10DRA - Drama

Performing Arts Whakataukī:

Te toi whakairo, ka ihiihi, ka wehiwehi, ka aweawe te ao katoa.

Artistic excellence makes the world sit up in wonder.

Year 10 Drama

Drama teaches you the tools they need to excel across all subject areas and prepares you for future careers by developing your confidence, public speaking, critical thinking, problem solving, communication skills, self-expression, diplomacy and motivation. Drama is an exciting collaborative art form that values and contributes to the unique bicultural and multicultural character of Aotearoa New Zealand. In Drama, we work together in safe and fun environments to tell stories, express your identity, and take creative risks. Through group work you will discover and create innovative theatre that is dynamic and evolving to express human experience and create imagined worlds.

Drama expresses human experience through a focus on role, action, and tension, played out in time and space. In drama education, you learn to structure these elements and to use dramatic conventions, techniques, and technologies to create imagined worlds. Through purposeful play, both individual and collaborative, you discover how to link imagination, thoughts, and feelings.

As you work with drama techniques, you will learn to use spoken and written language with increasing control and confidence and to communicate effectively using body language, movement, and space. As you perform, analyse, and respond to different forms of drama and theatre, you will gain a deeper appreciation of culture and language and new power to examine attitudes, behaviours, and values.

By means of the drama that you create and perform, you will reflect and enrich the cultural life of your school, whānau, and community.

Junior Drama in Year 10 is a semesterised course which explores Theatre Form and Performance. Year 10's will explore the essential techniques of performance (Voice, Body, Movement and Space) through understanding the origins of Western Drama (Ancient Greek Theatre) and current Theatre Forms (Theatre Aotearoa).

The units and learning explored in the Year 10 Drama Course are;

Theatre Form - Greek Theatre

Greek Theatre is important for Drama students to learn as the Ancient Greeks pioneered all modern Western Drama we perform today. The two assessments for the Greek Theatre Unit comprise of a written test and a performance. The text we perform is an extract from Antigone by Sophocles. We perform in groups as a Greek Chorus to maximise our development of communication, collaboration, whanaungatanga, and shared creativity. The individual written test covers the synopsis of Antigone, knowledge of Ancient Greek Theatron Architecture, the purpose of the Greek Chorus, and Greek Mythology.

Script & Performance - Theatre Aoteatoa

New Zealand Theatre is important for Drama students to study as we live in Bicultural Aotearoa. Plays written by significant tangata whenua are key to us learning about tikanga, history, and the stories of New Zealand's people. The two assessments for the New Zealand Theatre Unit comprise of an individual project and a group performance. In groups we will perform extracts from a play. Here we will explore a believable and naturalistic acting style to develop manaakitanga, authentic performance, and realism. For our project there is a choice to create either a Poster, Programme, or small-scale stage model of the play you have been studying in class.

Drama is a collaborative and creative subject which asks ākonga to think, communicate, and problemsove in real time. It will help with growing confidence, interpersonal relationship skills, empathy, body and spatial awareness. We encourage all students to choose Drama as an option at Year 10, regardless of if they have taken Drama before. It is a subject for everyone.