What is Hope? The effectiveness is an educational drama.

What is Hope?

 ​Even now, natural disasters have devastated some places, such as the earthquake in Turkey. This can happen anytime, anywhere.

 













​The other day I watched a video of an earthquake in Turkey where a little girl asks for help as she protects her younger brother in ruins. Going through such a disaster is a trauma that is very difficult to overcome, even for adults who know the meaning of life and are hardened. It is easy for children to accept that their lives do not have hope for the day. 

















​For these children, Professor Peter O'Connor, through a project called A Teaspoon of Light, teaches children how to express emotions caused by disasters directly, recognize reality, and even dream despite it. This is done through various activities, such as jointly painting a picture of one's dreams on a large piece of cloth, watching a play, expressing one's feelings through a play, or expressing one's dreams and hopes together through dance.  Watching this video, I was particularly moved by the children's writing down their dreams as if they were writing recipes. They were trampled on, but in their hearts, they also wanted a ray of light. 

​For these children, story drama is beneficial in expressing their feelings, facing problems, dealing with them, and gaining confidence. A video on the Creative Recovery Network Overview covers the same experience. Whether it is a farmer who has lost a child or a wife who has lost a family member due to flooding, everyone has to fight through a disaster with extreme loneliness and trauma. They are desperate people who have no desire to live anymore due to deep wounds but have to live anyway. For them, artists listen to stories, sing songs, and draw pictures together. It also teaches them the courage to understand and directly look at their suffering by creating a play drama and sublimating it into art. In this story, the farmer says: “It was painful, but it was fun anyway. I found it fun” This is probably the story of us living because of the twinkling joy in a painful life. 

​And How Children Process Grief and Loss through Play by Emily Kaplan tells the story of Happy4Rs, a project run for 2- to 6-year-old children who could not attend school in Hong Kong due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

For example, in one of the toughest moments in the story, Frederick says to the other mice:
''Close your eyes... Now I send you the rays of the sun. Do you feel their golden glow?
glow". And as Frederick talked about the sun, the four little mice started to get warmer.
Is it Frederick's voice? Was it magic?' (Lionni 1967, 22)

​I believe that dramas are a ray of salvation and sunshine for children who have suffered trauma. Therefore, artists can rightly utilize the restorative and healing powers of art. We are the ones who can “send you the rays of the sun” to traumatized children. I am proud to be an artist who can participate in this. And to carry out these theatrical dramas, it is important to create an environment where children can safely and comfortably express their emotions with minimal intervention.






​ B.E. As shown in Frederick's course drama, arts education can foster human and human relationships using play, creativity, and imagination to address disruptions or abnormalities. In doing so, we can find space to co-build. Co-development of resilience and a new normal. In other words, we can solve the abnormal problems around us and help children suffering from this safely and comfortably develop the power to solve their problems through art. Through this module, it is beneficial to benchmark various methodologies such as collaborative art projects, role play through plays, catharsis through creative movement, self-esteem through playmaking, community contribution, and creating an online platform for projects such as the Hong Kong case.