Teacherʼs performance: the theater classroom as a space for creation

Abstract

This text introduces the concept of inner creative state based on the work of the Russian director and pedagogue Konstantin Stanislavski, describing and analyzing it within the original context in which it appeared in the Actor's Pedagogy. This notion is used as a tool to think the work of theater teachers in classrooms. This work, considered as a teacher's performance, where the body has a leading role, is analyzed within the student/teacher relationships. The research was based on the observation of the classes of ten teachers, at different educational levels, complemented by semi-structured interviews with them. The teachers were chosen based on their experiences as actors, in parallel to their work as theater teachers. This choice aimed at identifying traces of artistic performances in their activities. The notion of performance articulates, in this research, different dimensions of teacher/student relationships, emphasizing the body as the locus for those relationships. Therefore, the idea of an inner creative state raises, in the work of those teachers, relationships conducive to education. We highlight two inner creative states that are central to their work. The first one refers to the collective character of the relationships, revealing how the roles of teacher and student are not performed based on hierarchies. The second one shows how the transformation, either in the actual theatrical task of transforming oneself, or in the educational tasks of teaching and learning, is a constant in the classrooms of those teachers, producing a specific ethic. This transformation as a condition for theatrical work in the classroom and as an assumption, presupposes an overflow of the work beyond the professional dimension. The inner creative state is presented, thus, as the construction of a collective ethics that transforms the subjects beyond the professional dimension.