10 Drama
10DRM Course DescriptionTeacher in Charge: Mr A. Upokokeu-Henry.
In 10DRM you will explore a range of performance techniques and elements to develop your understanding of Drama. This subject is highly physical, which will allow you to grow as a performer. Throughout the academic year, your Drama skills will develop as you create your own meanings of characters. You will be working towards growing as a performance artist and embody characteristics that will challenge you. By taking Drama at year 10 you will have the option of continuing your Academic Drama journey through NCEA Lv1, Lv2, and Lv3 at year 11, 12, and 13 which can further develop your interest in acting at University or with Theatre companies.
In Drama you will learn:
- Theatresports
- Improvisation
- Devised drama
- Monologues
- Character development/ “Bringing them to life”
Drama is the expression of ideas, feelings, and human experience through movement, sound, visual image, and the realisation of role. In drama, real or imagined actions and events are enacted by placing a role in a setting of time and space, where action and tension create a focus. These dramatic elements combine with contrasts between movement and stillness, sound and silence, and darkness and light to communicate meaning in drama.
In process drama, which is not intended for an audience, participants build belief in roles and situations and explore them together, negotiating, interpreting, and reflecting on role and meaning.
Drama intended for audiences may take place in formal and informal performance settings. It may be experienced as a fully developed theatre production; in such forms of live entertainment as cultural festivals and street theatre; and in works for electronic media, such as film, video, and television. Communication in drama involves performers and audiences in interpreting meanings and developing skills of critical judgment.
Drama permeates our everyday lives and serves a variety of purposes. It enables us to understand ourselves, the people around us, and the world in which we live, enriching the lives of individuals and giving voice to communities.
Drama is integral to children’s play and is found in the oratory, rituals, ceremonies, and celebrations of traditional and contemporary world cultures. Drama both expresses and is defined by the culture from which it emerges. Dramatic works may be regarded as social and historical texts that make a vital contribution to individual, social, and cultural identity.
Learning Areas:
Assessment Information
Achievement Objectives:
Developing Practical Knowledge in Drama:
In this strand, students use the elements, techniques, and conventions of drama to discover how meaning is shaped and communicated. They work with the elements of role, time and space, action, tension, and focus and become increasingly skilled in using techniques of voice, facial expression, gesture, and movement to explore a range of roles and situations. They use such conventions as narration, freeze-frame images, and mimed activity to extend and deepen their experience of drama.
Students use their growing understanding of elements, techniques, and conventions to interpret scripts, develop process drama, improvise stories or scenes, and explore issues. They become fluent in describing and shaping their drama practice, and they explore how different technologies contribute to the design, production, performance, and recording of dramatic forms and styles.
Developing Ideas in Drama:
In this strand, students work individually and collaboratively to initiate, improvise, develop, and refine ideas in drama. In a safe and co-operative environment, they contribute stories from personal and shared experience. They express ideas and feelings, negotiate shared understandings, and explore and reflect on their own and others’ perspectives.
Students develop ideas for and participate in classroom process drama. They also develop ideas for performances by interpreting existing dramatic works or devising drama based on a wide range of sources. They plan, identify problems, test solutions, and make individual and collective decisions in drama.
Communicating and Interpreting in Drama:
In this strand, students rehearse and present drama to others through informal sharing of work and through structured presentations that involve increasingly sophisticated dramatic processes. They view and listen to live drama and drama on radio, film, and television, developing skills of interpretation and critical analysis.
Students reflect on their experiences of drama in a variety of ways. As performers and as responsive audience members, they interpret and respond to diverse dramatic forms and styles from their own and others’ cultures. They evaluate the form, purpose, and quality of their own work, and they examine how different technologies affect communication and interpretation in both live and recorded drama.
Understanding Drama in Context:
In this strand, students explore the forms and purposes of drama in both past and contemporary societies. They investigate how people use drama to express identity and to comment on personal and cultural values. They explore theatre traditions that have informed drama practice over time, and they investigate how society and culture contribute to changes in dramatic forms.
Students recognise that drama encompasses both everyday experiences and the interpretation of social and cultural histories. They appreciate how the development of contemporary theatre in New Zealand has been shaped by diverse cultural influences, especially those of Màori, Europeans, and people from Pacific nations.
Drama in the New Zealand Curriculum enables students to link their own imaginations, thoughts, and feelings with drama practice and history in ways that give voice to the cultural diversity of New Zealand. Students become increasingly literate in drama as they work with the elements of role, time and space, action, tension, and focus and develop skills in using the techniques of voice, movement, gesture, and facial expression. They use these elements and techniques with the conventions of drama to add richer meaning and colour to their drama work.
As they participate in and interpret their own and others’ drama, students develop cognitive skills and gain understandings about themselves and their wider communities. They investigate the forms, styles, and contexts of drama and recognise that it can affirm or challenge attitudes and values. They work collaboratively to develop ideas, to express feelings, to experiment with sound and action within a dramatic space, and to reflect on live and recorded drama.