撰稿 | Ricardo Mason

翻译 | 周睿知（学生）

校审 | Jeanine（老师）

编辑&排版| YANG

以下内容来源：Ricardo Mason

我经常被学生们问：为什么要去看戏剧？

当我还是个学生的时候，我也经常问这个问题，“为什么要看戏剧？”

作为老师，当你给学生讲授文学著作，学生发现作者在他们出生前已作古，老师该如何使学生与作品产生联系？

用戏剧。

莎士比亚于1564年出生, 1616年去世。他的作品已经有了400多年的历史跨度。生活在大数据时代的孩子们该如何与其作品产生共鸣？

还是用戏剧。

戏剧具备力量 | Drama has a power 

戏剧的定义在无数的作品与论文中被作家们讨论。不知不觉中戏剧已经陪伴了人们很长时间。从最原始的在篝火旁一个人描绘英雄史诗或宏伟爱情故事，到如今在大型露天剧场整个剧组对上百观众进行表演。戏剧一直在用其魅力吸引着我们，丰富着我们的生活。不管你相信与否，戏剧饱含历史底蕴，且已经成为了我们生活的一部分。

对于老师来说，戏剧是能引导学生更深层次思考的工具，单纯印刷在书页上的文字与之无法比拟。同学们可以亲自体验戏剧中的细腻的情感、曲折的情节和浪漫碰撞，并从中感受到戏剧的力量。学生由此与单纯的文本产生连接，这是其他课堂活动无法做到的。

以《罗密欧与朱丽叶》为例，这部作品可以说是莎士比亚最著名的戏剧。故事内容与一代又一代读者产生共鸣。尽管剧本使用的是16世纪的英语，故事发生的时间比之更早，但找到适合的角度去读，故事也可以与现在的生活息息相关。导演既然可以让观众与故事产生共情，那老师们在课堂里也可以，尤其当课堂上的学生正值青少年，他们正在探索和了解爱情的曲折。

《罗密欧与朱丽叶》是一部有关爱情以及用大爱战胜怨恨、暴力和偏见的戏剧作品。这些主题是永恒的，但同学们先要感受到与作品的连接才会被其主题吸引。老师拥有的最有效的工具便是戏剧。让学生们扮演剧中的角色，参与创作，加入自己对角色的理解，都可以让同学们亲身感受剧本的力量。或者也可以去看一场戏剧表演，了解演员是如何将书页上的角色带到舞台上，并赋予角色生命力的。

近期，几名学生有机会去观看由皇家莎士比亚剧团带来的《罗密欧与朱丽叶》戏剧表演。这场表演以录像的形式记录下了在英国进行的表演，在一所精致的电影院放映。在观看结束后学生们提出了很多疑惑，与角色间的关系及人物行为的意义有关。但更重要的是学生们非常喜欢。他们被戏剧这种表演形式所吸引并十分期待再次观看。这次经历不仅拓宽了孩子们的眼界，也激发他们从不同的角度看待这部作品。

除了爱情悲剧之外，还能看其他什么剧呢？

喜剧如《不可儿戏》

战争剧如《战马》

历史剧如《雷曼兄弟三部曲》

悬疑剧如《十二怒汉》。

DRAMA

戏剧

/   戏剧

千人千味，关键是找到自己兴趣所在，并将他们的兴趣点与所讲授的主题产生联系。

维多利亚时期奥斯卡·王尔德的嘲讽剧《不可儿戏》，讲述了几代人之间不同的价值观，以及如何去平衡这种不同；

△《不可儿戏》

迈克尔·莫波格的《战马》讲述了在战争时期面对失去和痛苦，激励自我成长的故事；

△《战马》

斯蒂法诺·马西尼的《雷曼兄弟三部曲》，讲述改变世界的家族企业雷曼兄弟的传奇史诗，其中包含家庭关系处理及相同时期的移民等问题；

△《雷曼兄弟三部曲》

雷金纳德·罗斯的《十二怒汉》则展现了偏见与完美正义之间的拉扯。

△《十二怒汉》

如果有一出剧，其所涉及主题与你讲授过小说、诗歌或短篇小说相同，比较这两部作品，可以有助于让同学们欣赏和理解所展示的主题的差别。

所以，戏剧不仅能娱乐，也能帮助学生们赏析文学，与作品对话。

那么，究竟为什么一定要去看一场戏剧呢？

答案是：作者把经历写成文字，演员再让文字变鲜活。戏剧塑造的文学世界，是小说做不到的。戏剧以其独特的语言，让我们积极思考那些依旧具有现世意义的主题。最重要的是，戏剧允许我们用自己的方式对作品进行解读，这样的自由创作空间是其他任何文字无法给予的。

A question I am often asked by my students is ‘Why?’

I asked this question when I was a student.

‘Why?’

When a teacher hands over a book to a student and the student sees that this book was written by a person who died before they were born, how does a teacher make it relevant to their students?

Drama.

William Shakespeare born 1564, died 1616. His works over 400 years old. How can his plays connect to the children of the iPhone generation?

Drama.

Drama has a power.  

Many writers have tackled the concept of drama in numerous essays and dissertations. Drama has been with us throughout human history from its earliest forms of one man shows telling fireside stories of heroes and grand romances, to full casts of actors in huge amphitheatres to audiences in the hundreds. Drama has used its power to enthral and entertain us. Drama is steeped in rich tradition and has been a part of our lives if we believe it or not.

Drama is a tool that a teacher can use to help take their students deeper, beyond the words printed on the page. To experience the emotions, the action, the romance, the power of drama for themselves. This can allow them to connect to the text in a way no classroom experience can.

Romeo and Juliet, is arguably the most famous Shakespeare play. It’s a story that resonates throughout the generations. The language may be of the 16^th century and it’s setting much earlier, but with the right perspective it can be a play about today. A director can make the play relevant to its audience. And a teacher can make it relevant to their classroom, especially with a teenage student body going through the twist and turns of love.

Romeo and Juliet, is a play about romance and the how love conquers all, hate, violence, and prejudice. These themes are eternal but to make students interested in it they need to connect to it. The greatest tool a teacher has is drama itself. To let their students, experience drama first hand for themselves. This can be done by getting the students themselves perform the roles, engage the work and create their own versions of these characters. Or to see a production and see how actors bring the characters to life from the page to the stage.

Recently, a group of students had the opportunity to see Romeo and Juliet performed live on stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The event was shown in a small cinema that shows live performances from the stage across the UK. When the play was finished the students were full of questions about the relationships od the characters, and why the characters behaved in specific ways. But most importantly they enjoyed it immensely. They found it fascinating and they were eager to do it again. The experience really opened their eyes and they were able to see this play in a whole new way after this experience.

But romantic tragedies aside, what about other plays? Comedies such as, The Importance of Being Ernest. War such as, War Horse. Histories such as, The Lehman Trilogy. Crime such as, Twelve Angry Men. It’s all about finding what you like and how it can connect to the themes being taught during a course.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s Victorian satire is about values and how it can class with generations of people. War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo, dealing with loss in a time of great troubles. The Lehman Trilogy, by Stefano Massini, deals with the idea of family and immigration. Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, deals with prejudice and the ideals of justice. Having a play that can connect with the themes that are being taught previously with novels. Poetry or short stories, allows the students to appreciate and understand the nuances of the works before them.

△《The Importance of Being Earnest》

△《War Horse》

△《The Lehman Trilogy》

△《Twelve Angry Men》

Drama is more than just entertainment but also a way for students to appreciate literature in a way that speaks to them. To answer the question ‘Why?’ it is because those writers and their experiences are on the page, brought to life by actors. They bring that world to life in a way a novel cannot. They use language to bring themes and ideas, that are still relevant to us today, to the forefront of our minds. But most importantly drama lets us interpret it in our own way, and in doing so it becomes more personal in a way no works can.