Drama

Drama offers many opportunities for students including Theatresports, the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, Year Level Drama performances, trips to see live theatre and of course the in-class lessons that are available for Years 10-13 including Scholarship Drama.

Year 11

Level 1 Drama focuses on two main aspects of theatre – Greek Theatre and Live Performance. In Term 1, we perform an extract from the Greek Tragedy ‘Antigone’, written by the renowned playwright and poet, Sophocles.  We then work on the Year 11 Drama production of a Shakespearean play. This includes blocking, rehearsing and preparing costumes/set for the production which is held in Term 3.  The focus then shifts to external exams where we study Ancient Greek Theatre and Aspects of Live Performance.

Year 12

Drama in Year 12 begins with an in-class performance of an extract from ‘Revenge of the Amazons’ by Jean Betts (a feminist retelling of the famous play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by Shakespeare).  We then begin the process of individually crafting our own scripted scenes, which we cast our classmates in and perform to camera.  In doing so, we are able to exercise our creativity and explore important themes in a dramatic context.  Following these performances, we begin studying the works of the famous playwright, Sophocles, comparing the themes, techniques and social context of his plays ‘Antigone’ (written in 441 BCE) and ‘Oedipus Rex’ (written in 429 BCE).  This internal then provides excellent preparation for our external on the Period and Form of Greek Theatre.

Year 13

Level 3 Drama is an incredible experience to build connections with our classmates and improve our acting skills.  Term 1 kicks off with the preparations for the Year 13 Drama Production, which we perform in Term 1/2.  After this amazing experience, we then go onto produce our own theatrical play.  We begin the process of writing, re-writing, refining, directing and performing our act.  In Term 3, we work on a scene from ‘Top Girls’ by Caryl Churchill.  The poignant realism, tension in the air and undeniably complex characters push us to perform at our very best.  We finish off the year with our external on the Period and Form of Greek Theatre, again focusing on the works of Sophocles.

Annise Boothroyd, Year 13