Performing Arts - Sandra Stanton

Howdy all, 

How quickly the term seems to be flying by! While the weather has been busy Melbourne-ing, Trinity learners have been busy diligently rehearsing for their various performances. These performances will comprise the Performing Arts portion of their Student Led portfolios. In the junior grades, Preps have been working on bringing the tale of “Cinderella” to life. Using a reader's theatre model, these students have been practising delivering lines at the correct time and changing their expression depending on the character they are portraying. Recently, they engaged in a “preview performance” in which they had the opportunity to perform in front of an audience of 3/4 students and receive encouragement and feedback from their older peers. In Year 1/2, students have been going through several movement exercises to embody the characters of Wolf and Lost Child. They have also been practising giving suggestions that are both encouraging and constructive. In small groups they watched one another’s scenes, focusing their feedback on movement, facial expression, and vocal engagement. Meanwhile in the upper grades, students have been focusing on context as well as their acting and performance skills. Year 3/4 students have been working on an open scene - a dialogue that has no prescribed characters, setting, or context. With a partner, they have determined the aforementioned integral parts of a scene. Though each acting pair has the exact same dialogue, the contexts differ wildly from building sandcastles to fixing a car to playing basketball and beyond. During their rehearsals students have been especially focused on working with their partner to ensure their movements support the context and setting they have chosen. In Year 5/6 students have been working on bringing a singular character to life through monologue performance. They have written backstory and motivation for their characters and annotated their scripts to indicate where their character changes emotions, pauses, and has a shift in understanding. In preparation for their solo performances they have engaged in a feedback circle in which they performed their monologue for one person at a time and that person in turn wrote down feedback for the performer. All of the Trinity learners have been putting great effort, enthusiasm, and creativity into creating these performances and I know you’ll enjoy their work come time for Student Led Conferences!

Ms. S

Students in 5/6 FA participate in a feedback circle. This allows students to utilise their performance skills and to receive timely feedback from their peers.

Students in 1/2 MB participate in “A StrollThrough the Woods”. In this group exercise, half of the students moved through the woods as Child and the other half acted as the Wolf, swooping in when the child gets lost. Students practised their movement and the emotional changes that occur within the scene.

Students in 3/4TR rehearse their open scene in  front of the class for feedback. Open scenes  encourage students to sustain focused  movement to communicate to the audience what  is happening. The decided on context for these  actors was a driving lesson for an L-plate driver.