I had an interesting conversation with my son who is training to be an actor last night. He was talking about an acting technique called Given Circumstances. It was developed by Constantin Stanislavskis (1863-1938) a Russian actor and director.
As we talked, I began to think about how this would be helpful in engaging children in a Bible story.
My understanding is that by looking at a script an actor works out the Given Circumstances to help his/her performance of a scene come alive (rather than wooden and one dimensional). The Given Circumstances are the character details in the script – the facts the playwright gives the actor throughout the play and not just in the scene that is being performed. They provide the environmental and situational conditions that help an actor to know how to move and speak in a particular scene. They are unchangeable. To understand a character’s Given Circumstances, an actor needs to ask questions like:
- Where am I?
- What is my specific location?
- When does this happen?
- What relationships do I have?
- What has happened before the play/scene begins?
- How does this scene fit into the whole play?
Although I have not used Given Circumstances with children I wonder whether considering a Bible passage’s Given Circumstances could help:
- As you prepare a Bible story to tell children.
- As you guide children through a discussion about the Bible story.
Preparing a Bible story When you prepare a Bible story to tell children you probably already think about the Given Circumstances of the story (even if you’ve not given it that name before). This is because they seem a lot like what we do when we exegete a Bible passage to prepare for teaching children. This preparation work helps to bring the story to life and helps children to understand that it is a true story that really happened. If you used the Given Circumstances questions, you would ask questions like:
- Where is the main character?
- When does this happen?
- What relationships does the main character have? Who is s/he with?
- What has happened before the Bible passage?
- How does this Bible passage fit into the whole Bible?
Helping children to explore a Bible story Given Circumstances might also be a way to help children to explore a story that they have just heard. I like to ask children what they think happened after the story/event was over. I think this helps them to explore what the story is about.
For example, after telling the story of Jesus feeding the crowd with the boy’s fish and bread (John 6:1-15) I like to ask questions like:
- What do you think the boy told his mum when he got home?
- What do you think the boy’s mum would do about lunch the next time he went to listen to Jesus?
- If the boy’s mum met Jesus, what do you think she would ask him?
The questions have no right or wrong answer, but children need to have understood the story to be able to answer them. They are questions that help children explore the Bible story by thinking about its implications.
Helping children to consider the Given Circumstances of a Bible story may also help them to explore a story more deeply. They could think about the Given Circumstances for each of the people in the story. After telling a story you could identify all the people in the story and ask children to answer the following questions for each person based on their knowledge of this story, other times in the Bible when we meet this person, and the metanarrative of the Bible. Again, using John 6:1-15 as an example, the main characters are:
- Jesus
- Philip
- Andrew
- The boy
- The crowd
To consider the Given Circumstances of Philip, you would need to ask questions like:
- What does Philip do in this story?
- What do we already know about Philip?
- Why is he at this event?
- What relationship does Philip have with Jesus?
- What happened before this story? What Philip there?
- How does this Bible story help us to understand who Jesus is?
- How do you think this event would have changed what Philip did, thought, or said about Jesus?
Questions like this could help children to think deeply about the story and reinforce that this was a real event, in a real time, with real people. All of which will help them to know and understand God’s word more. I’m looking forward to trying this when I next teach.
What do you think?
God bless, Kaye
