ABSTRACT
In the genre of drama in education, role is the most extremely processual element. Out of all the elements of drama being analysed in this survey, the metaxis between the real and fictional contexts is most evident in the word ‘role’. It has already been noted in the Introduction that role-theorists-a branch of mainly phenomenological analysts of real-life behaviour-have utilised teatro mundi ideas in their codifications of how people behave.1 It may also be seen more mundanely in the language of everyday life, that of all the teatro mundi words which are in everyday currency, ‘role’ is the one most unselfconsciously and accurately used. Newspapers are full of ‘tragic’ accidents or mistakes which are in Aristotelian terms not tragic at all, though they are disastrous, and ‘dramatic’ rescues, by which is usually meant ‘suspenseful’. The self-consciousness of this usage may be commonly seen in the educational world: frequently when a drama colleague or I go into a school-particularly one where little formal drama is happening —we are greeted by the Principal or classroom teacher with the defensive quip: ‘There’s no shortage of drama goes on in this school, I can tell you’ (meaning ‘crises’). Following this witticism up, an individual child is likely to be pointed out with ‘Oh, he’s a real comedian’ (usually meaning ‘individualistic’ or ‘naughty’).
