MASK Annual 2018

MASK M A G A Z I N E

D R A M A

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ANNUAL 2018

MASK M A G A Z I N E

1 ANNUAL 2016

DRAMA VICTORIA

YOUR 2018 CO M M ITTEE O F M A NAG EM ENT

PRESIDENT

TREASURER & MEMBERSHIP MANAGER

Eli Erez (Bialik College)

VCE DRAMA MANAGER

Andrew Byrne (Braybrook College)

VICE PRESIDENT

Nina Rossini

Myles Collins

Rosa Campagnaro

(Overnewton Anglican

(Director - Make a Scene

Community College)

Theatre Arts Education)

(Reservoir High)

CO-DIRECTORS OF CONFERENCE

Meg Upton

VICTORIAN CURRICULUM MANAGER

S E C R E TA R Y

(Arts Education Consultant /

Nicholas Waxman

Tony Walker

Academic)

(Eltham College)

(Heatherwood School)

& Andrew Byrne

DRAMA AUSTRALIA LIAISON OFFICER

(Braybrook College)

Lauren Zeigler

VC E T H E AT R E STUDIES MANAGER

(Cornish College)

Nicholas Waxman (Eltham College)

CON TAC T US OFFICE HOURS 8.30 - 4.30pm

CO - RESOURCING MANAGERS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

& Vanessa O'Neill (Youth and Education Manager -Â Malthouse Theatre) DRAMA VICTORIA T H E AT R E F E S T I VA L

Rachel Forgasz (PhD) (Monash University)

Jane Carter

IN T HI S I S S UE

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FROM THE EDITOR

A D VA N C E AUSTRALIA FA I R ?

INTERVIEW WITH LYA L L B R O O K S

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INTERVIEW WITH JESS KEEPENCE

PUTTING UP A 4TH WALL IN YEAR 7 DRAMA

INTERVIEW WITH KATE SULAN

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INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW BLACKMAN

REFLECTIONS ON THE 2018 DRAMA VICTORIA THEATRE

(Mount Waverley Secondary College)

SPONSORS Drama Victoria would like to thank our 2018 sponsors for their generous support. Their help allows us to serve our members and further Drama education across the state.

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Monday - Friday ADDRESS PO Box 373, Abbotsford, VIC, 3067 CO N TAC T

PRINCIPAL SPONSOR

GOLD

Drama Victoria is also proudly supported by:

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P : (03) 9419 2766 E : admin@dramavictoria.vic.edu.au W : www.dramavictoria.vic.edu.au FB : facebook.com/dramavic T: @drama_victoria DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS Fiona Bechtold E : director@dramavictoria.vic.edu.au

SILVER SPONSORS

A D M I N I S T R AT I O N OFFICER Suzie Martens E : admin@dramavictoria.vic.edu.au

16 GOVERNMENT

DRAMA VICTORIA T H E AT R E F E S T I VA L SUPPORTER

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FR O M THE ED I TORS

Adva n ce A u s t r a l i a Fa i r ?

A D r a ma Un i t 2 En s emb l e Ta s k

By Jane Carter, Head of Arts Welcome to MASK magazine 2018 and Drama Victoria’s 50th Anniversary!

Mount Waverley Secondary College

Drama Teachers are inherently dynamic educators, wearing many hats - producer, facilitator, advocate and of course, teacher. We wanted this edition to reflect this and so we have presented to you a collection of articles from teaching colleagues and the arts industry. We are excited by the broad mix of interviews and reflections and hope that this will not only be a useful resource and reference but also an insightful and inspiring read.

This is a detailed account of a Unit 2 Outcome 2 Ensemble Task - Using Australia as Inspiration, by Jane Carter from Mount Waverley Secondary College. Jane outlines the process undertaken during this task, and includes reflections from some of the participating students.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the teachers and artists that have generously given their time to contribute articles. If you feel like sharing a great lesson plan, unit of work, or Drama Teacher success story, please get in touch.

Happy holiday reading!

R o s a C a m p a g n a ro & Va n e s s a O ’ N e i l l

Please email article proposals to director@dramavictoria.vic.edu.au To view all Mask 2.0 articles www.dramavictoria.vic.edu.au/resources/mask-20/mask-20-2018/

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I have always been interested in theatre’s ability to bring about change. At University I was attracted to those practitioners and playwrights who saw theatre as means to challenge social and political beliefs, who wanted their audiences to feel confronted or even stirred to action. Yes, theatre entertains, it amuses, we are caught up in its emotional journey, we enjoy the cathartic release - the final resolution. But, let’s not miss out on the opportunity that theatre presents us: the opportunity to teach our audiences, to make them aware of things that have been hidden, to explore stories that could possibly make us feel uncomfortable or hold up a mirror to the face of our collective identity and show audiences what they may have been unable to see.

The Ensemble performances that my Year 11 Drama classes presented in September this year achieved this. The impact on the audience was very clear, from the feedback that we received.

And, like our post modernist forefathers we feel that we have been at the forefront of a social and political movement. It was a pioneer task, one I would call a ‘work in progress’. I cannot wait to try a new refined version again next year!

Drama Unit 2 always presents us with a challenge - to use Australia as Inspiration, to create a performance that explores an aspect or aspects of ‘Australian identity’. Every year I do this task

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I become more fascinated with our identity as Australians.

Are we truly egalitarian? Why do we denigrate our own with the tall poppy syndrome? Are we a misogynist and racist nation? Over the years my students have explored many of these ideas in their performances. But one area in particular has always fascinated me: Indigenous Australia. How can we ensure that Indigenous Australians are included under this umbrella of ‘Australian Identity’? This year I decided that I would use a ‘text’ as a framework for this performance: the Australian Anthem.

receptive. We obviously had to be selective, so I covered the major policies of White Australian extermination, segregation, protection, assimilation.

On reflection, I would make this teaching much more focused. I think I would actually direct the students to undertake their own research of key historical moments/ events. Scenes that worked well: Captain Cook’s Terra Nullius claim, the impact of the segregation policy (in particular the role of the missions in the destruction of Indigenous languages), connection to land, massacres, the Stolen Generation, Nicky Winmar/Adam Goodes and Dondale Detention Centre. I also tried to direct them to research precolonial Indigenous culture so that each group could present a scene that showed something ‘old’ or historically ancient.

As you can well imagine the scope of this task was immense.

The students began to understand the role that research plays in the creation and development of performance - a good thing really!

If we look at a definition of National Anthem - generally a patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogises the history, traditions, and struggles of its people it provides us with a great structure and starting point. The performance task had a focus question - Is this song inclusive of everyone?

Does it accurately represent our contemporary values, culture and history? One of compulsory dot points for the performance task was a focus on the words ‘fair’ ‘young’ and ‘free’ particularly in relation to Indigenous Australians.

At the same time we explored the performance style of Epic Theatre. Specifically the work of Bertolt Brecht and Epic Theatre conventions, particularly those that create the ‘alienation effect’ which worked well when presenting scenes. It was important that historical scenes showed a clear transformation of time and place. This was created through the projection of dates and facts on the walls. Moreover, it was important that while playing Indigenous characters that the students were very respectful, that they didn’t use accents, often a narrator was used and the convention of actors referring to themselves in third person was also an effective way of presenting an Indigenous character. Symbolic or fragmentary costume was used to represent different characters.

In June this year I took my two Year 11 Drama classes on an excursion to the First Peoples exhibition at the Melbourne Museum. I used this introductory activity to spark the interest of the students and to expose them to multiple stimuli that could be explored in the creation of the performance. I set a research task based on the exhibition specifically addressing Unit 2 Outcome 1: Document ways that selected stimulus material can be researched, interpreted and shaped into a performance. Students had to take photos of selected exhibits and use these to stimulate ideas, characters and stories.

On reflection, I would refine this task and make it more focused. Some students were able to identify exhibits that had dramatic potential. Other students would have benefited from having a list of ideas to point them in the right direction.

The exhibition is broad ranging, covering both contemporary and historical artifacts and stories. What became very clear is that this became a very important ‘formative task’. Many of these students knew very little about Indigenous Australian culture or history. It was at this point that I thought I might have made this task too difficult.

exposure that we have to the ‘ugly’ history of Australia that we as the people of Australia have truly shocked me. The massacres and burnings, the extent to which the White Australia policy truly went, and other forms of racism that shaped our country into what it is today, I believe is very important to teach citizens of this country. However it isn’t, and the amount of influential events that are continuously ignored is something that truly affected me, and I wish I had been aware of it before.

subjects we learn about war and the great depression, never about Aboriginal culture, unless it’s the First Fleet. I did not know what Aboriginal culture was when we started.

I knew what the white people did, but I didn’t know what a dreamtime story was and the pain the Indigenous people suffered during the stolen generation.

Although adolescents are only 20% of the world's population, we are 100% of our future. In our future we hope to live in a utopian world with no racism, sexism, ecetera, in Australia; for Aboriginal culture to be acknowledged and appreciated. For students to be educated about the people who came before us.

Emma: After the performance, some people spoke with me and in class about how Aboriginal History isn’t being taught or recognised enough. That surprised me because I realised I wasn’t taught it as well and I questioned why. It’s surprising how a bunch of students had to teach not only people in our school environment or our families but also our teachers.

Some of our teachers have spoken about how we should start focusing on that and being able to realise that our sort of dark history does need to be something we have to face and teach our future generations.

What were some of the challenges?

Monique: Challenges faced was fear or being disrespectful or pushing boundaries that would be deemed as inappropriate. Although the racism performed was to purposely make the audience uncomfortable, it was difficult to not want to play specific characters.

Chana: It surprised me that there were so many different aspects of Australian History that we are not commonly taught in schools. While events like the First Fleet and Federation are studied in great detail, things like the Aboriginal massacres and many of the grittier aspects of history are often omitted.

Harry: The main challenge we found when making this performance was trying to keep the performance at a level that was a mixture of both truthful and historically accurate while at the same time being mindful that some things people could still find offensive and so we had to take this into careful account when designing some of our scenes.

What did you enjoy most about working on this project?

Drama Victoria members can access an accompanying lesson plan via MASK 2.0 resources on the Drama Victoria website.

Monique: I enjoyed learning about our history. In other

What was created in the end was a total 6 Ensemble performances (I have 31 Year 11 students) who all presented some amazingly provocative and confronting scenes that really got the audience thinking. What was really special for them was that a week after their performance night, Harper Nielsen, a nine year old Primary School student became a major media story after she refused to stand for the National Anthem at her school. How timely! At this point my students had a revelation. They began to see that their theatre-making could have an impact, that what they create and present could be part of something bigger, something beyond the school gates. It was education with a real world focus and it was so exciting to be a part of it. See below for some of the reflections from the class members.

Over the next five weeks I used this information to direct the teaching to include Indigenous Australian History (since the arrival of Europeans). We had to cover a lot of ground - 230 years to be precise. It was quite an overwhelming task and often out of frustration I would complain to the the History teachers about the students' lack of knowledge. They cover some of this very briefly in Year 9, but it is barely a couple of weeks and at a time when they probably are not at their most

What surprised you about the experience?

Laura: A lot of the information surprised me. The lack of

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I n t e r v i ew with Lya l l B rook s , Fo u n d i n g A r tis tic Di re c to r of L ab Ke lpie Th e a t re C om p any

convenience!). It’s a very small operation - just myself as Artistic Director, Literary Manager Sharon Davis, and Creative Producer Adam Fawcett, plus a ridiculously supportive boardslash-advisory-panel.

Why did you want to focus exclusively on the production of new works?

Originally the desire was to simply to produce genuinely engaging theatre that people genuinely wanted to see wherever it was from - but this matured very quickly to focus on what we saw as the most affecting work on our audiences - new Australian plays. No matter how wonderful an overseas play is, there is always a barrier - an unconscious distance between the audience and the work.

by Vanessa O’Neill, Drama Victoria’s Co-Resources Manager

We still have a cultural cringe in this country for local stories or Australian creative arts, and in my opinion it’s less a problem with the audiences than it is with our own industry from the new international works that are over-programmed on mainstages down to the overseas plays and playwrights studied in Drama Schools as standard. Imagine if our local industry resembled that of, say, the UK - a colourful, diverse, well-respected (and well-funded) sector that celebrated and reflected - yet still certainly questioned and challenged where it lived?

Could you start by telling us about your own training and background as an actor and director and what prompted you to found Lab Kelpie?

I’ve been a professional actor for almost twenty years now - across theatre, music theatre, opera, TV and film, and animation.

I think I’ve always had an eye for directing and dramaturgy (but kept it under wraps because that’s the last thing an actor should be doing in someone else’s show!), but my serious foray into directing has come only recently, watching and gaining experience as assistant to talented theatre directors like Susie Dee, John Kachoyan and now, Petra Kalive. I have directed and consulted for Rosa Campagnaro’s Make A Scene, and will direct three brand new projects for Lab Kelpie over the next twelve months.

How do you source the new plays that you produce?

Until recently we have mostly had playwrights approach us with their scripts, but we have others we have put on our radar ourselves after seeing their work at readings or productions, and we will soon be starting callouts for scripts, ideas and playwrights who want to work with us or participate in the programs and opportunities we hope to initiate. Now that we’ve established our publishing arm, Lab Kelpie Press, we’re even more interested in brand new works!

One thing I’m not is a playwright. Which I guess makes co-founding a company dedicated to the craft of playwriting a little incongruous-seeming…

“. . . We sti ll have a cultur al cr i nge i n thi s co un try fo r lo cal sto r i e s o r Austr ali an cre ati ve ar ts.”

Can you tell us about some of the productions that are coming up over the next few months?

Over the next six months we go back on the road briefly for the WA leg of award-winning solo A Prudent Man, premiere Perth playwright Liz Newell’s beautiful one-woman show Alone Outside at Melbourne Fringe, present the Victorian premiere of Mary Anne Butler’s multi-award-winning Broken directed by Susie Dee - at fortyfivedownstairs in November, and produce a final development and the premiere season of Adam Fawcett’s exploration of masculinity and sexuality in the AFL, Become the One, at Gasworks in February.

We’ll also be officially launching Lab Kelpie Education at the Drama Australia Conference at the end of the year. So it’s a fairly crazy time at the moment!

Lab Kelpie is currently developing an Education/Youth arm. Can you tell us more about what you are able to offer Drama Teachers and students, in terms of workshops, productions and other opportunities?

Lab Kelpie Education is an obvious extension of our core philosophy of supporting and advocating for Australian playwrights - getting Australian plays into schools, into libraries, into Drama and Theatre Studies classes. Showing students the power of their own unique voice and stories, and the immeasurable value of the form.

Katy Warner, Rosa Campagnaro and I are working on growing a suite of

Could you tell us about your current show Oil Babies?

Petra Kalive is well known in school drama circles for her wonderful work as a director on MTC Education projects including Melbourne Talam and Hungry Ghosts, but it was as a playwright that she really came to our attention. Oil Babies is not only an incisive, thought-provoking interrogation of our attitudes towards both the environment and women’s bodies, we hope it’s also a Drama or Theatre Studies teacher’s dream… It combines high stakes drama, modern Greek chorus, comedy, rapid-fire and poetic science-babble, song, and physical theatre - as well as bold, evocative design - into one powerful, precisely executed hour of theatre.

Could you tell us more about Lab Kelpie and its work as a theatre company?

Lab Kelpie is dedicated to new Australian text-based theatre works - and our aim is to provide support where we can over the cycle of a playwright’s work: commissioning, development, presentation, touring, publishing, and future performing life. We encourage our writers to take risks and explore the themes they’re passionate about, and the works that make it to stage are all intelligent, vigorous interrogations of how relationships, power and/or politics function in 21st Century Australia.

We’ve been around for about six years now and are based in Hepburn Shire (with an additional Melbourne office for

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high-quality incursion/workshop packages, study-ready theatre productions, and comprehensive teachers’ resources. We also want to team up with schools to offer special access to rehearsals, discussions and hands-on development sessions, and programs for young playwrights, as well as start conversations with teachers about what sorts of opportunities would be valuable for their students, and what other ways a partnership between their school and team of theatre professionals might look like.

General link for all things Lab Kelpie: www.labkelpie.com

Lyall Brooks will be performing Katy Warner's A Prudent Man at this year's Drama Australia Conference - a speculative political piece of theatre inspired by real events.

I n t e r v i ew w i t h f re e lanc e St a ge Manag e r, Jes s Kee p e nc e

You grew up in the country in Castlemaine, can you tell us about that?

Who does a Stage Manager need to communicate with?

Castlemaine is a mecca for artists and it has always had an artistic community. I was really fortunate to have a great High School Drama Teacher who would bring us to shows in the city and I remember seeing an MTC show as a kid. I was really lucky to grow up in a country town that’s very well rounded that really accepts lots of people with different interests; from footy heads to artists!

Practically everyone. Stage Managers need to communicate information from the rehearsal room (the Director) and then to the Designers and Production Managers. Stage Managers also need to be good at observing and noticing what’s going on in the room and be able to recognise if something is NQR and pre-empt problems before they happen. The role requires lots of observing and noticing things and asking, ‘how can we do that better?’

So your High School Drama Teacher and your community inspired you to work in the arts?

by Rosa Campagnaro Drama Victoria’s Co-Resources Manager While working on MTC's epic production of Macbeth, Jess caught up with Rosa at Script restaurant. Over coffee, Jess discussed her life as a freelance Stage Manager, as well as imparting her thoughts on what makes a good one.

Jess Keepence has stage managed for MTC, Illbijerri, Malthouse Theatre, and many Melbourne independent theatre companies since graduating from the VCA. Jess Keepence in the rehearsal room with Ash Flanders on 'Buyer and Cellar' at MTC in 2015

You need a psychology degree!

I think you do! Actors are such fragile beings and directors have a creative vision that they need to fulfil…

Initially I was interested in acting and at High School I was involved in Drama and the Rock Eisteddford and community theatre. When I left High School I realised that ‘well, I’m not going to be an actor’ so I studied a Bachelor of Arts. As part of that degree I studied Indonesian as a second language, Literature, Sociology and Theatre. I did some performing at University but decided I didn’t like it. I did continue to be involved in theatre but started doing more stage management type stuff. I started to develop an interest in lighting and costume design, because I was a bit crafty, and so I applied for the Bachelor of Production at the VCA and was accepted!

What an interesting place to be! A rehearsal room is like watching a performance in itself.

That’s what I like about the freelance part of stage managing, you’re working with different people all the time and you’re constantly having to work people out, which is kind of fun!

The part about observing and taking an interest in people, is that the actor part of you? Not so far removed from why an actor does theatre, right?

I guess, but I don’t want to express it in the way they do. I want to support their process so that they can do what they do and do it well. To support them being able to tell stories, to make people laugh and cry and all those things we go to the theatre for. That’s why theatre is made, to bring out empathy in people, and I really enjoy seeing how actors do that. I enjoy seeing that evolve and knowing that I’m an integral part. It’s kind of like being a pilot.

So you went straight from one degree to another.

How was it different to the first course you did?

Yes. The VCA course was a more holistic program where everyone did everything (ie all production areas: lighting, costume, tech, stage management etc) and as the degree progressed you ended up specialising. In my third year I started liking stage management and also realised I’d been doing it already and my personality lent itself to this area.

A pilot?

When you say personality, what type of personality lends itself to stage management?

An actor once introduced me to a friend as ‘…this is Jess the Stage Manager, she’s like an air traffic controller, watching all the planes come in and making sure they all come in at the right time’.

An organised type and a ‘people person’, I guess. You have to be able to read people, communicate well and understand where everyone is coming from. You need to be able to see all sides of arguments and discussions in a rehearsal room so you can be objective and maybe mediate.

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What a fantastic analogy! So a Stage Manager is the pilot ‘calling the show’ and an Assistant Stage Manager is different?

food colouring, which makes this sticky stretchy gunky stuff.

I then pop it in a mould, add fake blood and it looks pretty convincing! And thankfully no trips to the butchers for offal!

Yes. SMs are usually in a team of two ASMs and an SM. The SM is the person in the rehearsal room, writing the blocking on the script, doing the prompting, and then later in the theatre the SM ‘calls the show’. The SM also often operates the sound cues and calls the lighting cues and automation or revolving stages or scenery flying in.

Okay, it’s nearly dinner time so let’s change the subject. What other stuff do SMs do?

The ASM assists the SM but is often the person that finds the props and works closely with the Designer to source props.

That’s the classic MTC model but there are lots of companies that do that too. In the theatre the ASM is usually on as a floor crew member – assisting actors change costumes, set changes, moving props, cueing actors, watching scenery fly in and out and making sure all is clear and safe. For example on Macbeth, there’s lots of need for ‘extra eyes’ because of the scenery flying in, the revolving stage, and cars on fire so it’s really busy in the safety sense!

Can you tell us more about MTC’s Macbeth?

It’s a really technical show and in this case we’re in a team of three: Deputy Stage Manager, an Assistant Stage Manager and a Stage Manager. The SM and ASM are on floor crew (as mentioned before) and the DSM is ‘calling the show’.

An SM needs to be really good at time management. They are in charge of rehearsal schedules and coordinating everything. For example, an SM may need to liaise with the marketing department and then the Director and actors to schedule publicity shoots during the rehearsal period.

Such an enormous and underrated job!

Yes, and the skills involved are so transferable to other work places unrelated to the arts. The stuff that’s so specific to the job is also so universal.

So would you work in any other area?

Like an understudy for the SM? Yes. And that’s also really interesting work as well, because you’re not there for the formation or the birth of it and you’ve got to slot yourself into the dynamics of the existing group.

What’s it like to travel a show overseas?

I just thought, I’m in New York, doing a show. My career is taking me around the world, which is amazing and exciting!

Changing the subject, the topic of sexism, misogyny and bullying is very current. Have you experience any of this?

Yes probably. Most Stage Managers tend to be women.

Not sure why that is…some say that being a Stage Manager is like being a ‘mother’. You’re always caring for people, looking after them and making sure they have what they need

Don’t know. I don’t want to leave. It can be tiring and hard work and being freelance is a challenge, but I don’t know what else I would do. I would still be involved in the arts and I enjoy the artistic process. I want to be part of that evolution from page to stage.

What’s the best rehearsal room you’ve worked in?

That’s a tough question. They’re all very different. I enjoy working with Director, Sam Strong who is very inclusive in the rehearsal room and everyone’s opinion is listened to. I studied literature and sociology so I’m interested in those conversations and being part of it and Sam lets you do that.

As the ASM I’m working with props on Macbeth. MTC has a props buyer so it takes a load off my shoulders, but I’ve been working with the Designer to find props. Lots of things were custom built for Macbeth, but in other circumstances you might be going to op shops or trawling Gumtree and also supporting the SM in the rehearsal room.

On Macbeth I’m dealing with lots of small props: food, plates, laptops and blood! I’m desensitised to the fake blood now!

This mix is glucose, red food die and chlorophyll.

So if anyone is on a detox they can drink it at the end of the show?

I also enjoyed working with, Kate Sulan, Director of Rawcus.

It’s a really great company, they have an ensemble of people with and without disabilities and they make movement/physical and visual based theatre. That’s a different kind of room to be in and I like Kate’s approach. It’s good to get that variety and that’s why I enjoy freelance and doing lots of different things.

Speaking of different things, you went to Canada in 2017?

Yes, some of the actors need to ingest it as part of the show!

Yes I toured with Ilbijerri Theatre Company with Jack Charles Vs The Crown to New York and Toronto. We also took the show to three cities in Canada the year before in 2016. It was an existing show before I got on board and I had to take on someone else’s script and learn how to call the show.

What else?

In addition to making fake blood every night, I need to make a fake liver. At the beginning of the play, one of the witches takes a liver out of a bloody soldier. In rehearsal there was a suggestion that it should be real offal, but I’m vegetarian so I wasn’t particularly excited about doing that! In the end we found a way of making a liver. It’s Metamucil, gelatine and

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and are where they need to be. Maybe women have that natural tendency? Having said that, I know a few male Stage Managers and they’re just as good at their job. Sometimes you get the ‘can I help you lift that?’ and it’s like, hang on, would you be asking a male SM that? Thankfully I haven’t experienced anything horrible. Some people get away with bullying because they are a name or a star. I think the industry is slowly starting to acknowledge the issues and starting to talk about it more and it’s becoming less taboo and hidden.

There are a few wellness programs going through the industry and that’s a step forward. Bullying is not conducive to good work.

Finally, I need to ask… I heard a rumour that you like to bake for the cast and crew, is that true?

What can I say? Sweet treats are nice way to peoples’ hearts!

P u tti n g up a 4th Wa l l in Ye a r 7 Dr a ma

by Ashleigh Phillips, Performance Arts Leader, Keysborough Secondary College Ashleigh Phillips shares her experiences of building a culture and respect for Drama and performance at Keysborough Secondary College with her wonderful and inclusive introductory Year 7 program.

I was sitting in Fiji, with my colleague Kathleen Spaull, over the July school holidays, and we were talking about how great teaching Drama is. What else do you do on your holidays? We have worked very closely over the last 3 years to improve the Drama curriculum at our school, in order to improve student engagement, increase class sizes in our electives from Year 9 up and to build a culture, within our College, that appreciates and values the Performing Arts.

At Keysborough College, we have compulsory Year 7 Drama for a Semester (they try all 8 Arts/Technology subjects for a Semester over Years 7 and 8, then choose their favourites as electives in Years 9 and 10). We then hope they’ll want to pursue VCE Drama in Years 11 and 12. When I started at the College in 2014, there was a culture ingrained that Drama was just for playing games and Music was the main Performing Arts focus. There was also a distinct lack of documented curriculum, so I had to start from scratch. I wanted to change that as soon as possible, but I was the only Drama Teacher. 5 years later, I work in a small, but passionate team of 4, and we have a thriving Drama community where the students know that Drama is hard work, but creatively fulfilling, and that performing can be nerve racking, but lots of fun.

Last year, as the Victorian Curriculum made its way in to schools, we decided to focus on Year 7 Drama, where we hoped to instil a love for Drama as soon as they started High School. We also wanted to start introducing VCE terminology in the Junior Years, so that the content was easier for the kids to absorb and they were familiar with the terminology before starting VCE.

“Our Ye ar 7 Dr ama co ur se i s de si gne d aro u n d shi e lds that the k i ds can pe r fo r m be hi nd. ”

A challenge that I faced in 2014 was getting the students to perform. I would always tell the kids when their performance assessments were due, but when that day came, kids would be in sick bay, absent or would ask to go to the bathroom and never come back - something I am sure happens in all schools.

A lot of the stress of performing came from either being unprepared, unsure of what they were expected to present or they were nervous to present their ideas in front of their peers.

We have worked to break down this wall over the last 5 years, and I am glad to say that we no longer have this problem, and it starts with how we structure our Year 7 classroom dynamics.

Kathleen brought it to my attention last year that our Year 7 Drama course is designed around shields that the kids can perform behind. We teach 3 units of work over the Semester - Puppetry, Mime and Commedia dell’Arte. We both realised that through using these shields, we have established that our Drama classes have a safe, but still challenging, environment where students build confidence in performance and in developing and sharing ideas.

In the Puppetry unit, the students work in groups to create their own puppet/s that they then present in a performance.

They are on stage, but they are shielded by their puppet. They get their first performance out of the way and realise that “it wasn’t even that bad!”. My fondest memory of this unit was this year, when a group of super shy international students sat in my class for two lessons and didn’t build a puppet.

I was worried that they weren’t going to have anything for performance day, but when the day came, they came to class with a myriad of intricately designed shadow puppets that told a story of how Batman saved a cat from a tree. I asked why they hadn’t constructed the puppets during class time and they said that they just preferred to do it at home. The most confident in their group acted as a narrator (from behind the table) and the other three girls presented a beautifully rehearsed piece that showed tremendous teamwork, creativity and attention to detail.

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In our second unit, they devise a performance in the style of Mime. This time, it’s them on stage, but they don’t have to remember any lines, which is something that a lot of students at our school struggle with. Working with a lot of EAL and refugee kids who have come to us from the Noble Park Language School, this unit often sees these students thrive, as they focus on storyboarding and exaggerated movement instead of scripting and dialogue - this is their shield. My absolute favourite performance from this unit was in 2015, when two Cambodian boys, acting as an elderly husband and wife, were watching TV. The TV stopped working, so the 'husband' got up to fix it and got electrocuted (which amused his 'wife' greatly), then he tripped on the cable and they finished by showing that the TV would only work if the 'husband' was holding the antenna. They did not speak and only had one chair as a prop, but it was so clear who they were, what they were doing and what they did to try and fix the TV. The whole class was in stitches and it melted my heart to see how chuffed they were after they sat back down in the audience. That is why I love teaching Drama. Seeing kids proud of themselves for going outside of their comfort zone and feeling proud of their achievements.

Our final unit, teaches the students about the Italian performance style, Commedia dell’Arte. The shield in this unit is the traditional masks that are specific to each of the stock characters. The kids are now on stage, using dialogue, but they have funny faces to hide behind. This unit is quite challenging for a lot of students because the exaggerated movement is so specific and they often feel 'silly', but by the time we get to the last lesson and they perform, there are some absolutely hilarious Pantalones, Capitanos and Zanni strutting their stuff on stage. The students love working the lazzi in to their performances and my favourite group this year presented a scene where Pantalone was yelling at Arlecchino for getting the wrong items from the supermarket, so he kept slapping him and when Arlecchino fell over, he kept kicking

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Pantalone in the butt. It was hysterical. The boys held the character shape the whole time and really committed to the fake slaps and tumbles on the floor (as only 13-year old boys can, when you have them after lunch). Again, the class were in fits and the boys, who had been quite a struggle at the start of the year, felt like they’d just nailed a gig at the Comedy Festival.

At our school, there is still a stigma, from a lot of our families, that the Arts are not important. Students are pushed into the STEM subjects and expected to choose pathways that lead them to be doctors, lawyers and engineers. I absolutely recognise that not every students that participates in our Drama classes is going to strive to become an actor, but if we

can challenge their perception about the importance of the Performing Arts, and allow them to build their confidence, collaborative skills and ability to think outside the box, while they dance on stage dressed as a zombie clown Jedi (god bless the costume cupboard disasters that appear on our stages), then I consider that a huge success. They might need to hide behind a few shields at the start, but as they grow and figure out how they present their best work, we can remove those shields and start breaking down the 4th wall in preparation for their VCE studies.

Drama Victoria members can access an accompanying lesson plan via MASK 2.0 resources on the Drama Victoria website.

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I n t e r v i ew with Ka te S ulan, Ar t i s ti c Di re c to r o f R awc us

by Vanessa O’Neill, Drama Victoria’s Co-Resources Manager, Drama Victoria’s Vanessa O’Neill interviewed Kate Sulan, Artistic Director of Rawcus, about the Rawcus Ensemble, the devising process of the company and their return season of Song for a Weary Throat.

Could you start by telling us about your own training and background and the inspiration to found Rawcus?

I graduated from the VCA with a graduate diploma of Animateuring in 1997. Since then, I have worked as a Director, Dramaturge and performance maker across a range of companies.

Rawcus grew organically over many years. It started as a one off project to develop a performance for the National Cerebral Palsy Conference. The theme of the conference was unlocking potential. We gathered a group of artists with and without disability who wanted to extend their skills and develop their practice. There was so much energy within the group and a strong desire to keep collaborating

together we made another work together. This enthusiasm continued and so we fundraised to make another work and then another. Eventually we formed a company and now 18 years later we still feel as excited and interested in creating work together.

Can you tell us more about Rawcus (its mission and vision)?

Rawcus is an ensemble of fifteen performers with and without disability who create contemporary performance together. It's a long term artistic conversation between the Ensemble, the Artistic Director and the design team Jethro Woodward (sound), Richard Vabre (lighting) and Emily Barrie (set and costume).

At the core of Rawcus is a collaboration between a diverse group of artists.

The work is developed in collaboration with the Ensemble in the rehearsal room over a long period of time. It comes from hearts, minds, bodies, imaginations and experiences of those in the room.

Our aim is to make and present exceptional art whilst nurturing and investing in a long term Ensemble. We rigorously challenge artistic process and practice and we champion diversity as a way to make extraordinary art.

The Rawcus Ensemble is made up of performers with and without disability. Could you tell us how artists and performers become part of the Rawcus Ensemble?

Performers go through an audition process to join the company. The Ensemble members have a large input into who joins the Ensemble.

Could you tell us about how the company devises work in collaboration with its artists and Ensemble members?

Rawcus rehearses once a week and

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then has intensive blocks of creative development and rehearsal. The work is developed slowly over a two to three year period through a process of improvisation, discussion, research, scripting and rehearsals.

The Rawcus Ensemble are co-devisors of the work.

The work that the company produce combines dance, theatre and visual arts disciplines. Can you explain further how you combine these three disciplines in your work?

The Rawcus Ensemble love to move and so our work is always highly physical. When embarking on a new work we get our inspiration from a variety of art forms, such as music, visual art and existing text. When generating content we work with multiple art forms and elements. I often ask questions of the Ensemble and invite them to respond with answers in different modes- answer in a drawing, in a dance, a song or a poem. This all feeds into the final version of the work.

Melbourne International Arts Festival. Can you tell us about this particular work and how it was devised?

Song for a Weary Throat is a work about hope in the face of trauma. In the rehearsal room we explored the question- what propels us to get up after trauma, after heartbreak, after loss, after failure? Song For A Weary Throat is our collective response. The 15 extraordinary performers in Rawcus had much to say and offer on the subject of resilience and hope.

Song for a Weary Throat is a collaboration with the Invenio Singers, an amazing vocal ensemble. In the rehearsal process we improvised together around the themes and the work grew out of these long form improvisations and investigations.

Could you also tell us about workshops and programs offered by Rawcus, which may be of interest to Drama Teachers and Drama students?

Rawcus runs master classes about our devising process on inclusive practice.

We also run a public program with workshops and projects available for young people. We also do commissions where organisations can hire us to conduct workshops.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rawcustheatre/ or on our website www.rawcus.org.au For information about these workshops and programs or contact our General Manager Jacque on jacrobin@bigpond.com

Image photographer Paul Dunn

Could you discuss how you collaborate with Jethro Woodward for the Sound Design of your productions?

As with all of the designers, Jethro is involved from the beginning of the project and is deeply embedded in the creative process from the dreaming stage through to production. The sound is not something that is layered on at the end of the rehearsal period.

It develops alongside the creative process in conversation with the work created by the Ensemble.

Song for a Weary Throat had a hugely successful season last year (winning 3 Green Room Awards including Best Production and Best Ensemble). The work returns in October as part of the

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maintain close relationships with members of the ensemble of ’85 including Eugene Gilfedder, the extraordinary actor who played Creon, Aegeus and the Messenger in the Complete Works’ Medea. The following year I worked with the Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe performing Shakespeare in secondary schools as far north as Mossman and Cairns. It was like running away with the circus. It was then that I decided that at some time in the future I’d create my own theatre company and have an ensemble of performers.

I n t e r v i ew with An d rew Black m an (N IDA g r aduate and Ar t i s ti c Dire c tor o f C o m p le te Wor k s Th e a t re C om p any )

by Rosa Campagnaro Drama Victoria’s Co-Resources Manager, Andrew Blackman (NIDA graduate and Artistic Director of Complete Works Theatre Company) shares his love, passion and great knowledge for classic plays and gives us an insight into his process and directorial approaches.

‘Complete Works Theatre Company’ is a great name and it really nicely sums up what you do. How do you decide which classics and contemporary plays make up your repertoire?

I founded Complete Works in 2000 to produce and perform the plays of William Shakespeare. We quickly grew into a company that responded to the text requirements of the Victorian English Curriculum. In many ways the plays we stage our already chosen for us and they are all great classics of the Western Cannon. Our focus has gone beyond Shakespeare's and Australian poetry for middle years to include full productions like Medea for VCE.

Can you tell us a bit about your training and background?

On graduating from acting at Queensland University of Technology I joined the ensemble at the TN! Theatre Company on a twelve-month scholarship. Essentially, it was an apprentice ship in performance and theatre production.

As the youngest member of the company I built sets, worked front of house, rigged lights, sourced props and performed in two plays of a nine play season. Working with such intelligent, multi-talented and extraordinary artists set a pattern for a career and ignited my passion for the classics. I continue to

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The acting bug had firmly taken hold, but I was raw and hungry for knowledge and experience and continued my training at NIDA. For a young man from country QLD the bustle of Sydney and full-time training at Australia’s premier acting institution was everything I wanted … and needed. At the time I graduated in the early 1990’s I wouldn't say there was a fundamental ‘NIDA method’. We were exposed to an eclectic range of philosophies, techniques and methods, mostly based around the given circumstances work of Russian director Constantine Stanislavsky. Voice work was sourced from Cicely Berry with a dash of Kristen Linklater and movement taught by the extraordinary educator Keith Bain (a true revelation for me). Dean Carey taught improvisation with its roots in Keith Johnstone’s work and guest directors from all over the world, with their varied techniques and methods were invited to direct. Even the late great Nick Enright penned St James Infirmary Blues especially of our company. Drama School is hard work. Studying Drama, the triumphs and downfalls of characters flawed and fraught, while negotiating ones own developing sense of self is an experience for the resilient. It is an intense and personally challenging experience emotionally, intellectually and psychologically. I relished my NIDA training.

Of all the practitioners that I worked with, Dieter Braun, a German director who had worked with the Berliner Ensemble (the company that Bertolt Brecht founded post WW2) made the greatest impact on me. He was engaged to direct Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle for our second year. It was a general rule of casting that if you played the lead in one play you would be a given smaller role in the next. Very equitable. (Even Cate Blanchett played a Maid in Miss Julie).

Being a Shakespeare nut I agitated for Orlando in As You Like it; this meant that I’d play bit parts in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. A total of seven as it transpired. Being an earnest young man I took myself very seriously. I had indulged myself marvellously in some Stella Adler method scene work on A Street Car Named Desire and decided to use what I had learned on the Brecht. I thought to secure my standing as a brilliant performer in the eyes of a great European director. Glorious fail! Dieter Braun’s English was often lost in translation; he would revert to his native German at regular

intervals. While I was taking time to ‘drop in’, ‘find centre’ and wait for the inspirational impulse for my Milkman to say, 'We have no milk, the soldiers took all the milk.', he leapt from his seat gesticulating, ‘*#!k zee hell! Give me a caracta!’, then proceeded to tick-tock his hand like a metronome.

‘It goes like zeis – tuck tuck tuck - stop – then quick - tuck tuck, tuck tuck, tuck tuck - silence.’ All of a sudden the fog lifted. This small character was functional to the story, like a short arpeggio in a symphony, a small moving part in a large engine; it had to happen at a precise moment, in the right time, to serve the overarching narrative. Whatever emotional back story I was exploring for the Milkman was completely immaterial. Just say the line and get on with it. This was Brecht after all! I knew it intellectually and now the dawning had happened on the rehearsal floor - physical action can generate the feeling; the rhythm of the text can be in the rhythm of the body, the heart, the breath, and in the end we a just telling a story for the entertainment of others.

This humbling experience took me away from the dangerous indulgence of ‘emoting’ everything and allowed me freedom to play. Freedom to play is a prerequisite in the Complete Works rehearsal room and is essential to a safe, creative space where ideas can be tried and tested.

even Shakespeare, are not trying to imitate real life but create a meaningful artistic structure. The tragic hero was always a larger than life character, a great man or woman ruined by ambition, or lust or jealous possessiveness. The story always deals with a profound moral issue of human existence and dramatic interest hinges on the central characters’ struggle or weakness – their fatal flaw. The tragic hero must also be both good and bad (a view central to the Ancient Greek view of humanity), so that the audience can accept the plausibility of their destruction.

In Medea we can see quite quickly that the central characters, Medea and Jason, are working from completely opposite points of view, their perspectives are opposed as north is from south and their inability to move from their position is at the heart of the conflict. Medea is driven by her passion and Jason by his reason. Add to the mix her intelligence and uncompromising nature with his adherence to logic and political expediency and you have a volatile cocktail ripe for drama.

I saw the company’s production of Medea and it was wonderful. What do you think are the key ingredients that make a classic play work well?

Understanding the form, genre and conventions of the time the play was written is foremost. Then all decisions on staging – style, interpretation, focus etc can be informed choices. In Medea, Euripides has the action all happen in less than 24 hours. To a modern or student audience this compression of events might seems totally unrealistic but is part of the Classical structure. We need to accept and understand the formal classical devices such as unities: the unity of time, place and action. Euripides and his colleagues,

The hero must know by the end what their error is, they must understand and learn from the truth, and in doing so we learn with them. This is the educational value of the great classical tragedies.

Carolyn Bock was exceptional in the role of Medea.

What skills do you think an actor needs to tackle a role like this?

I agree. At Complete Works we have the opportunity to revisit and mine the text over a cycle up to four years. Carolyn has played Medea for the last three seasons, each time uncovering more about the character, layering detail and nuisance, going deeper and embracing the challenge. For an actress with the right aptitude, approach and appetite Medea is a gift.

There are some essential qualities the performer needs to

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understanding from there. Macbeth, for example, deals with the consequences of overweening ambition. If we understand that the tragic hero is both good and bad we can then search for this evidence in the text. Then with the actors in rehearsal ask the questions: How? What? When? Where? Why? …. and play, always play.

Some classic texts may be becoming redundant with values and views that don’t align with the current zeitgeist (i.e. sexism, homophobia, racism). Do you think classic texts that purport these sentiments are still relevant and if so, how would you approach this?

Adapt? Ignore? Scrap?

Classic texts are always relevant. To dismiss them as redundant because they don't align with the current zeitgeist is, in my view, reductive and frankly lazy.

successfully bring off a role as challenging as Medea. She needs a passion for the subject matter, willingness to take risks and emotional and physical resilience. Carolyn has all three. Medea goes on an extraordinary rollercoaster of emotion that starts with her in the depths of pain that doesn’t let up until her final triumph. Carolyn is a feeler. When we first talked about the possibility of her taking the part she was in the middle of some workshop explorations into the role the ‘Goddess’ plays in human/feminine nature - coincidentally she had chosen Medea and Hecate, the goddess Medea prays to, as her influence. It seemed a natural progression to continue that research into the play.

Another admirable quality of Carolyn's approach is that she never rested on her laurels or ever accepted that she ‘got there’, but was always willing to learn and go further in the pursuit greater understanding and a better performance. She was also supported by a talented cast with the same ethic.

Match a classic play with a great creative team and you have the potential to create art.

I think there is always something to learn of the human experience by performing the classics. Sure, adapt them, restage them, deconstruct them, experiment with setting and cross gender casting but never scrap them. If I were to dismiss Medea (the play) because it was written by a man, originally performed by men for viewing by the patriarchy because I steadfastly align myself with gender equality I would be is missing the point and close myself off from the possible lessons in the text. There is no doubt these texts can be daunting when looking at them the first time but with a little persistence they have far more to offer on current social and political affairs than we might give credit for.

How far we have come as a species? In many ways, leaps and bounds but in others not very far at all. Does the forbidden love of Romeo and Juliet still exist? Of course it does. What about long held prejudices, betrayal, homicide, crimes of passion, irrational behaviour, tribalism and arrogance?

Yes. Joy, laughter, humanity and love? Yes. Is ambition and ego being played out on the world stage for political and personal gain? Of course it is. The goalposts may shift but the game remains the same. The classics are part of our DNA, our genetic code. To deny them is to deny who we are, where we're going and what we will become.

A little forensic analysis of the context in which a play is written is essential. Simply portraying Medea as a crazy woman that kills her children and Jason as a selfish oaf is a trap to be avoided. Human beings are far more complex than that, particularly great ones. When we researched Medea we used what we fondly called ‘Mytho-method’. Understanding the Greek myths and stories on either side of the episode of the Medea that Euripides gives us helped inform directorial perspective and characterisations for our production. We needed to know the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece to have a clear understanding of the deep love that the

Where do you start when you’re directing an epic Greek classic or a Shakespeare?

For me directing theatre is all about overcoming obstacles and solving problems. I start with the structural model.

Tragedy is an important but complex notion; it shows us the tendency of people to let their weaknesses undermine the strengths. Because the great classical dramatists set their stories at that the extremes of human experience, I identify what these extremes are, then drill down for

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two central characters had for each other - the greater the love the greater the pain when that love shatters. Creon is a descendant of Sisyphus, who tried to cheat death and so was destined to spend eternity rolling a large boulder uphill only to have it roll down again before it reached the top.

The sins of the father are handed down from generation to generation, all the way to Creon of Corinth. We used this Sisyphean metaphor in our production. Creon enters the stage and begins strongly - CREON: You there, Medea, scowling rage against your husband! I order you out of Corinth; take your two sons and go into exile. I am sole arbiter of this decree and shall not return to my palace until I banish you beyond my boundries.

He has to begin strongly because he fears Medea and knows what she is capable of; he knows she is a woman like no other. Nevertheless by the end of the scene he is skilfully outwitted by the shrewd Medea.

CREON: [disengaging his hand] I am no Tyrant by nature. My soft heart has often betrayed me; and I know it’s foolish of me now; yet none the less, Medea, you shall have what you ask …

No matter how hard he tries, his caring nature gets the better or him and he allows Medea to stay for one day for the sake of her children, a day that she desperately needs to fulfil her plans for vengeance. This is a perfect example of self-fulfilling prophecy in a single scene.

Another interesting piece of research we uncovered that helped inform the plausibility of the main characters actions was a law enacted about 20 years before Euripides wrote Medea. King Pericles gave even more privileges to the citizens of Athens in order to secure purity of bloodlines. It was deemed that a Greek citizen must have Greek parentage on both sides. This automatically meant that wives of foreign birth, and consequently their children, where no longer considered citizens and therefore without rights. A terrible situation for a woman in a patriarchy. With border crossings closing and harsh immigration and refugee policies in our current times, this knowledge can be usefully applied to a contemporary production. For us, it gave Jason a clear position and conscious political reason for marrying the King's daughter and it provided Medea with even greater motivation to extinguish Jason's line, even though by killing the sons she loves, she knows that she must endure everlasting pain.

audience incredibly. It is probably no wonder that Euripides was allocated third place at the Festival of Dionysus in 431BC.

What’s your favourite Australian contemporary text and why?

The Secret River by Andrew Bovell adapted from Kate Grenville’s novel of the same name, is in my option, the most significant piece of theatre in the last decade. It addresses the contradiction at the heart of our society and acknowledges truths that have been hidden for generations.

It is an important work that I think should be seen by all Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous alike. It is a great tragedy told with heartbreaking eloquence and humanity and still resonates with me today.

Your company has built quite a repertoire over the last 15 years. Do you have a dream project for the future?

A comedy!! Our repertoire is lopsidedly tragic. I love the big stories of the world, every culture has them, stories like Gilgamesh and The Mahabharata. We have adapted our own version of Monkey, Journey to the West by Chinese author Wu Cheng-en and crossed it with the 1970’s Japanese TV show Monkey Magic. Every time we go into planning to stage it another production pops up, this time on Netflix. But it will happen…

Shakespeare can sometimes be daunting, what’s your recommendation for teachers wanting to professional learning in this area?

I know that the University of Melbourne offers a Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of Shakespeare and Complete Works is available to conduct PL for teachers. Please contact the office, info@completeworks.com.au or 03 9417 6166.

Any final advice for Drama Teachers?

Make your rehearsal rooms spaces for play. Brilliant things are created when the imagination is free to create!

Even today we find the terrible outcome abhorrent but for the Athenian audience to have such a strong, capable, untameable woman onstage behaving the way she does would have petrified and affronted the male citizenry of the

Andrew Blackman

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R e f l e c tions on the 2 0 1 8 Dr am a Victor i a Th e a t re Fe s tival

problems, collaborate, communicate, imagine, persevere, and create.

As DVTF’s Workshop Facilitator, I brought my experience at Lincoln Center to bear, guiding five pre-service teachers in their design and facilitation of experiential, collaborative, inquiry-based workshops for Year 9 & 10 Drama students.

Similar to LCE’s approach, these workshops would all focus on a work of art – or stimulus material – that the pre-service teachers and I were to select. We were encouraged to select a stimulus material that was in line with Drama Victoria’s focus for the year: Unity and Diversity.

by Krystalla Pearce, Workshop Facilitator for Drama Victoria’s Theatre Festival Having recently returned home to Melbourne after almost ten years living and working in other places, I was excited to take up the position of Workshop Facilitator for Drama Victoria’s Theatre Festival (DVTF) and apply what I had learnt overseas – particularly as a Teaching Artist in the Education Department of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

It was at Lincoln Center Education (LCE) that I was introduced to the concept of Teaching Artistry, and I realised that I had worked in this very profession for years but had never had a name for it. Teaching Artists bring their own artistic practice to the classroom.

LCE’s precise pedagogy is based in the work of educational philosopher and social activist Maxine Greene. She was LCE’s Philosopher-in-Residence and a major conceptual force behind its founding in 1975. Her philosophy, inspired by John Dewey as well as existential philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, posits that understanding a work of art takes place in the continuous interaction between the viewer and the artwork. She characterises a work of art as an inexhaustible resource for learning.

Teaching Artists work with classroom teachers to design and deliver experiential, collaborative, inquiry-based workshops that engage participants in art making, questioning, exploring context, and reflecting. All of their residencies are designed around a work of art. This approach helps young minds develop skills of creativity and critical thinking that are applicable across disciplines and throughout life. These ways of thinking are central to LCE’s work, which is underpinned by the belief that the people best prepared to perform in our dynamic world are those who think like artists. Artists solve

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I contacted the pre-service teachers prior to our first day working together and asked them to bring along an image that in some way conjured up for them unity, diversity or both.

I didn’t explain how we would be using the images as I didn't want that to affect their individual selection process, but something that we arrived at collectively. Before we began our work for the day, I posted all of our images around the room on butcher’s paper and asked the pre-service teachers to silently observe each image and anonymously write down responses to the following three questions: What do you notice? What questions do you have? What connections can you make? At the end of a day spent exploring Maxine Greene’s characterisation of a work of art as an inexhaustible resource for learning, we returned to these works of art and had a rich and provoking discussion about the works and what we noticed.

The project’s website describes the work as “reimagining the ways the walls of our cities can help us grapple with death and meaning as a community today.” There are now over 4,000 Before I Die walls in over 75 countries and 36 languages. We used an image of the wall under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City for this year’s DVTF stimulus image.

parents? Upon discussion with the pre-service teachers and DVTF staff, we decided that this concern could be combatted by considered lesson planning that did not shy away from the topic of mortality but introduced the stimulus material through the many life affirmations that are present within it – particularly hopes, dreams, and courage.

The pre-service teachers and I selected this image because we found so much inside of it to explore. Part of the beauty and power of the image is that it juggles life-affirming aspirations alongside the unavoidable finality of our mortality.

What a pertinent and powerful subject for Year 9 & 10 students!

Many of the Drama Teachers who were present with their students throughout the Stimulus Days shared their positive feedback on the pre-service teachers’ work in selecting the stimulus, designing and delivering the workshops. There were, however, a couple of teachers who were unhappy with the choice of stimulus material – they thought it might be triggering for some students at this vulnerable age.

The subject of mortality did set off some alarm bells for me.

Was it too dark a topic for some students, teachers and

We weren’t, however, able to come to a unified decision as to the stimulus for the Festival. But it was a great learning experience for the pre-service teachers, as well as myself; and I was confident we would arrive at a worthy stimulus image for the festival participants. I suggested that we all spend some time prior to our next session reflecting on our work together and thinking of other images that might be suitable. Now that the pre-service teachers knew how their selected images would be used I encouraged them to think about potential movement and text-based activities when coming up with other options.

At our next session, we decided on “Before I Die” – a global art project that began on the external wall of an abandoned house in New Orleans. It is a huge blackboard with the prompt “Before I Die, I want to…”. Passers-by use the chalk provided to share their personal aspirations in public – some serious, some hilarious, many heart wrenchingly moving.

“Before I Die”- Brooklyn Bridge

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Krystalla Pearce will run a Masterclass with Vanessa O’Neill, as part of the Drama Australia National Conference, hosted by Drama Victoria on Friday 30 November, An Introduction to Aesthetic Education – strategies for helping young people engage deeply with live theatre, based on the teachings of Martine Greene and LCE.

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I’m incredibly proud of this year’s DVTF pre-service teachers for their stimulus selection, their lesson planning and delivery. Over five days, they each led ten workshops – each

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These concerns were discussed by the festival team and also at a meeting of the Drama Victoria Committee of Management. Committee Members unanimously supported the choice of stimulus material. They agreed that providing opportunities to explore deep matters of the heart is one of the most powerful gifts that Drama can offer young people, especially for teenagers grappling with the existential complexities of their life-worlds. At the same time, the Committee agreed that while we could never hope to preempt every potential ‘trigger’ for the diversity of the festival’s participating schools, we could work more closely with participating teachers who are well placed to know the needs and circumstances of individual students.

As I reflect upon DVTF as a learning experience for the participants, the pre-service teachers, and myself, I return to Maxine Greene and LCE. We were all thinking like artists – that is solving problems, collaborating, communicating, imagining, persevering, and creating. The Festival as a whole – the process of selecting a stimulus image and then designing workshops and devising theatre in constant conversation with that image – is a brilliant demonstration of the inexhaustible resource of a work of art and that its meaning and interpretation lies in the continuous interaction between viewers and the artwork.

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A real challenge of being a Teaching Artist is creating space for such explorations within shorter timeframes and with less knowledge of your students and their backgrounds. This should encourage close collaborations between Teaching Artists and Classroom Teachers. The couple of teacher concerns raised about the suitability of the stimulus material for their particular student cohort prompted thinking about how to compensate for the absence of individual connections between the DVTF and participating schools during the festival planning phase.

workshop was with a new group of 30+ High School students whom they had never met. Throughout the week, they all demonstrated a perceptiveness and adaptability well beyond their level of teaching experience.

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Without wanting to diminish these teachers’ responses, my own experience is that if students are struggling with something, it’s quite likely that it will come up in the Drama classroom no matter what you are exploring. For example, while teaching a residency on Newspaper Theatre to third grade students in the Bronx, I asked my class to think of the person they would most like to interview and ask them three questions. Most interviewed Sponge Bob, Barack Obama and Cardi B, but one student interviewed his brother who had been murdered two weeks earlier. My experience as a Teaching Artist suggests that many students value the space within a Drama classroom to explore ideas and emotions that they might find hard to articulate in other spaces. What’s important is that as Drama Teachers and Teaching Artists, we make sure there is time and ensemble support to make these explorations safe.

Experience the transformative power of learning through the performing arts.

artscentremelbourne.com.au/learn

ARTSREADY IS AN INITIATIVE OF AFL SPORTSREADY AND IS SUPPORTED

BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

GET BETTER LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR YOUR DRAMA DEPARTMENT ‘empll a gap ee ainee’ DAVE CRACKNELL

HDEPUTY PRINCIPAL ICT, ST BEDE’S COLLEGE

Krystalla Pearce

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CONTACT US

MICHAEL OOSTERWYK T: (03) 8413 3534 | M: 0407 948 229 E: Michael.Oosterwyk@artsready.com.au W: artsready.com.au

95%

of our graduates are employed or continuing their studies, one year after completing.

2X

our trainees are twice as likely to complete, compared to the national average *NATIONAL CENTRE FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION RESEARCH

Schools

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Alice in Wonderland

Little Shop of Horrors Aladdin Beauty and the Beast Grease Pippin

Drowsy Chaperone Jungle Book

Anything Goes

42nd Street

Footloose

Wedding Singer

Sleeping Beauty Legally Blonde A Chorus Line Seussical

Wizard of Oz Fiddler On The Roof Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat Guys and Dolls

High School Musical

Shrek Pinocchio

Adams Family

Mulan

Hairspray

Babe

Bugsy Malone

Into The Woods

Oklahoma Aida

Producers

Sweeney Todd

Lion King

Hot Mikado Little Mermaid

Super Stan

Sound of Music

Oliver

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