Drama
Drama is a senior Authority subject that may be included in a student’s assessment for an Overall Position.
Drama is one of the world’s great art forms and is a way for human beings to understand themselves and their surroundings. It is a unique way for students to blend intellectual and emotional experience, in order to help define their identity both within their own community and the broader society. Through exploration and devising, performing and studying plays and the theatre, students develop higher intellectual skills, empathy, social, linguistic and communication competencies.
They learn to research, interpret, extrapolate, select and classify information, to hypothesize, problem-solve, engage in teamwork, negotiate, make judgements and decisions as they create and study dramatic action and text. These are all key skills for playing a full and active part in a multi-cultural and changing society.
WHY STUDY DRAMA?
Studies in Senior Drama make a major contribution to students’ intellectual, emotional and social growth. Through a study of Drama, students are provided with experiences which develop self-confidence, self-discipline and social skills. Through the wide range of situations which Drama provides, public and private, students learn to communicate more effectively both orally and in writing. They explore and test out values and ethics and expand their cultural knowledge and understanding of context past and present, Australian and global. They practice skills of voice, gesture and movement and learn about artistic form and style extending their range of higher intellectual skills and key competencies. In fact, the teaching and learning contexts of the subject provide opportunities for developing six of the seven key competencies.
Students may be interested in pursuing a career in the performing arts or media. In fact, any career that involves social interaction and public presentation, from medicine to commerce, from the office to the shop floor, will be enhanced by the study of Drama. Professions like law, teaching, public relations or advertising will benefit more directly. Some students may simply enjoy understanding more about a fulfilling lifelong recreational pursuit as an informed theatre-goer or an amateur performer.
WHAT DO STUDENTS LEARN?
First and foremost, the students study the elements of drama as they are manifested in a range of contexts, styles and forms within the following content areas:
- The study of Australian Drama gives students an understanding of distinctively Australian dramatic voices. It draws from standard works, and texts that are innovative in form or style. It may focus on themes, images or changing cultural attitudes.
- Other significant forms of World Drama are also to be addressed, with texts selected from major forms and styles in the traditions of Europe, Asia, Africa or the Americas.
- In Student Devised Drama, students create their own work from concept to execution. This may take the form of complex improvisations, transforming improvisation into script, and individual or group-devised work for particular audiences.
Units include Australian Drama, The Theatre of Protest, which focuses on the German playwright Bertolt Brecht and an Extension Study of 8 weeks on a chosen topic. This culminates in a public performance in Semester 4 of Year 12. Students also enjoy responding to performances by the Arts Council and many other professional groups through visits to a range of Brisbane’s theatre venues.
HOW DO STUDENTS LEARN?
The Drama syllabus explores drama in action. The students learn to understand, control and manage the elements of drama through the three inter-related dimension of:
Forming making and shaping drama
Presenting performing drama to a range of audiences
Responding analysing, interpreting, reflecting upon and evaluating drama.
HOW ARE STUDENTS ASSESSED?
Students are assessed according to the plan outlined in the school’s accredited work program. This assessment plan includes a broad range of practical and written tasks such as:
Forming Tasks will be written, visually presented or practical demonstration of dramatic action. Students will work as an artist in the making of creative works through:
- the analysis of text for performance
- improvisation
- directing
- play building / playwriting
Presenting Tasks will involve presentations to both peers and the public. Students will rehearse and polish performances both individually or in a group of:
- students devised drama or
- scripted text
Responding Tasks are a demonstration of knowledge, understanding and reflection in written and oral formats. Students will demonstrate this by communicating outside or after the drama through:
- assignments
- tests
- seminars
During the two years of the course, there is a balance of assessment among all of the content areas and learning dimensions described above.
PREREQUISITES
It is recommended that students taking Drama in Year 11 should have achieved a “C” standard in English and preferably also have studied at least two units of Drama to a “C” standard.
Students are required to have a genuine interest in the Arts and a willingness to commit themselves to self-disciplined, individual and group work. This may often involve out of class time work.
Attendance at a number of professional theatres performances both in and out of school hours is a component of the course. The costs for these are additional to standard school fees.
Queensland Certificate of Education - 4 points
