Drama 

It's a wrap!

Year 7:

This term Year 7 Drama students spent five weeks learning about the nature of an ensemble, about listening and about improvisation through Theatresports. The second half of the term’s focus has been directed towards building their own Drama game. Standby Drama teachers - you may very well find games like Spotlight, Corporate Assassin  and Break  in your next Drama games book!

Year 8:

Banksy and Frida Kahlo have featured in this term’s work. We have used artworks by each of these artists as stimulus material to create original performances. We have researched the artists themselves but also spent time with the paintings, gathering meaning through symbol, character, imagery, colour and the feelings these works conjure within each of us in response to the artist’s choices.

Year 10:

Are we ever really alone on stage? This is the question we have been asking this term in Year 10 Drama through the study and performance of monologues. Students chose from a variety of monologues and employed some of the skills learned in last term’s unit on Truth  (for instance, employing beats) whilst engaging new skills such as blocking a piece symbolically in space. It’s not an easy thing to stand on your own on stage and it has been so wonderful to see the class support their ensemble throughout the process. Alone? Perhaps not…

Year 12:

Hermione Granger, The Pilgrim from 1978’s television show Monkey  and Christopher Guest mocumentary Best in Show  have what in common? They all, along with seven other pieces of stimulus material, feature on this year’s Drama Solo Performance Examination.

Year 12 Drama students have begun the selection process and research phase for their major work for the year. VCE Drama students are required to pick from one of ten character stimuli and follow the playmaking skills to script and perform a seven minute non-naturalistic solo performance. So far we have a Hermione and one Pilgrim!

by Kate Ellis,Years 7, 8, 10, 12 Drama

Year 9: Conventions and structure, archetypes and punch lines by Fiona Martin, Year 9 Drama 

Year 9 Drama students have been having a most enjoyable time and collaborating to develop two very different short pieces that sprang from the same source. After studying character development, story structures and archetypes in a number of intensives and workshops, students became more proficient in and comfortable with physical caricature, pantomime technique and comic timing.

Armed with a toolbox of relevant theatrical skills to dip into, students were given a choice of projects. One group chose to use American situation comedy conventions to develop their piece and the other group chose to re-interpret a classic fairy tale and utilise our common knowledge of its structure to branch into plot twists and character surprises. One piece is a reworking of Cinderella, which uses a light-hearted, non-biased approach to explore love and what constitutes ‘happily ever after’. Our other group has written a sitcom set at Preshil - and a hint at the plot - Chris has lost his bike and he suspects someone has stolen it…who?