VCE Drama and Theatre Studies Student Forum 2010

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Jul 292010

Educators teaching Unit 4 VCE Drama and/or Theatre Studies this year are reminded a web forum for your students exists.

Some years ago I established a forum just for students of Units 3 & 4 Drama and Theatre Studies. Each year, a small but dedicated number of students post messages on the forum about their developing performance exams.

Unit 4 Drama students find the forum particularly useful, because it is the only place they can discuss with students from other schools choices people are making with the performance examination characters. A great way to help others out and share ideas.

Unit 4 Theatre Studies students also use the forum to discuss decisions being made with their monologue performance exams.

Each year, I wipe the forum board clean. Currently there are “threads” (topics) set up on the message board for each of the performance exam characters in both Drama and Theatre Studies. While a number of students have registered for the forum in recent months, no one as yet has posted anything!

If you think any of your current Unit 4 students may be interested, please get them to follow the link below for free board registration and to post messages on the board.

If I don’t see any activity on the board in the next few weeks, sadly, I’ll just delete the board.

Please note, this forum is just for students. It is moderated by myself to ensure everything is nice and happy in forum-land…

VCE Drama and Theatre Studies Student Forum

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Posted by Justin Cash at 1:55 pm Senior Drama, Technology

Top Class 2009 DVDs

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Jun 182010

For those teaching VCE Drama and/or Theatre Studies in Melbourne or regional Victoria, a fantastic resource for yourself and your students has just become available.

Drama Victoria began discussions with the VCAA in early 2009, expressing the real need for teachers of these studies to have Drama solo performance examinations and Theatre Studies monologue performance examinations filmed for sale on DVD.

Apart from being an excellent teaching tool in the classroom, one that can be retrieved time and time again, a DVD of these performances is helpful to teachers in regional areas who find it difficult to come to Melbourne with their students to see the annual Top Class Season of Excellence concerts, where these performances are live on stage.

While the VCAA film and sell on DVD the final stage of the Season of Excellence each year, Top Acts at Hamer Hall, this mixed program of Drama, Dance, Music and Theatre Studies performance exams, usually only consists of 2-3 Theatre Studies monologues and 3-4 Drama solo performances. In the past, Top Class (not Top Acts) was only filmed once for DVD in 2005 for one of the three Drama concerts.

The new Top Class Season of Excellence DVD 2009 consists of 4 DVDs. There are 3 DVDs containing all 33 performers in Top Class Drama that year, plus another DVD consisting of all 10 performers in Top Class Theatre Studies. Add to this, every student performer is interviewed on the DVD about various aspects of their performance structure, how they developed the exam etc.

This resource was a large and expensive project, so all credit goes to Helen Champion, Performing Arts Coordinator at the VCAA for taking this on. This will NOT be a regular project and these DVDs are expected to be a resource for teachers for some years to come.

Drama Victoria is the sole distributor of the VCAA Top Class Season of Excellence DVD 2009. All four DVDs (Drama and Theatre Studies) are sold as a single package for the low price of just $38.50 (inc GST and p&h). A real bargain!

I highly recommend this resource.

Download the order form from Drama Victoria here.

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Posted by Justin Cash at 10:09 am Senior Drama

Top Acts 2010

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May 302010

Well, if you ever wondered what teenagers can do in the performing arts, you need look no further than the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s (VCAA) Top Acts concert at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall each year.

The 2010 Top Acts concert occurred last Friday May 28th and once again showcased inspiring and amazing talent in the performing arts. Quoting VCAA Chair, Adam Shoemaker, in his opening address, Top Acts truly represents the “very best of the best” in the previous year’s final examinations in Drama, Theatre Studies, Dance and Music solo and group performances.

Highlights in Friday’s program for me were:

  • Rob Clifford (St Michael’s Grammar School) and his fabulous rendition of George Harrison’s ‘When My Guitar Gently Weeps’ on the ukulele
  • Caitlyn Petrie (Avila College) and her highly sophisticated and focused drama solo performance of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov
  • Che Steer (Blackburn High School) and his sumptuous music solo interpretation of Rogers and Hart’s ‘My Funny Valentine’
  • Mark Yeates (Donvale Christian College) and his wickedly hilarious drama solo performance of ‘Dennis’ and his funeral home for pets
  • James Dong (Camberwell Grammar School) and his disciplined and skilled violin sonata by Eugene Ysaye
  • Bonnie Leigh-Dodds (St Michael’s Grammar School) and her beautifully timed drama performance of school girl Mary O’Donnell from the play ‘Bombshells’
  • Josephine Grech, Georgia Wilkinson and Zoe Drummond (Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School) and their classical voice music group performance of Handel’s ‘Consolati i O Bella’
  • James Hazelwood-Dale (Wesley College) and his electric bass arrangement of ‘Amazing Grace’
  • Brodie King (Ballarat Grammar) and his Phythonesque rendition of Sergeant Major from the play ‘Oh What A Lovely War’

Not being any sort of dance expert, I don’t feel qualified to comment on the dance pieces in the Top Acts concert, so excuse me for omitting them from my highlights. Having said that, it feels mean to select any highlights at all, because the quality across the various disciplines and 28 performers at this year’s Top Acts was consistently strong and of a very high standard.

On a personal note, I was immensely proud to have one of my own students in the 2010 Top Acts concert. Caitlyn Petrie (Avila College), who performed the drama solo performance Anastasia, was the only female out of 1,500 students who undertook Year 12 Drama in 2009 invited to perform at Top Acts. She did a fantastic job and ‘nailed’ her solo on the big night!

Each year I attend the annual Top Acts concert with about 70 or 80 Drama and Music students from Years 10, 11 and 12 at my school, plus about a dozen staff, for a fabulous night of talent. Top Acts represents some of the best professional development a performing arts teacher can receive. Highly recommended.

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Posted by Justin Cash at 12:27 pm Reviews, Senior Drama
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