Top Class Drama Review 7/4/06

This afternoon I had the privilege of seeing the first of three Top Class Drama sessions (1.00pm) as part of the Victorian Curriculum and Assesssment Authority's Season of Excellence program. So I thought I would blog the highlights (not every performance) and if I make a few errors, please excuse me as I don't have the running sheet before me, and so will blog from memory.

First up was Rory from Wonthaggi SC with a strong performance of 'Pride'. Loved the massive prop, laughed at the image in my head of the trailor behind the bus carrying the over-sized picture frame down the highway to the exam centre (!) and really enjoyed this young man's insight's into the challenges of the task to the audience, as he was invited to speak a little while later. Strong expressive skills evident here in a sophisticated performance that really made good use of exaggerated movement and caricature.

The Beauty Queen Helena Rubenstein was a solid performance with an excellent use of prop (don't quite know how to describe the swinging white thingo, sorry!). Good use of accent, pathos and disjointed time sequences. A strong performance.

I also enjoyed both 'Shakespearean Characters' presented in this program. The first of these was performed by a young woman who had such a wicked idea of a model Shakespearean stage within a suitcase (complete with little Shakeapeare play characters and red curtain etc)! Everyone in the audience just loved it! Her expressive skills were also very strong during this performance.

The second of the Shakepsearean characters from Scotch College was also a great show. It's very difficult performing toward the end of a long program because no matter how interesting the performances have been before you, the audience unfortuantely is a little restless. I really enjoyed this performance and felt I connected with the many different characters presented. No doubt about it, fantastic use of a prop, here! A piece of thick rope was used for multiple purposes as the actor transformed character and location. A fine example for any student on how to effectively use a prop in a solo performance .

I thought the firefighter Asahina Daigo from Ruyton Girls' Grammar was a very interesting performance. Now, I'm going to be honest. I didn't see much substance in this exam character last year and told my students to avoid it like the plague! Later down the track I discovered many students actually performed the character without ever reading the Manga it was associated with because it was so difficult to get a hold of, which is a pity. I'm guessing the assessors may not have seen too many strong Daigo's walk through their rooms last October. But this performance today was very strong. A perfect example for budding students on how to incorporate sound into a solo performance. The actress used so many sound effects (from her mouth) in various parts of her show that enhanced her performance. Loved the use of a small picture frame as prop, also.

The Ford Prefect character performance was also strong. Let's get one thing straight from the beginning, it's not the actor's fault if his microphone cuts out half way through the performance! Not being a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, I found this exam character (on paper last year) and everything it represented incomprehensible at first and then realised, that was sort of the idea in a way. Great physical skills in this performance, wonderul use of gibberish, some clever use of positioning costume and props (shirt and hoop) and a clear and understandable performance. Possibly the most illogical of all characters was made very coherent by the actor for the audience.

It would be remiss of me not to blog about my own student in this program; Amelia performing The Security Guard. After talking to her after the show, she said her microphone ('what microphone', I said?) didn't work at all! I think most people heard all her performance, although because there was no mike, her own Drama teacher struggled to hear the softer parts, partly due to my wonderful seat allocation in the very back row next to the bio box! We worked hard together on her character transformation being as slick as possible and I think Amelia did a fine job in this area. Perhaps a little slow on tempo, her performance nevertheless demonstrated a coherent spoken text, showed great use of comedic timing and good use of contrast between characters and events at Melbourne Airport and Troy. She made her buddies in the senior Drama classe at Avila proud in the audience. Well done Meelz!

So, if you were there today as student, participant or teacher, it would be great to read your comments on what you thought of the characters presented in this program?

Drama Victoria

Well, you've got to take the good with the bad in life. Tonight was not one of my highlights...

I did an unsual thing in the history of Drama Victoria. As current Vice President of the association, I decided it was time for me to run for President. On the surface, that might sound quite normal, but traditionally we usually wait for the President to state his/her intentions of stepping down before another person wants to step up to the plate. Tonight, with both parties being gracious and professional, there were two of us on the ballot paper, instead of one.

It was a close vote and in the words of Maxwell Smart I 'missed it by that much'. Although disappointed about not getting elected President, I was fortunate to be re-elected in my present role as Vice President, instead. It was a healthy thing for both democracy and our organisation, but unfortunately when two capable people are vying for the same position, someone has to lose out.

Congratulations to Peter Robert of Yarra Valley Grammar who today officially begins his fourth year at the helm of the organisation. Let it be blogged, he has my 100% support in this very exciting chapter in the history of the largest Drama teachers' association in Australia, as Drama Victoria begins to consolidate its presence at our new home in the beautiful surroundings of the Abbotsford Convent.

Vineblogs

Time to promote a great new educational blog for Drama/Theatre students and their teachers!

Vineblogs was the idea of Jo Raphael (lectuer in drama education at Deakin University, Melbourne) and Helen Sandercoe and is otherwise known as The Vine Project. With the gracious assistance of James Farmer (edublog specialist) and the support of both Drama Australia and Drama Victoria, this new and exciting blog site has only been active for about ten days now, but already we have many Drama students and teachers happily blogging away!

The original idea of the project was to restrict the blogging to students creating drama performances using the theme of the 2007 World Drama Congress: planting ideas ... with our thoughts, we make the world. And so a few schools agreed to be involved, namely Avila College (my school), Mount Waverley Secondary College and Yarra Valley Grammar (all from Melbourne). These schools have created ensemble performance structures for their current Year 12 students based on this theme and currently have students blogging about their projects. But now Vineblogs has expanded it's brief to include anyone who wishes to blog about their drama experiences.

On Vineblogs you will see individual teacher blogs and group student blogs (where members post on the one blog). Blogging is a wonderful way to integrate technology in drama studies and allow students to journal their process of performance online. In the past week or so, I have watched my students get a thrill out of publishing their thoughts on the web and at the same time enjoy seeing others comment on their posts. Teachers should not be exempt from this process and are also encouraged to join their students and chronicle a performance project from an educator's perspective.

Of course, there are some differences popping a drama journal online in the form of a blog. It's public! So students have to be wary of their audience and not reveal personal information or 'sledge' other people in their class etc. Teachers should also be wary of one of the benefits of blogging, which is publishing images instantly to the blog. These could be of students in rehearsal etc, but be mindful of various permissions which may be required before publishing images of students online.

Well, Vineblogs is completely free and easy, too. If you're not too comfortable with technology, there are great tutorials on the Vineblogs homepage. I moderate this particular blog site because I am a firm believer in the benefits of blogging for Drama/Theatre sutdents. So, if you're interested, why not check out the site and email me if you need help or have any questions about the project and how to get involved.

You can publish a blog on Vineblogs instantly via email verification. You can be involved with your drama/theatre students at any level doing any performance project worth blogging (solo, ensemble or scripted play). Come on, join us! It's fun, educational and your students will love it! Although based in Melbourne, Australia, we'd especially love to see drama students and teachers from interstate or overseas in other countries blog with us on the site, too!

Master of the House?

OK. Now, I'm half way through my Master of Education at the University of Melbourne. It's research approval time. Mistakenly (naively?), I thought this process would be quick and easy. Nope! Dead wrong! Just submitting my form for approval has nearly killed me! Why didn't anyone warn me?

In summary, my submission included completing a 15-page form in 9pt font, five attachments, four meetings with my supervisors and a flurry of emails, around a dozen re-drafts, umpteen proof-reads and 30 hours of my time over the course of five weeks! From here, my application will come back to me in a couple of weeks with suggestions for changes (hopefully minor ones) and then it's off to the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee for approval to do research, which may or may not get approved first time around!

My research topic in case you are interested? "The impact of new and emerging technologies on the teaching and learning of Drama". So, Drama will suddenly be using forums, blogs, chat rooms and listening to teacher podcasts!

The bad news? I haven't even written a single word of my thesis yet and I'm already exhausted!

The good news? Seriously, everything about the Education Faculty at The University of Melbourne is so professional. The staff are very helpful, people seem to know what they're doing, the coursework I have undertaken over the past couple of years has been nothing short of first-rate and the lecturers were top class academics in their field. A special thanks to Dr Kate Donelan and Richard Sallis for their endless assistance.

So, whilst my research approval process was an enduring one (and it's not over yet), my focus has now been gathered and I would still recommend doing a Masters to any teacher. Interestingly, on that note, recently our school Principal encouraged her staff to improve their qualifications by offering to financially subsidise anyone considering doing a Masters at uni this year (in any area, not just in Religious Education 'cause we're a Catholic school). Now, you'd think this would see a small but steady stream of interested people in her office, wouldn't you (especially with a staff numbering over 100)? Nuh! The group of mostly young staff I regularly 'hang out' with were offended, found the offer elitist and one or two of them even formally complained that the offer implied you have to get a Masters in order to be a better 'class' of teacher!

Seriously guys, the only 'class' in education should be the one sitting in front of you!