Australian Drama 1 & 2

★★★★★

I’m currently doing a unit with my seniors on Australian drama. Back in the early 1990s, I recall teaching about Australian drama/theatre with the aid of a very useful student textbook Australian Drama by Judith Gadaloff. Some years later, the sequel arrived Springboards: Australian Drama 2. Today, the first of these books appears out of print (but second-hand copies must exist), and the latter text looks like it is still available if you require it for your own teaching.

Australian Drama was published in 1991 by Jacaranda Press. The book is divided into two main sections. The first of these offers a series of short chapters as an overview of Australian Drama. The pages are scattered with B&W images and illustrations that accompany the text. The language is easily understood by middle to senior students and is fairly basic (certainly not intellectual in any way).

Section 1 chapters:

• Colonial Theatre 1788-1850
• Gold Rush 1850s
• Melodrama 1834-1914
• Cultural Cringe
• Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Era 1954-55
• 1960s
• 1980s
• Women in Australian Theatre

These chapters each take a brief look at relevant issues appropriate to the era, such as censorship, the rise of alternative theatre and multicultural theatre. Important theatrical places and figures are highlighted.

But the best part of this book is the back section of excerpts from famous Australian plays. If the plays themselves are not well known, then the playwright certainly is. Each excerpt is introduced with an overview of the play and a plot synopsis of the chosen scene. All these scenes are perfect for classroom workshopping, analysis/discussion and performance by Drama students. Plays here include:

• On Our Selection by Steele Rudd
• Ned Kelly by Douglas Stewart
• The Sentimental Bloke by Brown, Arlen and Thomson
• Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler
• A Hard God by Peter Kenna
• The perfectionist by David Williamson
• The Blind Giant Is Dancing by Stephen Sewell
• Honey Spot by Jack Davis

Gadaloff’s Springboards: Australian Drama 2 was also published by Jacaranda Press in 1998. This sequel followed the successful formula for the structure of its predecessor with two sections. In the first part of the text, there are a number of chapters with handy factual information, interviews with industry professionals and useful student activities:

• the director’s role
• style, structure, shape and rhythm
• the director’s use of the elements of drama
• the director’s use of the elements of design
• from playwright to director – in practice
• guidelines for planning and directing
• the functions of the dramaturg
• dramatic criticism

The second section has a completely new selection of key scenes from well know Australian plays/playwrights, including:

• No Sugar by Jack Davis
• Away by Michael Gow
• Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson
• Diving For Pearls by Katherine Thompson
• Love Child by Joanna Murray-Smith
• Blood Moon by Tes Lyssiotis
• The Incorruptible by Louis Nowra
• Mr Melancholy by Matt Cameron
• Blackrock by Nick Enright
• Gary’s House by Debra Oswald

One would have to agree the above list of titles for selected scenes in Springboards: Australian Drama 2 has a different focus from those in the first text Australian Drama seven years earlier. These play excerpts are not chosen from different eras of Australian theatre history, but instead represent some of the most critically acclaimed and popular Australian plays of the 1990s. I can tell you from first-hand experience, students will love the variety of excerpts – different characters, themes, styles of writing etc. Each excerpt, like in the first book, is introduced with a detailed synopsis and contextual background.

If you’re teaching Australian drama/theatre in the classroom, these two texts by Judith Gadaloff provide valuable resources for your teaching and your students learning in this under-resourced area.

Australian Drama (Gadaloff, J, 1991), Jacaranda Press, ISBN: 0701628693

Springboards: Australian Drama 2 (Gadaloff, J, 1998), Jacaranda Press, ISBN: 0701633417

Collins Booksellers, Seekbooks, BuyAustralian.com, Drama Victoria.