Role of theatre in education highlighted

LAHORE

Theatre is the art of the wise and the entertainment of the commoner. This rule has been applied in every walk of life for several millennia in all human societies where some people play certain roles and many others simply watch. 

Theatre is not a stage bound exercise; it is part of human nature. This is the finding of Prof Shahab Yar Khan, a teacher of English literature and a highly learned man in the discipline of English literature, who has been teaching English in a foreign land for the last many years.

Talking to The News from Sarajevo on Tuesday, Prof Shahab Yar Khan, who hails from Lahore, told this scribe that he is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Sarajevo, where he is continuing an 800-year long tradition of teaching in his family. Often you can hear him say that teaching is what he is born for, and that there is nothing in the world he would rather do. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been his home since 1998, and during those years he has achieved a lot. 

Prof Shahab told that The Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo opened its doors in 1950, where Prof Khan teaches literary subjects. His most interesting accomplishment is his 'Shakespeare Drama Club', founded a year after he came to Bosnia. Ever since 1999, the club has performed plays in the honour of the Bard of Avon, the great William Shakespeare.

In every play they try to take elements from the cultural traditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and combine them with Shakespeare's language.

Explaining the importance of the role of theatre in education & literary subjects, Prof Shahab was of the view that “Theatre is the art of the wise and the entertainment of the commoner. This rule has been applied in every walk of life for several millennia in all human societies where some people play certain roles and many others simply watch. Theatre is not a stage bound exercise; it is part of human nature. All the way from early childhood mimicries to the pretentious looks and speeches of adulthood, people live theatrical lives. Acting offers a vehicle for exploring one's own possibilities and choices.

The arts connected to 'logic', 'rhetoric', 'linguistics', 'psychology, and 'physiognomy, contribute to the theatrical art to help one to lift up one's own spiritual and physical image in a world that is largely devoid of that which is truly spiritual or physical and that keeps moving towards chaos or ignorance”. Acting, if done as divine service, allows individuals to become acquainted with them. Without this fundamental discovery, all other discoveries lead away from the truth. Our contemporary world is an excellent example. We live in a world of enormous activity with zero output.

Prof Khan pointed out during his discussion with this scribe that spectacle in a play may mean a lot and at the same time may mean absolutely nothing. He believes that education is an art in itself, it is a pure theatre and those who don't approach it as theatre will never get to know why they were teaching to begin with. I always say that teaching is not a work plan, it is a happening. 

To Prof Shahab, role playing is of enormous importance for the development of the individual.

If you just look at sport, we understand that playing different roles is of key importance for the success of a collective.

If professors in higher education introduced more of this, and did it as a habit, then the teamwork would become an integral part of the learning process, and this certainly would be a prolific ground for better results. For successful team work, every individual has an important role to play, and if one link in the chain is making mistakes, the entire team will suffer.

Many positive human values can be learned through this approach: accepting yourself the way you truly are, accepting others, mutual tolerance and much more, theatre as theatre is unity that has one goal and that is a successfully done dramatic display.

Each person has a role, and each role, regardless of the length of the text or general importance is crucial for the success of the whole performance. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes is also a great way to experience different life situations, take the lessons of crucial importance and learn something new through the character you have to present.