Every drama needs… a victim

Drama on stage or screen, or in the school drama studio, is created when there are clashes of personalities, agendas, beliefs, ambitions and circumstances. Drama needs all sorts of people from hero to villain, clown to victim.

This is the second in an occasional series of schemes to develop performance skills and plot-building through characterisation. The first was Every Drama Needs... a Villain (See Teaching Drama, Spring Term, 2014)

This scheme suggests a range of scenarios where the victim character can be explored and developed exposing his/her impact on others so they too can be built up as characters in a credible drama, perhaps with a message.

Learning objectives

By the end of this scheme learners will have explored through collaborative drama:

• The character traits of a victim personality
• The ways victims impact on other characters
• The editing of sensitive issues through characters into a performance for an audience.

Number of lessons: 6