VCE Drama Units 1 & 2 (Year 10)

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. They learn about contemporary drama practices that incorporate a range of conventions and devices for making dramatic works. Students use creative processes and play-making techniques to consider the specific purpose and intention of performance styles, and how conventions of those styles can be used in the work they devise and create for an audience.

This unit focuses on creating, presenting and analysing a devised solo and/or ensemble performance that includes real and/or imagined characters and is based on stimulus material that reflects personal, cultural and/or community experiences and stories. Such stimulus material could include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ stories, perspectives or experiences. This unit also involves analysis of a student’s own devised work, and the analysis of work by professional drama practitioners and performers.

Students apply play-making techniques to shape and give meaning to their performance. They manipulate expressive and performance skills in the creation and presentation of characters and develop awareness and understanding of how characters are portrayed within certain performance styles and in contemporary drama practices. They document the play-making techniques they use to explore and extract meaning from stimulus material, and document the exploration of production areas, dramatic elements, and conventions of selected performance styles.

Assessment Unit 1 Drama

Unit 1 Outcome 1

The student should be able to devise, demonstrate and document solo drama works based on experiences and/or stories.

Unit 1 Outcome 2

Students present to an audience devised solo drama works based on stimulus material relevant to personal, cultural and/or community experiences and stories

Unit 1 Outcome 3

Student should be able to describe, reflect on and analyse the exploration and development of a devised performance to an audience.

Unit 1 Outcome 4

The student should be able to analyse and evaluate the presentation of ideas, stories and characters in a drama performance by professional or other drama practitioners.

Unit 2: Contemporary drama practices and Australian identity

Students study aspects of Australian identity by engaging with contemporary drama practices as artists and as audiences. Contemporary drama practices are outlined in the terminology section of this study.

Students explore the work of selected contemporary drama practitioners, including Australian practitioners, and their associated performance styles. They focus on the application and documentation of play-making techniques involved in constructing a devised solo or ensemble performance. Students create, present and analyse a performance they devise based on any of the following: a person, an event, an issue, a place, an artwork, a piece of music, a text or an icon from a contemporary or historical Australian context.

In creating a performance, students engage with stimulus material to extract ideas and possibilities that allow them to explore an aspect or aspects of Australian identity, which could include engaging with the experiences and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, colonial Australians, migrants, refugees, and/or urban and rural communities. They examine selected performance styles in relation to contemporary drama practices and explore the associated conventions, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and practitioners, and the broader diversity of Australian stories. Students further develop their knowledge of the conventions of transformation of character, time and place; the application of symbol, and how these conventions may be manipulated to create meaning in performance. They explore, develop and apply dramatic elements and production areas. They consider the sustainable sourcing and ethical use of materials when applying production areas.

Students analyse and evaluate their own performance work as well as undertaking an analysis and evaluation of a performance of an Australian work by professional actors, and develop an understanding of relevant drama terminology.

An Australian work might:

· be written, adapted or devised by Australian writers or theatre-makers

· reflect aspects of Australian identity, which could include the experiences and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, colonial Australians, migrants, refugees, and/or urban and rural communities.

Assessment Unit 2 Drama

Outcome 1

· Demonstrate the application of play-making techniques to devise and develop a solo and/or ensemble drama work based on stories and/or characters.

· Document the play-making techniques used to create and develop stories and characters in drama in one of the following formats:

- a paper-based journal

- an e-journal

- a journal that combines hard and soft copy components.

Outcome 2

Perform a devised solo or ensemble drama work that reflects aspects of Australian identity.

Outcome 3

Analyse and evaluate the drama work created and performed in Outcomes 1 and 2 using one of the following formats:

· an oral presentation

· a multimedia presentation

· responses to structured questions.

Outcome 4

Analyse and evaluate a performance by Australian practitioners in response to structured questions.

Why study Drama?

- encourages you to take risks in your learning

- encourages you to be an active and global citizen

- develops respect for yourself and others

- provides you with multiple learning strategies

- it is fun & sometimes you might ‘forget’ you are learning

- students who study in arts-related subjects have more empathy than those that don't

- drama extends your knowledge about the world around you (we engage in current affairs, politics, literature, arts, culture - A LOT)

- Learning through the Drama and other Art forms is shown to improve learning outcomes in your other subjects.

- Studies have shown that students who were involved in music and drama achieved higher levels of success in mathematics and reading than those who were not.

Sooo many reasons!