Drama

The stories that we collect in OurStory Scotland may be most effectively presented through drama. At the same time, drama workshops can encourage the relating of authentic stories.

Telling Tales Through Drama

Drama present the several advantages for telling tales:

• drama workshops may attract different participants from oral history interviews and group reminiscence sessions
• drama workshops are more likely to be organised around a theme, which might not have precedence in open-ended oral history interviews, though could well be a theme for a reminiscence group
• as with a reminiscence group, drama workshops often involve group conversation around particular suggested themes in a supportive atmosphere
• by blurring the line between biography and fiction, people may be more willing to relate their own stories through drama (even if personally painful) as the story is not necessarily going to be attributed eventually to them
• drama is play that allows what is deeply personal to be spoken - it is acted out and becomes subject to alteration and control, so that people gain playful power over painful or poignant episodes in their life
• drama can be the most powerful means of telling tales to a wider public