Drama

Drama at Loreto Normanhurst is a means of assisting students in personal and social growth, developing imagination, discipline and creativity. Participants in Drama processes create meaning by interacting actively, creatively and imaginatively through improvised, spontaneous and structured activities. Students' understanding of Drama is developed through classroom activities and experiential learning, performances, excursions and incursions.

In Year 8, Drama is offered to all students in building blocks of dramatic performance, movement, voice and characterisation. There is an emphasis on narrative play building in Year 8 and students study various cultures and dramatic styles as stimulus for their own dramatic work.

Topics in 2008/2009 include:

• Mime and creative movement
• Play building using various narrative structures
• Cultural expression through puppetry styles

Elective Drama for Years 9 and 10 aims to provide students with experiential learning, personal organisation, performance, observation and reflection.  The course aims to develop students' ability to communicate with increased skill and confidence, to work co-operatively and creatively in group situations, to create characters and scripts of their own, be personally prepared and organised, to write critically about drama and theatre and to reflect on and evaluate their own creative work.

Students in Year 9 explore improvisation and acting (theatre sports), commedia dell'arte, play built performances based on outreach experiences and scripted drama.  Study is conducted through performance of play building and improvisation, research and scripted drama for performance.  Work done in the class is also used in the creation of a public performance.

Students in Year 10 complete intensive study of various dramatic forms.  This includes Ancient Greek drama through to Shakespeare culminating in participation in the Sydney Schools Shakespeare Festival.  Other areas explored include Protest/Political theatre and film editing.

Students in Years 11 and 12 Drama study the practices of Making, Performing and Critically Studying. Students engage with these components through collaborative and individual experiences.

Content comprises an interaction between the components of Improvisation, Play building and Acting, Elements of Production in Performance and Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles.  Learning comes from both theory (40%) and practical (60%) experience.

In the HSC course Australian Drama and Theatre and Studies in Drama and Theatre involve the theoretical study through experiential learning themes, issues, styles and movements of traditions of theatre, exploring relevant acting techniques, performance styles and spaces.

Topics covered in the Preliminary Course include:

• Improvisation, Play building, Acting
• Elements of Production in Performance
• Theatrical Traditions and Performance Styles

The HSC course covers:

• Australian Drama and Theatre (Core content)
• Studies in Drama and Theatre
• Group Performance (Core content)
• Individual Project