Year 10 Drama & Theatre 1

In this unit students develop more sophisticated approaches to making and responding to drama and theatre independently and in small groups. They continue to explore drama and theatre skills through improvisation, scripted drama, rehearsal and performance. The Theatre component of the course will focus on looking at pre-modern performance styles (such as Commedia Dell'Arte, Greek Theatre, etc.), exploring how these styles can be recontextualised into a performance for a modern audience. Students will work in groups, or as a whole class, to rewrite / redesign a pre-modern script for a modern, teenage audience. In doing so, students will explore the design of performance, looking at production roles (eg. lighting, costume, direction, makeup, set and prop design, etc.) as a way of shaping a performance for a particular audience.  The Drama component of the course will focus on eclectic and unusual performance styles, designed to shock an audience. Through the exploration of performance styles such as Theatre of Cruelty, students will create their own scripted performance, based on a theme relevant to current societal issues. Students will refine and extend their understanding of the use of expressive skills such as voice, movement, facial expressions and gesture to create and sustain belief in character. They will apply dramatic elements such as tension, climax and contrast to create theatre that is shocking, yet engaging for an audience. As they make and respond to drama and theatre, students explore meaning and symbolism within performance, by evaluating their own, and other actors’ success in performance. 

Learning Standards: 

CREATING AND MAKING:

• Perform scripted drama making deliberate artistic choices in dramatic and theatre elements  and performance styles to unify meaning for an audience
• Practise and refine the use of acting skills to communicate ideas in a range of pre-modern theatre styles and performances spaces
• Improvise with drama and theatre elements and undertake dramaturgy to develop ideas, and explore theme to shape scripted drama
• Use the theatre production process to perform a scripted theatre  work  demonstrating development of a personal style
• Evaluate, reflect on, refine and justify their work’s content, design and development
• Independently and collaboratively apply their knowledge and understanding to design, create & produce performance works influenced by theatrical practitioners and theatrical styles
• Maintain a record of how ideas develop through the theatre production process to achieve a drama work
  

RESPOND AND INTERPRET: 

• Evaluate how the elements of theatre composition, forms and performance styles in scripted drama to convey meaning and effect
• Observe, research and critically discuss a range of contemporary, traditional, stylistic, historical and cultural examples of performance works

Assessment:

Assessment across the year will include a range of tasks such as:

• Design and performance of a rewritten pre-modern scripted performance to a teenage audience
• Development of a Theatre of Cruelty Drama ensemble performance
• Analysis of a professional performance
• Examination

Contribution to class discussions, involvement in practical workshops and completion of classwork will also be considered.

Recommendation/Prerequisites:

This course is a prerequisite for VCE Drama and/or VCE Theatre Studies. Students who take this subject are also encouraged to enrol in Drama and Theatre 2, to best prepare themselves for VCE Drama and/or Theatre Studies.