Holy Cross Drama

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By studying Holy Cross in detail, as part of our scheme of work in our Drama lessons I have learnt about the circumstances of Northern Ireland. I have learnt about the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics of Northern Ireland often referred to as a diminutive civil war. I have been taught that Protestants and Catholics may find themselves in the situation of living relatively close to each other sharing a mutual hate for one another that may lead them to commit acts that could be seen as inhumane. Although when glancing at the situation the actions of some of the characters of Holy Cross may seem merciless, brutal or irresponsible, watching this drama and understanding the emotions of the characters has made some of their actions seem somewhat justified. One of the actions that I began to understand and agree with was the choice that Gerry McClure made, to walk his children through the Protestant area of Glenbryn, rather than taking an alternate route to get to school. Many people would see this action as irresponsible for putting his children in danger because of pride but by watching Holy Cross and getting the chance to play the role of Gerry we were enabled to understand the emotions and aims that led Gerry to make this decision which were rage, pride and the attempt to preserve the freedom he thought he thought they were being deprived of as Catholics.

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One of the activities we did in an attempt to experience the intensity of human emotions was The Holding Room. During this activity we all had to imagine and create a character belonging to the context of Holy Cross. I believe this was successful as we were able to see extremes in different emotions of different characters created by diverse imaginations. As a result of this there was crying, shouting and arguing in our holding room. By doing this activity we were able to learn from each other by observing how others deal with their emotions through trying to hide ...

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