Australian Drama and Theatre-Core Component https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabushsc/pdfdoc/drama-st6-course-prescriptions-2015- 18.pdf Topics for Study TWO topics must be studied. ONE topic must be selected from Australian Drama and Theatre (Topic 1 or 2) ONE topic from Studies in Drama and Theatre (Topics 3-9) Australian Drama and Theatre will be examined in a mandatory question that will be applicable to both topics. Topics and texts should be taught experientially. These practical experiences should inform the students understanding and should be used in their HSC essays to show a personal response rather than a purely literary one. Australian productions of works chosen from Studies in Drama and Theatre may be relevant to the study of the topic. Topics, texts or rubrics may be changed in total or in part every three to five years. Explanations of dramatic terminology used in the descriptions of the topics for Australian Drama and Theatre and Studies in Drama and Theatre can be found in the Drama Stage 6 Syllabus. These explanations are intended to assist teachers and students in exploring topics. They are not intended to be prescriptive interpretations of the terms. Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study) The following rubric applies to both topics. This topic explores, theoretically and experientially, the traditional and contemporary practices of Australian drama and theatre and the various ways in which artistic, cultural, social, political and personal issues and concerns are reflected in different contexts. Students investigate how different Australian practitioners use dramatic forms, performance styles, techniques and conventions to convey ideas and influence the ways in which audiences understand and respond to ideas and images presented in the theatre. Students must study either Topic 1 or Topic 2. In the examination there will be a mandatory question applicable to both topics. Students must study at least TWO plays. Two plays must be selected from Dramatic Traditions in Australia OR Two plays from Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice This is the rubric that the exam question will be based on.

Activity Discuss each of the words underlined above in the Australian rubric so that all students understand what is being asked. Distribute the glossary from the Syllabus.

Albury High School 2010-15

Stolen by Jane Harrison is the topic of this resource booklet. This booklet will be used over a 5 week period. Record your reflections in your logbook which will be marked at the end of the 5 weeks.

Workshop 1: this task could be filmed for the whole class to view. Before Reading the play. Choose 5 students who stand and face the audience spread across the stage. The students are instructed to catch the eye of every member of the audience without a sound. The audience look back silently. Question: How does this make you feel? What are you thinking about? As audience what do you think and feel? Choose another 5 students who take their bags and stand with their bags and repeat the process. Repeat the questions. Choose 5 students who now have their bags and a line each from the play which they repeat as a soundscape with Ruby speaking her line last and alone. Sandy: I carry my home with me. Anne: My homes got lace curtains-Ive got a room of my own. Jimmy: Im finally gonna meet my mother. Shirley: Eh Im gonna be a grandmother. Ruby: My mums coming for me. Repeat the questions. Now compare answers from the 3 set up scenes. Workshop 2 2 weeks prep Each student is to come to class and give a 3 minute presentation about the life they have led, some things the other students might not know about them, some personal baggage. They need to bring a prop in a bag of some sort-backpack, suitcase, green bag, sports bag. Albury High School 2010-15 This activity requires trust and some counseling-students should think about the consequences of what they are about to reveal. This will require briefing and debriefing as some students become very emotional. Question: What impact did the stories of your class mates have on you.? How did you feel after telling your story? Look Up Australian Stories Stolen Generation Stories http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/stolengenerations-stories Australian Gov Apology http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/ourpeople/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples Watch: Interview with Jane Harrison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJQZvD1-dAA Albury High School 2010-15 Collect: Photos from websites: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=cootamundra+aboriginal+hom e&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=N7uNU7HQOMXCkgWAnIDQCQ &ved=0CAYQ Read: The play by enacting in class Using the following website discuss the questions below. Activities: http://belvoir.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/StolenTeachers-Notes.pdf How is the word home used in the play? Is it just a place of residence? Why does the playwright use the word home so often? The characters talk and fantasise about home. How did this talk affect you as audience/actor ? Why does the playwright also explore the negative aspects of the word home. Albury High School 2010-15 Is a child without a home homeless forever? Describe your own home. What emotions are attached to your home? Have you ever caught yourself saying Im going home when you are on holidays? What else makes a home? In groups devise a piece on leaving home voluntarily. Think about the emotions behind the decision and the affect these emotions have on you leaving. Next, devise a piece on being forcibly removed from your home. Again, think of the emotions. What are the different emotions in both pieces? What is the audience reaction to both pieces. Research songs and poems about home This is a note making exercise TASK: Q and A STOLEN Political 1 What was the MABO decision? (5 lines) 2 What did the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody reveal?(5 lines) 3 What did the Royal Commission into the Stolen Generation investigate? (5 lines) 4 How are these or other political decisions woven into the play STOLEN? 8 Personal 1 Briefly describe each of the characters-Sandy, Anne, Ruby, Shirley and Jimmy. 2 What does each character want? What is their objective? 3 What is the resolution for each character? 4 What does home mean for each character? 12 Albury High School 2010-15 Social 1 In the Scene Rubys Descent Into Madness there are characters names: authority Figure, Sleaze, Lady, Arsehole, Teenager. Describe your reaction after reading that scene. 2 In the scene Am I Black or White, Anne is faced with a dilemma. Describe the dilemma. 3 What irony exists when Sandy goes back to the childrens home at the end of the play? 9 Artistic 1 Draw and describe the set that is suggested for the performance. 2 What is the significance of the beds, the filing cabinet and the suitcases? Give and example of how the set pieces change or transform in the play. 3 List 5 sound effects and explain why they are used. 4 What is the highest point of tension for each character? 12 Historical 1 Find a line in the play that refers a) to Institutions or homes

1. adoption
2. abuse of children in care
3. police brutality
4. Bureaucratic difficulties

5 Albury High School 2010-15 Cultural 1 In the scene Sandys story of the Mungee, Sandy tells a story to Ruby and us as the audience. What is the meaning of the story? What extra meaning does it have in the context of the play? 2 In the scene Cleaning Routines No 2 , the children sing a parody of Were Happy Little Vegemites. What were the original words to the song? Would you describe this as satire or black comedy? 4 Total: 50 Glossary from Syllabus Conventions- common principles of form and/or style shared by performers and audiences, usually by tradition, but sometimes negotiated within the performance design concepts- the idea or vision of the designer, in consultation with the director, in interpreting the play for performance design elements- include line, shape, space, colour, mood, atmosphere, visual and aural texture, scale and visual relationships directorial concept/vision-is based on the directors creative interpretation of the plays text, themes, characters, style, mood, structure and context elements of drama-include tension, focus, rhythm, space, movement, sound, time, symbol, mood, pace, pause and atmosphere, character/role, actor and audience relationship elements of production-include direction, dramaturgy, design, technical operation and stage management (see Elements of Production in Performance page 20) experiential learning-involves students in learning activities that focus on the experience rather than the theory only. For instance,experiential learning in Design will involve students creating a design, working with design rather than just reading about a design forms established sets of structural principles (sometimes rules) by which drama and/or theatre is produced and/or critically evaluated. Examples include historical forms such as Ancient Greek theatre, commedia dellarte, melodrama, farce, or one of the forms of classical Asian theatre, and recent forms such as community and event theatre, contemporary, avant-garde performance, mixed media, or drama on film improvisation -spontaneous, unscripted (but not necessarily unplanned or unprepared) performance, used either as a rehearsal technique or in live performance Albury High School 2010-15 media feature story-an article on a production, or an aspect of a production,published in a newspaper or magazine. It could be based on an interview with the playwright, director, designer(s) or a performer or performer(s) or include quotations from any of these performance style-refers to elements used in the realisation of a work in performance. Where the work is text-based, the written play-text itself will often imply the adoption of a certainperformance style. Thus a text suggestive of a music-hall entertainment implies a music-hall style of presentation. It is also possible for a director to approach a work through a performance style alien to the original text (eg a Kabuki Shakespeare) rationale a declaration explaining motivations and making known intentions. In this syllabus the term is used to expand the idea of the artistic idea or concept behind each of the Individual Projects styles established aesthetic features of any part of the process of making and performing works of drama and theatre (including styles of writing, directing, design and performance) text- the set of signs that may be read as producing meaning in any work, not including the contextual meanings that the reader brings. So the text of a novel is the words on the page, the text of a film is the images on the screen together with the soundtrack, and the text of a theatrical performance includes all the elements of production traditions commonly held meanings and/or values, or types of practice, in a particular society, considered historically workshop the process of action-learning and exploration conducted in class or in the rehearsal room, involving asking theoretical and practical questions and exploring them through the experimental investigation of possible answers Extra Resources: http://dramateachersnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/stolen-teachers-resourcenotes.pdf www.humanrights.gov.au/education/human-rights-school-classroom www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/rightsed-bringing-them-home http://belvoir.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/StolenTeachers-Notes.pdf

Attachments:

resource-book....pdf