Playful trangressions: male drama teachers in elite boys' schools

Abstract

A man’s allowed to play hard, and work hard and all those things—but a man's got to know when to play those different roles, and to jump from one to another. He's got to know when to turn it on and when not to turn it on … It comes from the success that these schools are built on … ; if you can turn it on and speak the speak and walk the walk, you’re streets ahead of anyone who can’t. And they know that. (Paul, Drama teacher, interviewed 4 Aug. 1998) This quote illustrates the performance of masculinity and class that takes place inside the Great Public School (GPS) culture in Brisbane, Australia. In the GPS, there is a level of anxiety about the perceived place of Drama (the subject) and how it might interact/interfere with the apparent veneer of an iron-clad essentialist and homogenous masculinity promoted by elite all-boys' schools. The feminisation of Drama and the suspicion of males who 'do' drama create a tension for boys and teachers as they walk the gendered tightrope across the gap between the expected public display of the 'muscular Christian' ('playing it straight') and the disruptive instabilities of the ‘Drama faggot’ ('camping it up').