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

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.

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.

If you teach VCE Drama and/or Theatre Studies in the final two years of high school in metropolitan Melbourne or regional Victoria, have you ever wondered how many students are enrolled in these subjects and the difference between the two? Well, I did a bit of research and have a 5-year trend outlined below:

Source: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Actual trends in the past five years indicate Unit 3 & 4 Theatre Studies numbers have remained constant, while Drama enrollments at the same level have clearly dropped each year (over 20% decline from 1910 students in Unit 3 in 2005 to just 1500 in 2009). While Unit 3 & 4 enrollments are less than numbers in Unit 1 & 2 in Drama over all five years, interestingly in three years (2007, 2008, 2009) numbers in VCE Theatre Studies have actually increased in Unit 3, compared to Unit 2.

(This year’s exam is here, if you’re interested in understanding the task).

Once again, Top Class Drama 2010 demonstrated a high level of skill from all student performers. Imaginative choices in decision-making were scattered throughout. Character transformations are getting slicker every year at the Top Class concerts. Remembering what is onstage was an examination piece six months earlier, according to exam rules, each students must transform into other characters. It was great to see many performers avoid clunky transitions, instead transforming smoothly and seamlessly into other, secondary characters in their performance.

Even though every performer who makes it into Top Class Drama received a perfect-score A+ on their exam and then made it through an invitation-only audition process where many students missed out, there is always going to be slight variations in quality across all three concerts. Usually, 33 students perform in three concerts of 11, but in 2010 it was one less performer per concert, totaling 30. It will probably always be the case where some performers appear to have better skills than others, though one could still argue once performed at a concert, the audience views are subjective opinions, not criteria-based examination scores where the performances began months ago in an exam room.

This year I was fortunate to have two students perform in Top Class Drama and I was very proud to see both of my students perform on stage at the Melbourne Recital Centre a few weeks ago. Behind the scenes, 6 of my 14 students from 2009 were invited to audition for this year’s program … and that really threw me into a spin!

Only a select few from all the Drama, Theatre Studies, Dance and Music Season of Excellence concerts are asked to perform at a combined concert at Hamer Hall. This year’s concert will be on Friday 28 May. With a seating capacity of 2,600, performing at Hamer Hall is always a buzz for a student performer. Only three or four Drama students are asked to perform their solo performance at the final-stage Top Acts concert. One of my students performed at Top Acts a few years ago and I was thrilled, knowing that this will probably not happen again to me in my career, because the odds are stacked against you. But yesterday changed all that, with a pleasant phone message to discover one of my students from this year’s Top Class concerts has been asked to perform at Top Acts in late May. Hers is a mostly dramatic and serious performance and ranks as one of the most sophisticated student-written performances I have had the pleasure of being a part of. I’m looking forward to seeing it all again

So, if you teach VCE Drama in Melbourne or regional Victoria and have never been to a Top Class or Top Acts concerts, I can highly recommend it as great professional development. Students get so much out of seeing others of a high standard perform and knowledge gained always transfers directly into their own upcoming solo performance or monologue exams.

Well, this year I struggled with actually delivering my topic to my students. It is such a heavy topic laden with responsibility, that I dumped the idea and went on the Plan B for a while, only to eventually give my students the option of two ensemble topics. They chose my first idea, so here it is below.

It is unquestionably the heaviest drama ensemble topic I have given students in many years of teaching. I have a small class this year, so they have formed one single ensemble group for this play. It will be in the vicinity of 45 minutes duration and the development and rehearsal time line (including research) is about 8 weeks of good working time, on a 10 week time line, with a two week holiday break in the middle.

I believe, with a topic such as this, all the planets need to align in order to pull it off successfully. The elements were there from the beginning. A small group of passionate, highly motivated, mature students, half of them school leaders in various areas such as College Captain, Drama Captains, Arts Captain, Public Speaking Captain etc. While not necessarily best friends, they are a close-knit group that is bonding further through the process of developing this ensemble performance. The stakes are high. It will either be a huge success that will no doubt bring audience members to tears, or it may miss the mark, altogether. My students know the risks and are prepared to take on the challenge.

We borrowed our performance title, Terror in Mumbai,  from a BBC documentary of the same name on the Dispatches program. My goal, as teacher, is to see how a group of 17-year old girls can tackle such a serious topic with sensitivity and maturity. Below is the task details I gave my students:

Terror In Mumbai

Background For several days in November 2008, ten gunmen terrorised India’s most populated city. Recruited by leaders of the militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, the men quickly created panic and hysteria among the people of Mumbai.

In constant communication with their controllers in Pakistan during the event, the gunmen shot people in the streets, set off fires in hotels and detonated grenades in taxis and crowded cafes. As the world watched from afar, Mumbai’s antiquated police force was virtually helpless in trying to stop the pandemonium and carnage back home. By the time it was all over, nearly 200 people were killed and over 300 lay wounded.

How did ten gunmen control the city of Mumbai for so long? What was the background behind such a well organised and planned attack on one of the world’s biggest cities? What repercussions do the Mumbai killings have for other major cities of the world today?

Prescribed Performance Styles Theatre of Cruelty (Antonin Artaud), Epic Theatre (Bertolt Brecht).

Prescribed Theatrical Conventions Transformation of character, transformation of place, transformation of object, disjointed time sequences, pathos.

Prescribed Dramatic Elements Contrast, symbol, language.

Prescribed Stagecraft Elements Costume, props, multimedia, sound.

Plot The following plot ideas should be included in the ensemble performance. Other ideas and/or scenes may be added as necessary. At least one example of scenes out of chronological order must occur in order to satisfy the prescribed theatrical convention of disjointed time sequences. The performance must end with a message(s) for the spectator (audience).

• Back story
  • The relationship between India and Pakistan
  • Previous terrorist attacks in Mumbai
  • Religious ideology of the militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba
  • The training of the Mumbai gunmen in Pakistan with Lashkar-e-Taiba

• The event
  • Leopold café bombing
  • Taxi bombings
  • Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi Trident blasts and fires
  • Nariman House (Jewish Outreach Centre) siege
  • Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (train station) shootings
  • Response to the disaster by the Mumbai police force
  • Response to the disaster from the Indian government
  • Response to the disaster by Indian soldiers, marines and commandos
  • Media involvement and reporting of the events from within India and abroad

• The aftermath
  • Victims stories
  • Interrogation by Indian police of captured gunman Ajmal Kasab
  • Public reaction to the events from the world’s media and political leaders
  • Lessons to be learned from the Mumbai attacks and repercussions for the future

Australia is experiencing a boom in documentary and verbatim theatre. From plays about forgotten Australians to docudramas dealing with political scandals and crimes, a bracingly factual scene is reinforcing the stage’s role as an eagle-eyed witness to our times

Successful documentary drama is occurring today in several major cities and regional centres of not just Australia, but other countries as well. While this form of theatre-making may not always attract the populous crowds of mainstream productions, it nevertheless has its place in contemporary theatre.

Kenneth Pickering, in his excellent book “Key Concepts in Drama and Performance” notes it was the great French philosopher Jean-Paul Satre who called documentary drama “theatre of fact” in his essay Myth and Reality in Theatre (1966). Whether one calls it “documentary drama”, “documentary theatre” or “theatre of fact” is probably just a matter of semantics. As is the case with whether we refer to it as a theatre genre or theatre style? If there are differences between what some know as documentary drama and others know as theatre of fact, they are probably subtle.

Most agree the form as we know it today originated in Germany in the early 1960s, consisting of plays about recent historical events, including the horrors of the Nazi regime. But documentary theatre existed in the USSR around the time of the Russian Revolution, it was being examined by Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator in Germany in the 1920s and with The Living Newspaper (part of the The Federal Theatre Project) in America in the 1930s. In all cases, this theatre was political propaganda, set up for social change. The late Augusto Boal used his position as a city councillor in Rio de Janiero to create his Forum Theatre for social change, in effect creating another form of documentary drama based on factual events.

Documentary drama uses historical records of real events as its foundation. Verbatim theatre, according to Rosemary Neill’s article in Review, originated in the 1960s in regional Britain in order to “give marginalised communities a voice”. It goes one step further and deliberately uses the actual words of people involved in the event, onstage.

But can we use documentary and verbatim theatre in the drama classroom and if so, is it likely to succeed? Some of the most successful work I have undertaken with my senior high Drama students in the past three years has been doing exactly these types of projects.

It was borne out of the freedom entitled to me as a Drama teacher to choose a topic of my choice for my Year 12 Drama students to write, direct and perform as a major play for part of their final year assessment. I suspected if I chose a historical event of some worth and motivated my students to undertake heavy research in order to write and perform a quality script, they just might bite the carrot.

In 2007 my Year 12 Drama students wrote and performed their own documentary theatre piece on the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The following year my senior Drama class performed two separate pieces on Hurricane Katrina from 2005. Last year, my Year 12 Drama class divided into two even groups – one exploring the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, the other dramatising the events of the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. This year, my senior class will dramatise the events of British nuclear testing in Australia during the 1950s and 60s. Each year I have tweaked these projects, learning from previous mistakes, so that the project improves the following year.

My findings indicate successful documentary theatre with school students should involve:

• a factual event(s) worthy of investigation
• substantial preparation by the teacher in advance of delivering the project
• enough research information available for students (preferably web-based)
• proper research by the students
• effective scriptwriting based on adequate research
• a clear understanding of both sides/perspectives of the event(s)
• event(s) that has a lead up time – heightens the plot, builds tension
• non-inflammatory theatre – try not to sensationalise
• theatre based on the facts, rather than individual or group opinions
• clear timelines, as a chronology of events can translate into scenes
• episodic ensemble performances work well (as with Brecht)
• time shifts (flashbacks etc) are very effective
• fast jumps in location are also effective, but ensure it is clear to audience
• investigative elements, cover-ups, secret documents, tension, victims
• pockets of verbatim theatre weaved in (snippets of Presidential speeches etc)
• students playing multiple characters with simple costume changes are acceptable

In 20 year of teaching, I can honestly say that I have NEVER got a group of senior Drama students more engaged in an academic task than those listed above, with this bullet list of tips being used along the way. It was hard work, but fun at the same time. Most importantly, if the teacher acts as a facilitator and guide, the students will feel they legitimately own their piece of documentary theatre and when they perform it to parents and friends, they will genuinely believe their small play has made a difference to the world they live in. You can’t ask for any more than that!

On the eve of my senior Drama students receiving their official grades for the year (for locals in Victoria, that’s the VCE Year 12 Drama course), I have a contradiction worth sharing. I spend most of my year pushing my students to achieve the best possible grades they are capable of, and yet I openly say to them that there’s more to school than grades!

Data in my case will show over the past five or six years, I have a near 100% record of my students achieving grades above what was predicted of them in Year 12 Drama by the curriculum authority mid-year. Hey, this is one of my major aims and I’m the first to be proud of that and many of my students and their parents appreciate this also. It means as an educator I have been able, as many of you reading this blog have been too I’m sure, to suck out of my students more than what everyone believed they were capable of in their senior Drama studies.

But then you get those students who are so obsessed with grades. There’s a difference between getting 13/15 on a written task and querying afterwards ”where can I improve?” and stressing about what those 2 little marks are going to do to your end of year study score and overall Year 12 score. Students need to hear wisdom from their teachers that even if they don’t get accepted into their university course of choice, they will fall on their feet eventually … and most importantly … be happy in life.

As Drama/Theatre teachers, we know the most rewarding things our students receive from studying our courses are very rarely the grades, but rather the:

• self-confidence in everyday situations
• socialisation skills
• problem-solving and negotiation skills
• increased self-esteem and personal development
• ability to articulate to others with confidence

And then there’s memories many students cherish for years:

• their first public performance
• the high school musicals or plays
• the musical cast parties!
• the sense of achievement after a successful show

As I reflect on some of the words in ‘thank you’ cards I have received recently, it is not the grades that our students and their parents remember from Drama at school … it is the life skills Drama gave our students in and outside the classroom that helped them through high school and prepared them better for the outside world.

This serves as a reminder to us about the power of Drama and Theatre in education and the profound impact it can truly have on the lives of young teenagers. With this comes our responsibility as Drama teachers.

Drama …. is there another subject at school that gives students so many skills? I doubt it.

In my own example, Year 12 Drama students are preparing final examinations, particularly their 7-minute solo performance character examination to be performed before external assessors.

So many new factors come into play when, for the first time, the students’ assessor is not their classroom teacher. Unknown factors abound, including how the assessors will interpret certain assessment criteria or whether they will spot symbol in a performance, and many more subtle particulars.

Along with this process often comes a lack of student confidence in their own ability. Students who were beaming with confidence earlier in the year, all of a sudden hit rock bottom at the pointy end of the year when it really matters.

In the past week I’ve been a Drama teacher, a disciplinarian, a first aid worker, an actor, a parent, a friend and a mentor in senior Drama class. Such is the nature of teaching in general these days, and specifically that of teaching a subject that requires the performer to be in the right head space in order to excel. You can get away with sitting a Maths exam on a bad day if you know your material, but try doing that with a performance exam in Drama!

It is times like this that remind me, as Drama/Theatre teachers, we must know our senior students well, so we can spot moments of crisis along the way (and preferably before they arrive). When a crisis hits a senior Drama class at a crucial time of the year, it creates a sense of panic inside both the teacher and student. It’s up to us as teachers not to let our students see our own panic, but keep telling them the truth – that we believe in them and their own ability – and that not only will they will get there on the day, but that they will be rewarded for all their efforts along the way. Belief is a powerful thing in theatre, and when dealing with teenagers in particular, should never be underestimated.

Why? Well, the stage version of Chicago has:

• numerous examples of direct character address to the audience
• narration of upcoming action
• virtually no set defining location or environment for various scenes
• the show band in all its glory on stage for the audience to see
• dialogue interaction between characters in the show and the conductor of the band
• offstage cast members onstage, sitting down the sides of the band in full audience view
• lighting trees and instruments in full audience view

Brecht would have loved it!