Drama
Drama is a vibrant and varied art form.
It is one of the oldest art forms and part of our everyday life.
The Drama course focuses in aesthetic understanding and drama in practice as you integrate your knowledge and skills.
You use the elements and conventions of drama, you engage in drama processes which allow you to create original drama and interpret a range of texts written or devised by others.
Your work in this course includes production and design aspects involving sets, costumes, makeup, props, promotional materials, stage management, front-of-house activities, and sound and lighting.
Increasingly, students use new technologies such as digital sound and multi-media.
You present drama to a range of audiences and work in different performance settings.
Students work independently and collaboratively, learning time management skills, showing initiative and demonstrating leadership and interpersonal skills.
Drama requires you to develop and practise problem-solving skills through creative and analytical thinking processes.
In this course, students engage in both Australia and world drama practice.
Year 7
Improvise and devise a play using your own imagination.
Working in small groups, you will get to play and experiment with objects, movement, characters, story-telling, dance, song and puppets to create your own theatrical masterpieces!
Year 8
From page to stage.
Bring a play to life through direction, design and acting.
You will be given scripts, learn lines, workshop acting techniques, create set designs and bring works from playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht to the stage.
Year 9
What happens when you take your work out of the theatre and into the environment?
In small groups you'll craft your own, site-specific, contemporary Australian production using cutting-edge techniques, ideas and your own experiences.
Year 10 Drama (General Course)
Performance
If you love the idea of performing, or would like the experience of acting in front of an audience, well here's your chance! In this course students develop the skills and confidence to bring a script to life.
This is a practical course where students learn the basic acting and performance skills involved in mounting a small-scale theatre performance using an existing script.
Actors will gain confidence in working with play scripts and learning lines to produce original performances.
The focus is on taking text from the page to the stage.
Year 10 Drama (Intensive Course)
Acting & Stagecraft
If you are thinking of studying Drama in Year 11 and taking your skills further, then this Drama intensive course is just for you!
In this course, students will undertake specialised study of acting methods and performance techniques.
Workshops in voice, movement, characterisation and performance prepare students to create and produce individual and group plays.
The focus of the course is on improvising, creating, devising and developing theatre inspired by personal themes.
The aim is to reach audiences with issues that matter, in an entertaining way.
In this course, students will also learn the practical and technical skills of theatre, costume and makeup design; set design and construction; lighting, sound and backstage roles.
This a great preparation for the ATAR Drama course in Year 11.
Year 11 (General)
UNIT 1
The focus of this unit is dramatic storytelling.
Students engage with the skills, techniques, processes and conventions of dramatic storytelling.
Students view, read and explore relevant drama works and texts using scripts and/or script excerpts from Australian and/or world sources.
UNIT 2
The focus for this unit is drama performance events for an audience other than their class members.
In participating in a drama performance event, students work independently and in teams.
They apply the creative process of devising and of interpreting Australian and/or world sources to produce drama that is collaborative and makes meaning.
Year 11 (ATAR)
UNIT 1
The focus for this unit is representational, realist drama.
Students explore techniques of characterisation through different approaches to group based text interpretation, particularly those based on the work of Stanislavski and others.
In this unit, students have the opportunity to research and collaboratively workshop, interpret, perform and produce texts in forms and styles related to representational, realistic drama that educate and present perspectives.
UNIT 2
The focus of this unit is presentational, nonrealist drama.
Students explore techniques of role and/or character through different approaches to group based text interpretation, particularly those based on the work of Brecht and others.
In this unit, students have the opportunity to research and collaboratively workshop, interpret and perform drama texts related to presentational, non realistic drama that challenge and question perspectives.
Year 12 (2015 only)
Unit 3ADRA
The focus for this unit is dramatic text, context, form and style.
In this unit students perform and produce a published drama work incorporating in-depth study and interpretation of text, subtext, context and style.
Students refine their skills in voice and movement and develop techniques for control of vocal delivery in performance.
They learn about different approaches to dramaturgy, directing and rehearsing a drama text.
They consider ways that drama can be funded and learn about the components of production budgets, stage managing, planning production schedules; and working responsibly to create a safe working environment.
Students learn about different theoretical approaches to representational and presentational or non-realist drama and the ways that drama texts can be reworked for contemporary performance contexts and audiences.
Unit 3BDRA
The focus for this unit is interpreting, manipulating and creating drama.
Students apply conventions and techniques of drama forms and styles to interpret texts and develop original works that may be either celebratory and/or critical in their perspective.
They show their understanding of how a range of practical and theoretical approaches manipulates the elements of drama.
Students apply voice and movement skills appropriate to their drama work and incorporate emerging and traditional technologies, and may use elements of other art forms in their presentation.
They research contemporary developments in world drama, critically evaluate the way that drama is valued in Australian culture and make predictions about its future.
Students devise and perform an original solo work.
Year 12 - Certificate II in Live Production and Services CUA20213
This qualification leads to further Certificate courses or employment.
It relates specifically to the entertainment industry covering technical areas of basic lighting and vision systems; set, prop and scenic construction; producing simple costumes; providing staging support; providing ushering, ticketing and venue information; assisting in marketing; working with others; bumping a show in and out and Occupational Health and Safety.
The course develops communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, encourages initiative and enterprise, assists planning and organizing, develops self-management, learning about productions and events and using specific technology.
The skills maybe developed around a performance project and/or through supporting productions and functions.
Students will gain a nationally recognized qualification; it will broaden the range of career and further education options; provide a transferable range of job skills and prepare students who wish to follow a creative industries career for training and employment.
It may be studied with an ATAR focused course.
