60-Minute Workshops for Stage 3
The following workshops are linked to the 2024 Creative Arts Syllabus. For workshops linked to the 2006 Syllabus, click here.
The Actor's Role
The actor's role is to communicate dramatic meaning to their audience.
Led by experienced actors, this workshop explores the actor's craft, teaching students performance skills in movement and voice to bring characters to life on stage and convey dramatic meaning. Students work together to interpret open-ended scripts, making creative choices as an actor informed by clues in the text. The scenes are shared with the class.
Designing Drama
Students step into roles as directors and designers, learning how to organise costumes, props and the elements of drama to tell a story.
Using Playroom's collection of props and costumes, groups work together to stage iconic movie moments. Our Teaching Artists guide students to consider how Space, Character, Symbol and Tension can be used to convey meaning alongside the production resources provided. Each movie moment is captured using an instant polaroid-style camera and compiled into a book for the class to keep. We use the prints to reflect on how effectively the students' design choices capture the narrative.
Tension-Builders
Tension is built through storytelling patterns.
Students explore the mechanics of tension using Jack Heath's 10 Minutes of Danger. Moving beyond simple storytelling, we treat narrative as an engineering challenge. Students perform Heath's text as readers' theatre, deconstructing the narrative to understand how consequential events create a ladder of rising action. Students transfer this knowledge from the page to the stage. Working as groups, they devise original narratives, manipulating Structure, Time, Space and Movement to manifest tension in performance.
Bunraku Puppetry
Students explore the history and technique of Bunraku puppetry, comparing Japanese theatre traditions to our own.
In this highly practical workshop, students are introduced to Bunraku, a Japanese theatre form in which simple, large-scale puppets are controlled by three operators working in unison. Students experiment with dramatic elements and movement qualities to convey the detailed characterisation of their puppet. Bridging the gap between past and present, groups devise short scenes that apply the traditional conventions of Bunraku puppetry, including music and narration, to present-day characters and narratives. We give teachers step-by-step instructions to make simple Bunraku puppets so you can continue your exploration in class.
Creating Characters
Students use improvisation to deepen their understanding of character.
In this immersive drama workshop, students step into the shoes of their character, creating scenes and composing monologues while in role. We examine the classic "Master and Servant" archetype as a starting point for developing compelling characters. Through improvisation activities, students build their character's representation, relationships and inner world. Students then translate their ideas from the stage to the page, writing gripping monologues exploring the tension and motivation of their character.