2018 School Magazine

YEAR 9 DRAMA

Drama interrogates the human experience and allows students to gain perspectives into how others live, learning empathy, knowledge and understanding throughout the dramatic process. The Year 9 Political Theatre unit is an example of how drama employs critical inquiry processes that build a rich and authentic understanding of humanity. In this unit, students explored the stories of refugees in Australia and shared their personal plights through a devised piece of theatre. This work uses primary resources, documented evidence and personal accounts as content for their theatrical work. Through the manipulation of contemporary performance conventions such as narration, direct audience address, reportage, re-enactments, stylised movement and monologue students aimed to create a powerful piece of storytelling that communicated a strong socio-political message. Students viewed La Boite Theatre Company’s production, The Village , to further enrich their understanding of the power of storytelling. Year 9 Drama students, Tara Bashirzadeh (9R) and Sophie Conias (9R) reflect on their learning experience: I t is one thing to read about and sympathise with refugees and asylum seeker’s stories but it is another thing to watch their stories performed. The Village , an immersive piece of

theatre, shared the touching stories of refugees from around the world. Their stories delved into many confronting societal and political beliefs, which added a necessary depth and ‘realness’ to our unit on Political Theatre. B y viewing this piece of theatre, we developed a deeper understanding of the struggles of refugees and used this as inspiration to devise our own piece of Political Theatre using the conventions of Documentary Drama. Our performance focussed on the story of Ms Mojgan Shamsalipoor, a young Iranian girl who faced great difficulty seeking asylum in Australia. U sing the knowledge gained from The Village , as well as news articles, interviews and excerpts from Mojgan’s book, we created a piece of theatre depicting the obstacles and discrimination refugees face on their journey to safety. Our piece highlighted how these injustices could be overcome by understanding the laws and dismantling misconceptions of those seeking asylum. The Political Theatre unit was an incredible and insightful experience that we would definitely enjoy taking part in again.

BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2018 | CURRICULUM | 061