DR 3.1 Students negotiate, in and out of role, a range of situations and narratives.

 

Negotiate in and out of role:

·              consider purpose and audience when creating drama that will be used to celebrate events or to express ideas and feelings

·              develop their own roles by creating role descriptions in written, verbal or visual forms which they will then use as the basis for roleplays or storytelling

·              explore a range of roles which may be drawn from given information (e.g. historical artefacts, fictional sources)

·              make individual and group decisions about the dramatic situation or narrative

·              participate in meetings in expert roles during extended roleplays

·              support each other in and out of role by listening, offering and accepting ideas or advice, planning possible future directions for the roleplay or storytelling.

Range of situations and narratives:

·              participate in role to explore familiar relationships, such as family and friends, or relationships described in stories from fictional and non-fictional sources

·              explore linear sequences of time, fast-forward or replay, slow motion, time jumps backwards or forwards, causes and effects, juxtaposing scenes in different locations at the same time

·              explore ways of expressing roles and relationships through posture, gesture, proximity, use of levels

·              explore ways of using movement to convey narrative sequences.

Students may:

·              accept and work in a range of roles derived from given information such as role cards or role-on-the-wall (refer to ‘Glossary’ or ‘Ideas File’ on the CD-ROM)

·              explore and use different time frames to sequence or enhance dramatic action such as interviewing witnesses from differing time frames; using a jump back in time to explore the causes of a current situation; scoring a goal in a sporting match in slow motion to highlight time, relationships and movement

·              step into role by adopting the attitudes, purpose and status of the character and then step out of role to make decisions about key moments within the drama and/or possible future directions of the situation or narrative

·              support others in and out of role by listening to and accepting their ideas; encouraging them to vocalise ideas; involving everyone in making decisions about what the roles will be and how they will relate to each other; encouraging ideas for the direction the drama will take

·              suggest possible directions and future scenarios for the drama, both in and out of role.

DR  3.2 Students present and rehearse dramatic action for a specific purpose.

 

Rehearse:

·              select and refine chosen scenes from ideas explored in DR 3.1

·              practise, accept feedback, experiment, meet deadlines

·              develop group skills such as cooperation, toleration, negotiation, problem solving, decision making, arriving at consensus, compromising, planning, reworking, seeing a task through to completion

·              explore different requirements of varying performance spaces

·              memorise lines from scenes developed in
DR 3.1.

Present:

·              develop performance skills as described in Level 3 core content by participating in games, workshops and activities

·              share roleplays or storytelling from DR 3.1 in an informal setting with an audience of another class or year level

·              perform roleplays prepared in DR 3.1 to a known audience in a familiar location

·              tell stories to a known audience in a familiar location.

Purpose:

·              celebrate an event that is familiar and relevant to the students

·              express ideas or feelings that are familiar and relevant to the students.

Students may:

In rehearsal:

·              cooperate by accepting advice, feedback and ideas from others

·              repeat, refine and rework moments and scenes

·              consider audience and purpose when selecting sections to rehearse and polish e.g. an audience of elderly people coming to see a performance celebrating a school anniversary might enjoy scenes enacting a type of activity as it would appear in the past and the present

·              show awareness of performance space by adapting the performance to suit the space. Spaces may include one end of a classroom, a raised stage in the school hall or theatre-in-the-round where the audience is on three or four sides.

In performance:

·              apply movement to suit the role and stage space

·              face the audience as appropriate

·              sustain the established facial, gestural and vocal characteristics of the role

·              use voice, language and movement to express a range of roles e.g. an astronaut speaking in a distorted voice back to Earth, saying ‘Mission Control, Mission Control, all systems are working,’ and moving as if in a gravity-free zone

·              memorise lines

·              speak audibly and with clarity in small performance spaces, such as a classroom

·              sustain role by concentrating on the action, staying in role when not speaking and drawing focus to the action rather than self.

 

DR 3.3 Students discuss and interpret the learnings and understandings developed through drama experiences.

 

Discuss and interpret learnings and understandings:

·              complete guided writing and short answer responses

·              complete peer- and self-assessment tasks

·              describe and explain feelings in and about drama

·              describe key moments in the drama where learning has taken place

·              describe own strengths and challenges in drama experiences

·              discuss personal progress in drama

·              identify what has been learnt when rehearsing and presenting to an audience

·              identify what has been learnt in, through and about drama while in role and out of role

·              participate in whole class and small group discussions

·              view live performances by professional artists and respond to these using learnt drama vocabulary

·              write role descriptions for roles experienced in drama experiences.

Drama experiences:

·              roleplays and presentations from DR 3.1 and
DR 3.2

·              presentations by visiting performers

·              presentations outside the school environment.

Students may:

Apply learned drama terminology when:

·              identifying what has been learnt in, through and about drama while in role, out of role, rehearsing and presenting to an audience e.g. ‘The hardest part of being in role was using words that a pilot might use.’ ‘Next time I would show I was old and feeble by changing my posture to a stooped position and making my voice a bit creaky.’ ‘I learned that when you perform to an audience the facial expressions and the words have to be clear enough for the audience to see and hear.’

·              identifying own strengths and challenges e.g. ‘I am good at bossy roles but I need to cooperate more when my role gets told what to do’

·              identifying personal progress e.g. ‘At the beginning of the year I felt really shy when we shared ideas about drama, but now I feel confident and can express my ideas to my group.’

·              substantiating opinion by providing examples and reasons e.g. ‘When we were all involved in the meeting, Peter played the role of the chairman well because he used the information on the role card. I thought he was believable because he used a strong, business voice and moved in a confident way.’

·              contributing to written and oral role description e.g. role cards: cards that detail characteristics of a role; role-on-the-wall: role represented in picture form (refer to ‘Glossary’ on the CD-ROM).