Drama

The course is designed to build skills, knowledge and experience in Drama as a creative and performing art. Taking Drama will allow students to develop communication and presentation skills as well as improving their confidence and ability to work with others. It incorporates aesthetic, theoretical and critical concepts. The program is developmental, moving from improvisation and practical voice and physical skill learning, through to playbuilding and devising characters. Interpreting text and experimenting with design and technical elements of production are also key areas. Drama is essentially a cooperative process. Drama has a body of knowledge: facts, conventions, history, skills and methods of working. Drama is taught in an environment that encourages the students to take responsibility for their own learning and to value the ideas and contributions of others.

The students are encouraged to be involved in College productions as performers or stage crew. Elective students also must participate in various theatre excursions and specialist workshops throughout the year.

• Voice and movement skills
• Improvisation
• Elements of Drama
• Characterisation
• Actor-audience relationships
• Scripted Drama: Scene work
• Critical analysis: Theatre Review
• Performance spaces and the conventions of theatre
• Elements of production e.g. costume, set, lighting, etc
• Playbuilding with poetry
• Dramatic forms e.g Mask, Greek theatre, Commedia dell’Arte

• Early Theatre styles: Elizabethan, Restoration and Melodrama
• Realism: Stanislvski and monologue performance
• Playbuilding with Children’s Theatre
• Critical Analysis: Theatre Review
• Scripted Drama: Study of full play, The Web by Kate Mulvany

Each student is assessed on individual progress and achievement, through comparison of the skills, knowledge and attitudes that they gain during the course. Judgements are made on student performances and workshops, both in individual and group work; and in written work through Logbooks, assignments and examinations.

The course is a sound preparation for entry into 2 Unit Drama for study at the HSC, but it is not a prerequisite to study Drama in Years 11 and 12.

• Reflect on and evaluate their own work and that of others
• Communicate with increased skill and confidence
• Use voice and movement effectively
• Work cooperatively in groups
• Take ownership of learning