Signs of a Post‐modern, yet Dialectic, Practice

Abstract This study calls attention to the similar ways Heathcote, Brecht and Boal make use of structural devices, known today as elements of a post‐modern poetics, in their practice. All of them achieve this result mainly by deconstructing the text (whether a written or an oral one) via an exchange of frames and roles which challenge the participants' attitudes and certainties. The influence of Brecht and Boal on English drama teachers is looked at here through the analysis of two essays, which comment on the historical development of the role of the spectator in drama in education. The particular contribution of Heathcote's dialectic method to classroom drama is seen then as resulting from the continuous process of inputting and upgrading content through form by teacher intervention within the drama frame.