Performing Arts

• Drama

When selecting Performing Arts as a VCE subject you need to consider the following points:

1. You should have a strong desire to further your knowledge in this area of study.
2. There is a prominent performance element in this area. Students will be required to perform in class and may be required at College and after-hours events
3. There may be extra costs attached to performances. 

Drama

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Description

VCE Drama focuses on the creation and performance of characters and stories that communicate ideas, meaning and messages. Students use creative processes, a range of stimulus material and play-making techniques to develop and present devised work. Students learn about and draw on a range of performance styles relevant to practices of ritual and story-telling, contemporary drama practice and the work of significant drama practitioners.

Students explore characteristics of selected performance and apply and manipulate conventions, dramatic elements and production areas. They use performance skills and expressive skills to explore and develop role and character. The performances they create will go beyond the reality of life as it is lived and may pass comment on or respond to aspects of the real world. These performances can occur in any space. Students also analyse the development of their own work and performances by other drama practitioners.

Unit 1: Introducing Performance Styles and Contemporary Drama Practices

In this unit students study three or more performance styles from a range of social, historical, contemporary and cultural contexts. They examine the traditions of storytelling and devise performances telling stories that go beyond representations of reality. They incorporate and/or juxtapose a number of performance styles to make dramatic statements and create performances that are innovative, transformational and contemporary.  This unit focuses on creating, presenting and analysing a devised ensemble performance that includes real or imagined characters and is based on stimulus material that reflects personal, cultural and/or community experiences and stories. This unit also involves analysis of a student’s own performance work and a work by professional drama performers.

Unit 2: Contemporary Drama practices and Australian Identity

In this unit, students study aspects of Australian identity by engaging with contemporary drama practices as artists and as audiences. Students explore the work of selected contemporary drama practitioners, including Australian practitioners, and their associated performance styles. This unit focuses on the use and documentation of the processes involved in constructing a devised solo or ensemble performance. Students create, present and analyse a performance based on a person, an event, an issue, a place, an artwork, a text and/or an icon from a contemporary or historical Australian context.

Unit 3: Devised Ensemble Performance

In this unit, students explore the work of a range of drama practitioners and draw on contemporary drama practices as they devise ensemble performance work. Students explore performance styles and associated conventions from a diverse range of contemporary and/or historical contexts. They work collaboratively to devise, develop and present an ensemble performance and in doing so, students create work that reflects a specific performance style or one that draws on conventions of, or makes reference to, multiple performance styles. In addition, students document and evaluate the play-making techniques applied in the creation, development and presentation of the ensemble performance. Students attend, analyse and evaluate a live professional drama performance selected from the prescribed VCE Drama Unit 3 Playlist published annually on the VCAA website. 

Unit 4: Devised Solo Performance

This unit focuses on the development and presentation of devised solo work and performances. It builds on knowledge and skills attained in relation to drama practices that draw on a range of performance styles and associated conventions from a diverse range of contemporary and historical contexts. These contexts focus on non-realistic styles and structures, including non-linear narratives. Students develop skills in exploring and extracting dramatic potential from stimulus material and use play-making techniques to develop and present a solo performance. Students also document and evaluate the stages involved in the creation, development and presentation of their solo performance.

Assessment

Percentage contributions to the study score in VCE Drama for Units 3 and 4 are as follows:

• Units 3 and 4 school-assessed coursework:  40%
• End-of-year performance examination:  35%
• End-of-year written examination:  25%