THEATER AND SOCIODRAMA

Sociodrama:

Definition:

✓ It is an innovative participatory technique that refers to the dramatization of a situation.

of everyday life through the representation of the situation by volunteers from the group.
Allowing groups to leverage their past experiences as resources for
teaching and reflective practice.

What is it for?

It helps us explore the conflicts and issues that inevitably arise in social roles.
This is thanks to the ability to get closer and understand the reality seen through the
participants.
They are generally used to present problematic situations, with opposing ideas.
or contradictory, so that a discussion can be promoted and thus lead to a deeper understanding
of the topic.
Sociodrama addresses unclear or conflicting aspects within a group, with
the aim of obtaining a clearer experience by representing it and finding a solution.

Objectives:

• Achieve group participation through critical analysis of the represented situation.

• This means that if I, as a group or family, have represented a situation
conflictive, a difficult situation or a problem we are going through. So that is what it
we call it 'Sociodrama'.
• Help examine real problems at the theoretical, emotional, and physical levels.
• Test and analyze situations, theoretical and tactical.
• Understand people and the role they play.
• Understanding the thoughts and feelings of 'opponent' people.
• To bring out fears, anxieties, and other feelings that people tend to have in front of
an action.
• Learn new skills in certain situations and experience their use.
• Acquire individual and group confidence and competence

Characteristics of sociodrama

• It's informal
• The performance is free and spontaneous, without the use of scripts or extensive rehearsal.
• It requires certain skills and group maturity.
• Represents facts, situations, or problems of real life.
• Includes movements and gestures that will favor communication.
• It uses few aspects of scenography to be able to be realized.
• The actors' dialogues are in simple and understandable language.
 • Helps to solve social issues (student, community, institutional)
and invites reflection.
• It is not a perfect play, but rather a performance in which one must
present or provide solutions to a problem or a particular situation.

Structure or elements of sociodrama

Selection of the scenario

✓ We must be very clear about what the topic we are going to present is and why we are going to.
do at that moment. In some cases, such as interventions at moments of
crisis, the scenario will already be predetermined. However, in most of the
In cases, it is the facilitator who has to choose the topic to be addressed.

✓ Have a physical space to carry out the dramatization.

Casting and introduction of the scene

✓ Once the topic to be addressed has been chosen, the next step is to select who is going to
represent each of the roles involved in it.

✓ Ideally, all members of the group should be able to participate, but sometimes this is not the case.
it is possible and necessary to make a selection.

✓ When the papers are repaired, the facilitator will also have to explain to the
participants in what the scene consists of.

✓ In this way, everyone will be able to start preparing a bit of what they want to do or say.
To make this task easier, it is possible to give each person a small script, although this does not
it is necessary. Generally in a single act.

Representation of the scene

✓ Afterwards, the participants will perform the previously assigned scene.

Reflection and discussion

✓ At the last point of a sociodrama session, the participants have to reflect.

about what they have lived and experienced while the scene was being performed.

✓ Here, you will have to talk to your peers about what you have felt, the experiences
of each character and how they relate to their own life.

Types of sociodrama
• Adaptation sociodrama: It is useful for acquiring behavior patterns that are
necessary for mastering a specific context. It is primarily used
in educational contexts to convey experiences, language guidelines and
possibilities of action, through the imitation of social and professional roles in
fictional situations.
 The emancipatory sociodrama facilitates the understanding of social behavior patterns.
it favors the release of conventions and allows for the experimentation of new forms of action. It is
say, try to transform reality.

Definition of Theater

✓ The theater is an artistic expression whose origins we can trace back to the beginnings of
civilization has accompanied man throughout his history.
✓ It integrates diverse arts such as music, dance, and painting. The art of composing works.
dramatic and to represent them.
✓ The operation of the theater is under the jurisdiction of a director, of a programmer or
from a commission; in artistic matters, the director is assisted by the director
artistic, the set designer. the literary advisor or playwright, etc.

Characteristics of theater

The theater as an artistic form has the following characteristics:

• The theater is characterized by being works that are performed by actors, which can be
of tragicomic hues.
• Music can be implemented to accompany the performance, making the work
a melodrama, which can be an opera, operetta, or musical comedy.
• It follows a script or screenplay, in which the actions and dialogues that must be are captured.
rehearse the actors for the performance of the play.
• Several costumes are usually used for the portrayal of the various characters,
in the different situations that are required by the theme of the work being addressed
representing.
• It is generally presented before an audience.
• Seldom does a narrator intervene to tell part of the story, although it is also
possible.
• Requires the performance of trained professionals in acting (actors),
that embody the different characters of the story and give them life.

Basic structure of the theater

Exposition: It is the beginning of the work and it presents the most important data of the work.
Knot: It coincides with the moment of greatest tension and where the plot becomes complicated.

Denouement: It is the moment when the problem posed in the development of the work is resolved.

Elements of theater

• Actors: Professionals responsible for interpreting characters, embodying their

personality, and concepts that symbolize.

Scenography: This element is integrated into the stage. It is the set of objects and the
decorations used to represent the space in which the acts take place.
 • Audience: It is one of the elements of theater that goes unnoticed because it is taken for granted.
assumptions, but the truth is that the audience of the play never becomes an agent
totally passive; they participate in the creation of the work, even though the people
individuals that constitute it are not aware of it.
• Script: It is the text in which everything important that happens in the work is described.
theater.
• Wardrobe: Apply products to the actors so they can express sensations and ideas.
through their simple presence.
• Scenes: Entry or exit of characters, basically situations in which things happen.
on stage.
• Acts: They usually divide the work into an introduction or statement, a complication or
development and a resolution or outcome.

Who are the main authors of theater?

• Famous authors of classical theater

• William Shakespeare
• Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
• Federico García Lorca
• Alejandro Ricaño

Types of theater

✓ Shadow theater:This theatrical type originated in China and India also uses puppets.
instead of actors, with the particularity that the audience never observes directly
the dolls, but their shadows that are projected onto a screen that is in front of the
viewer. It is considered one of the precursors of thecinema.
✓ Black theater:This type of theater uses visual effects to achieve the illusion of
animated objects. The human eye is unable to distinguish black objects on black and
this is the foundation of black theatre. It is a theatre of object manipulation where the
"Puppeteers" are completely dressed in black and manipulate objects that are displayed.
the black light and that seem to virtually levitate by themselves. The most famous company in
this type of theater is the Black Theatre of Prague.
✓ Street theater:It is a form of theater that seeks to bring the theatrical performance closer to the
masses. It is a theater that is performed in public outdoor spaces and can have
some kind of scenery or completely do without it. The style of representation is
different from that used in theater in a hall due to the environment. In these works, it is common to
take advantage of the space as part of the work and is usually interactive. One of the variants of
street theater is the invisible theater, where the audience is unaware that they are
attending a theatrical play.