyed our last school, Lasalle College. The engagement we had with the students there was high, intense and inspiring. The photos on Facebook can testify for us.

The Fun Bits

Besides working, we of course had time to visit places in Hong Kong. Some of the main highlights include the Ladies’ Market, Mens’ Market (which was really, the Ladies’ Market but in a different place), Citygate Outlets, Victoria Peak and Causeway Bay.

Our favourite exclamation throughout the entire trip – ‘That is so Channel 55!’

When we walked on the streets, it really seemed as though we had walked through our television screens into the setting of a Hong Kong drama serial. The entire language, way of life, police uniforms, mini buses and streets were very… Channel 55.

List of Things We Miss:
1. Pearl Milk Tea
It comes in a large cup with many, many, many (and I’m not exaggerating), many pearls.

2. Weather
It was like having a very large air-conditioner over the entire city.

3. H&M, Uniqlo, Esprit…
Some are of the same prices, but they have a better range there!

4. Living in such close proximity to each other

5. James, our tour guide!

There are over a thousand, possibly two thousand photos floating around Facebook taken from the trip. Do take a look to see us at work!

Project H.O.P.E.

2010-04-02T13:46:00.000+08:00

By Yeo Leping, DADP2A01

During the recent school holidays, a group of 10 Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology students worked on “Project H.O.P.E. – Reaching Out Helping Families”. A first time collaboration between the Singapore Children’s Society (SCS) and Singapore Polytechnic, the project aimed to reach out to children living in rental flats in Bedok and the students planned to do so through an interactive performance entitled “Choices”.

In late February, we kick-started the project with a ground visit to one of the rental blocks in Bedok North and we got to meet some of the children living there. Guided by Ms Anne and Ms Kamini from the Children Service Centre, we found out more about them and some of the issues they faced. It was definitely an eye-opening experience because I got to see what life was like for these children and their families, something that I would otherwise have been oblivious to.

After the ground visit, it was time for serious work! We started the devising process by creating a life story for someone we met during the visit. We hot-seated that character, moved onto to creating tableaux and then short scene improvisations. We then pooled our ideas together and identified several issues which we thought would resonate with the children – bullying, gangsterism, single-parent families and financial issues in the home, amongst others. Finally, it was time for scripting.

After the script was finalised, we started intensive rehearsals in March. Everyone constantly gave each other constructive criticism and that helped improve the performance immensely. Some of us even stayed back after rehearsals to rehearse the scenes we were not confident about. To prepare for the performance, two mock performances were held, one at SP for friends and lecturers, and the other was at the Singapore Children’s Society’s Children’s Service Centre for the SCS staff.

Fast forward to 10 April 2010, after a month’s worth of rehearsals, it was finally time for the performance we had been preparing so hard for. Despite a little hiccup here and there, the performance was a success and the children enjoyed themselves tremendously. The performance was a great hit largely because it was interactive. It revolved around Linda, an 11-year old latchkey child who was very confused and didn’t know what to do after school each day. The children were asked to help Linda decide what to do – join a CCA, join a gang, work part-time, join activities at the Singapore Children’s Society or hang out at a classmate’s home. They got a chance to talk to the characters in the play before they helped Linda make her decision. Later, when the different scenes were played out, they even had a chance to change the action in the scenes by giving instructions to the actors on how they should interact with the other characters.

Despite the tiredness, everyone had fun and I cannot wait until the re-run that will take place in August! Well done to the cast and thank you to everyone who helped and guided us along the way. (:

Responsible Pet Ownership Workshop with AVA

2009-12-31T09:08:00.007+08:00

By Vivian Lim, DADP2B01

The heavy rain on 16^th December 2009 did not dampen our enthusiasm as eight of us from the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology head down towards Bukit Merah library to conduct a workshop for children. This workshop was held in collaboration with AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary) on responsible pet ownership. Other than workshops conducted in the library, DADP students also conducted the workshops in road shows at various community centres. The workshop aimed to educate young children about being responsible pet owners. This was done by enlisting the help of the children to help us “find” a lost dog. Through “interviews” with the owner and neighbours of the missing dog, the children learned about and even gave suggestions on how to be a responsible pet owner.

It was an enriching experience for me because I learnt many things in the one hour and fifteen minutes workshop. First of all, I learnt that it is really not easy to work with children. They have short attention spans, are easily distracted and cannot sit still for a long period of time. As this was my first time working with such a big group of young children, I must admit that I had quite a difficult time trying to manage the children in my session.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank AVA for giving me this chance to experience what it is like to work with young children. I got to learn from my mistakes and learn what works and what does not with young children. I also got to understand the behaviour of young children better and this understanding will help me in planning my future workshops for children.

The experience with AVA and the children at the library was one that is much appreciated as many useful skills and knowledge were learnt. Although it was a tiring afternoon that day, it was definitely worth the time and effort spent with the children!

Forum Theatre on Mental Wellness

2009-12-01T16:58:00.001+08:00

By Leon Chen, DADP 1B01

Tuesday, 10th November 2009 was a day to remember. I performed in a Forum Theatre on Mental Wellness at the SP Auditorium! And I certainly needed some mental well-being that day as a virgin performer ;p

Two teams were involved – 1 and 2, and I was in team 2. Team 1’s story revolves around a girl named Nora who is trying to deal with stress from her friends, family and her coach. Team 2’s story revolves around a boy named Ryan who is dealing with a breakup from the girl he loves.

First to perform was team 1. Backstage, I was with the rest of the cast from team 2 and we were all practising our lines and getting into character for our performance. The moment team 1 finished, team 2 had to step on stage. As I walked onto the stage, applause could be heard and at the corner of my eyes, I could see my fellow classmates supporting me! I gave it my all not because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself but because of the people there supporting us and I didn’t want to let them down.

I would like to thank my seniors for guiding me along the way! I would also like to thank all the cast who supported me and told me that I could do it when I wasn’t really sure of it myself! I’d also like to thank the backstage crew who helped this performance be this successful. Nothing could have been achieved without the help from them! And lastly, I would like to thank the lecturers for giving me this precious opportunity.

The bonds that were developed during the weeks can never be replaced. So, vive le Forum Theatre and friendship!

Who Am I?

2009-11-26T17:23:00.003+08:00

By Mitchell Poon, DADP2B02

The “Who Am I” project was a series of cross-cultural workshops, involving the use of film, as an aesthetic medium to explore issues such as suicide, and was also used mainly as a form of exchange between students in Singapore and people in the UK.

The workshop went beyond observing differences between Singaporean culture and culture of people in the UK, by digging deep into what defines us a person and what have made us to be who we are today.

Initially, I thought I would just learn more about devising, film, story-boarding, and so on and so forth. It was pretty much about expecting it to be an educational workshop.

So yes, the workshop did turn out to be something really different, but it was in no way a disappointment to me. It brought light to certain parts of my life and identity, it gave me a platform to express myself, and it helped me understand more about how I have become a citizen of a globalised community.

Never would I have used my drawing skills to express myself artistically. But through an aesthetic medium, it does feel good to be able to express myself in a way I enjoy, but it has also helped me embrace this talent that I have.

I have come to see myself and many others as descendants of not just our own culture and backgrounds, but are citizens of a globalised culture. This has enlightened me on how influence from media and friends, have shaped my life greatly.

Theatre for Seniors

2009-11-20T17:28:00.000+08:00

By Joween Chong, DADP2B02

The Necessary Stage’s Theatre for Seniors (TFS) was created to be an avenue for senior citizens interested in drama, a joint venture of sorts by The Necessary Stage and Council for Third Age.

The ultimate aim of this project is to have the seniors have an independently run drama company for others just like themselves. They were not able to properly pursue their interests when younger in light of their career and family responsibilities.

So far the seniors have attended scriptwriting workshops, lightings workshops, vocal and devising training and have put up one show after one year of hard work.

These seniors come from all walks of life and some are in their early seventies. However, physical age has no impact on their physical selves or imagination. It is not strange to see them running, jumping, laughing and having fun like children at the playground.

I have learnt the importance of keeping an open mind and being accepting, to recognize what people have to offer rather than pass judgments based on stereotypes and my own opinions.

In another four months, the seniors will be putting up the second installment of the “Encore” series, a show which will be staged annually during their three-year TFS stint.

The preparations have begun and there is a sense of excitement in the air. Having been with them for one and a half years, I too feel this same excitement as we prepare for another night of ageless theatre.

Applied Drama Workshop with Professor Peter O'Connor

2009-09-24T11:22:00.001+08:00

By Shirley Tan, DADP Year 1/01

The Applied Drama Workshop by Professor Peter O’ Connor from Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd (http://www.appliedtheatre.co.nz/) who flew all the way from New Zealand, was held on Wednesday 16th September. It was a time of learning and hard work, but with its fair share of fun!

During the workshop the class was tasked with creating frozen images by using their bodies to depict various social issues in Singapore and discussed how these images could be worked on towards a solution. Next was an activity of variations of the story ‘Goldilocks and the 3 Bears’. Each group had to use 2 lines from each member to create a storyline. Creative juices were flowing and it was a time of laughter after hours of hard work. After the workshop, Professor Connor shared with us a New Zealand cultural dance called the Haka. He taught us how to dance the traditional war Haka as we learnt in awe the meaning of it. It was indeed an honour for us to be able to indulge in the rich heritage of the Haka, as well as to share with him the language that made us Uniquely Singapore.

At the end of the day, the class walked away with valuable learning points such as how-tos for workshop facilitations and the theories of Augusto Boal, the famous Applied Drama practitioner. Although the essence of the workshop was covered in the course, probably no one had ever seen it the way Professor O’ Connor brought it to us. It was an eye-opening and deeply enriching time for all.

We would like to express our thanks and gratitude to Professor Peter O’ Connor for his patience and insightful teachings, and Ms Jennifer Wong for coordinating this workshop with roaring success!

Performance "H"

2009-09-14T10:56:00.017+08:00

By Charlene Poon, DADP Year 2/01, with an introduction by Thomas Lim, DADP Year 2/01

"H" is a devised piece based on real-life interviews and a visit to a hospice, intertwined with personal experiences of the students involved in it. Set in a hospice, it explores the complexity behind altruism, social expectations and the process of dying.

What started out as an assessment for our Devised Drama module became a thought-provoking performance which we have put up about three times for various audiences, most memorably a performance at Celebrate Drama! 2009 at The Arts House in July. We had no idea that Performance "H" would go as far as this when we first began!

We started off by experimenting with dramatic improvisations; taking a look at what each person could bring to a context or idea spontaneously. The casting came a little later after the script had been written and finalised by the director in the group. I was cast as a nurse who was really jaded from working in a hospice and probably did not really bother being honest with herself about whether she was working in such a place because she genuinely cares or because it was just a job.

It is interesting to note that all of us had a lot to take away from the process of devising regardless of whether we were the director, actors, production manager, lights manager etc., because we had to work together as a group to research and discover about things such as how life is like for patients in a hospice, what the different kinds of attitudes those working in hospices have towards palliative care and what are the feelings and thoughts of dying patients. The process of actually deciding what to focus on was a tedious one since all of us had different ideas and opinions about what works and what does not. Ultimately, we had to bear in mind the objectives we had set in the beginning and the kind of message we would like to give to those who watched the performance.

Overall, the experience helped us to grow as students in the course by forcing us to confront the initial thoughts and stereotypes we might have had surrounding the topic we were working with. This is very beneficial because we really have to be on our toes throughout the course, and be unafraid and open enough to embrace or incorporate different perspectives with our own as we learn more about the various mediums and conventions in drama that can be use to impact different communities and the psychology that can aid in it.

CHIJ Toa Payoh Stress Management Workshop

2009-08-21T09:52:00.013+08:00

By Kimberly Arriola , DADP Year 1/02

Upon arrival at CHIJ Toa Payoh Convent, I was nervous and excited at the same time – I was about to facilitate an actual workshop! Many “What Ifs” were running through my mind. “What if the students aren’t cooperative” or “What if I forget what to do?”

When our group of facilitators reached the classroom, we were greeted by two girls who sat quietly in a corner. I scanned the room. There wasn’t a teacher in sight. An image of chaos and horror flashed through my mind.

Oh my gosh, we were entirely on our own! My co-facilitators on the other end, seemed not to mind as they instructed the rest of the girls to return to class for the workshop to begin.

We started off with a round of introduction and an icebreaker game (SPLAT), which I facilitated. I was surprised that the girls were really co-operative and lively. It was a relief for me that I could give clear instructions and that the game went smoothly.

It was good thinking on my part (yes, self-praise is good!), to take Miss Chang’s advice and use an example when giving instructions as we had been taught during an Applied Drama class. I was glad that I did a good job but I felt that if I had spoken more clearly and slowly the girls could understand my instructions better. (Did you notice I can be humble too!)

Next we did a short performance that showed how two extreme students coped with exam stress differently. Carin played the nervous and worried student A , while yours truly was the cool and composed student B. The audience enjoyed the performance thoroughly.

After the performance, the participants were asked to form groups, according to the ways they cope with stress. They were then requested to put up their coping method as a 10-second performance. This gave the girls an opportunity to share the methods of how they cope with stress.

Everyone had a good laugh while watching the others perform. Deborah then explained to the participants the different forms of appraisals for coping with stress.

We ended the workshop with a mini “forum theatre”. We asked for examples on methods that student A and B could learn on how to cope with the stress that they experienced. The funniest suggestion was to do a chicken dance during an exam, unfortunately it was not feasible. We probably should have explained what was required more clearly. Well, in the end, we did do a chicken dance just for some entertainment value!

The experience of conducting a workshop was not as intimidating as I thought it would be and I had a lot of fun interacting with the students and teaching them about different methods of coping with stress.

Experience with MINDS

2009-06-30T10:22:00.012+08:00

By Santhiya, DADP Year 2/02

During the three-week break in June, I had the chance to facilitate an applied drama workshop at the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS). Together with a lecturer and five of my course mates, we created a 10-hour programme, conducted over 5 days, to help a class of trainees learn social skills, like greeting each other with appropriate expressions, making requests and showing appreciation.

From planning to facilitation, I learnt to consolidate what I have learnt in both the applied drama and psychology modules. Firstly, I learnt about the intellectually disabled. Honestly, I have never encountered or worked with this special group of people. As much as I was looking forward to the experience, I was very worried because I really didn’t know how we were supposed to interact with them.

Secondly, I learnt how to plan applied drama activities for them. I guess the biggest challenge was to plan for participants with a mental age of 5 and yet to avoid assuming that their potential is limited. Initially I had a few problems approaching and getting them to participate in the activities. However as the sessions progressed, I witnessed increased enthusiastic participation from the participants. With constant encouragement and repetition, they were able to participate actively in most of the activities.

One needs a lot of patience and energy when working with the intellectually disabled because it’s hard for them to learn and they take longer to learn. The six of us were given chances to facilitate on our own. It was initially an intimidating experience. I had to ensure my instructions were as clear as possible and that I was going at an appropriate pace. Working with the participants has definitely given me more exposure and the satisfaction of helping them! Being intellectually disabled definitely doesn’t stop these participants from learning and having fun. And they all have their own unique personalities, just like all of us!

The most heart-warming moment happened when I saw the genuine happiness in them when they started dancing during the activities! I would certainly facilitate another applied drama workshop for MINDS again. And from what I have heard from my lecturer, MINDS has asked us to facilitate a similar workshop in a few months’ time. I am looking forward to that!

OK, so why this blog?

2009-06-17T15:49:00.000+08:00

OK, so why would a polytechnic diploma need a blog? Wouldn't people just go to the Singapore Polytechnic website and get all the information there?

Short answer: Not really.

We decided to set up a blog because we wanted to showcase all the projects our wonderful students have done in the past and are doing now. We can do this more quickly and with less formality on a blog.

Also, applied drama is practically unknown in this part of the world. The DADP blog will hopefully help you to get a better idea of what applied drama is really all about.

Here's a link to help you get a better idea about what Applied Drama is, and what its practitioners do.