It was with great excitement and joy that Parkerville Steiner College implemented drama classes into the Class 7-10 curriculum this year. The weekly drama classes are in addition to the Drama Main Lesson and are designed to provide a raft of creative and expressive experiences for our young people. Each class has a different focus to consciously meet the developmental needs of the age.

The Class 7 students have been experiencing a range of drama games and improvisation with a focus on fun, working together in groups, creating short scenarios and learning fundamental skills such as spatial and body awareness on stage, speaking with clarity and purpose, moving with intention and of course exploring different types of characters. This group of lively and positive young people have developed a plethora of creative ideas and stories across the semester.

In addition to the development of improvisation skills, spontaneous response and group work, in Class 8 students immerse themselves in the Renaissance world of Shakespeare, a time of great artistic, philosophical, and individual awakening. Just as the Renaissance marked a shift toward humanism and self-awareness, students at this age experience a parallel transformation—awakening to both the wider world and their own inner landscape of new thoughts and emotions. In class we delve into the strong and varied character archetypes who populate Shakespeare’s plays such as high-status kings and queens, messengers, low status servants and the crafty Fool. Students learn about creating dramatic action, narrative, and building either comedic or dramatic scenes. Fundamental skills of working in the performance space are practiced such as exits, entrances, stage directions, use of levels and guiding the action for the audience. This group of Class 8 students have shown their creativity and imaginations with devised group work and Shakespearean monologues and duologues.

As Class 9 students move into a period of polarities, their views are and perceptions are distinct and tend to be black and white, drama focuses on either comedy or tragedy. This semester we have looked at stock characters from the Commedia Dell ‘Arte, developing improvisation skills, creating scenarios and skits in small groups. Understanding and immersing the students into a broad range of character types is an important part of the learning process and gaining insight into the motivations of different characters.  The lessons were fun, light and focused on comedic structures and themes.

Class 10 presents a significant shift of the child into yet deeper realms of thought and perception of the world. In drama the focus is on physical theatre and contemporary theatre practices to fully express more complex concepts and ideas. The students have explored new physical theatre activities such as chair duets, moving as an ensemble, creating a string of movement material, learning basic lifts and sharing of body weight, and integrating the spoken word with movement-based tasks. Underpinning the physical work were strongly felt social or personal themes which have been powerful and meaningful to the class.

Jane Diamond

Drama Teacher