Week One - Week Two 2009

Week One: Introduction to the Unit

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

(Leanne and Renee return for a whole new Children's Theatre year...)

(...and a sea of new, excited faces in the Drama Workshop)

Welcome to Children’s Theatre. The aim of this unit aim is to extend your performance and/or production skills within the specific context of theatre created for an audience of primary school children. While the unit is relatively new, the project of making theatre for children at Murdoch is not. We shall therefore be drawing on a body of work that goes back to 1991 when Samantha Seal by Pieter Scholtz was taken to schools in the Perth metropolitan area as part of an outreach programme envisaged to make Murdoch more visible to the community it was supposed to serve. The Astounding Antics of Antoinette Ant (an adaptation with a gender inversion of another Scholtz play) followed in 1992 and this, after successful performances in the Drama Workshop, toured to Geraldton. It then seemed important to create pieces that had a Western Australian slant and, as the previous pieces had engaged with environmental issues of general concern, making the next trilogy of plays address Western Australian matters seemed to make sense.  And so The Galah’s Gambit (1993) which toured to Jurien Bay; Ningaloo Knights (1994) and The Dragon Variation (1996) all premiered in Nexus Theatre and played to over 3000 students and teachers from primary schools during their two-week seasons. The aim of the projects was to explore serious environmental themes (clear-felling of the forests of the South-West; the threat of mining to Ningaloo Reef; and the implications of uranium mining in the North of our state) through the medium of theatre with the goal of educating children (and hopefully those of us involved in producing the work as well) through entertainment. In 2000 Murdoch Children's Theatre presented The Greatest Show on Earth: A Circus Story, The Minstrel’s Tale followed in 2001 and Shakespeare at Sea (2002), Zak Zebra’s African Safari (2003), Athena Emu at the Olympics (2004), Captain Quokka’s Adventures on the High Seas (2005), The Secret of the Snottygobbles: A Fairy Story (2006),The Return of the Snow Queen (2007) and last year The Captive Carousel (2008) have all enjoyed extremely successful seasons in Nexus Theatre. Children’s Theatre regularly plays to full houses of delighted primary school children and we are consistently rewarded by extremely positive critical (and educational) responses from the teachers who accompanied them.

(Lindsay Lloyd's designs for the doll house backdrops...)

(...and the other designs for the Lit by Limelight set)

For Children's Theatre on Facebook, look up 'Children's Theatre 2009'... For all those crazy people doing CT again in 2009 or for those who are doing it for the first time! Stick up photos, comments, thoughts, complaints whatever you like! Hopefully it will end up like a class journal of sorts!

Claire Bamford

(Great first week, all singing 'n' all moving!)

Week Two: Movement and Improvisation

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

One of my favored approaches to journal writing is the consistent reflection of my personal progress, with that of the unit objectives. As these are the aims of the unit, focusing on them will allow you to achieve great academic and personal growth. As these objectives are how  you are to be assessed, ask yourself questions. How will I achieve these objectives? Why are they important? And at the end of your process you can reflect back on your success of achieving these goals...

Andrew Kocsis

Assessment Timeline

 Progressive Marker: Deadlines

 The following list provides an indication of the requirements for each ‘department’ over the semester and the corresponding deadlines to be observed. Compliance – and the quality of the outcome – will be taken into account in the assigning of grades for both the production and performance facets of the assessment for this unit.

Actor:

-         Week 9: Character Profile and ‘Lines Down’

-         Week 10: Ed Pack contribution (Research and Activity)

Set Designs:

-         Week 7: Complete deign portfolio for production and provide materials list

-         Week 12: Set construction complete and stage layout

Publicity/Front of House:

-         Week 9: Complete poster, shirts and promotional responsibilities

-         Week 12: Front of house designs and material list

Ed Pack:

-         Week 10: Complete activity section with the Curriculum Framework

-         Week 13: Final edit and Ed Pack to printer

Lighting Technicians:

-         Week 9: Complete lighting design

-         Week 13: Lighting design; rigging in Nexus

Costume:

-         Week 8: Research and costume designs ideas completed

-         Week 11: All costume requirements sourced

Sound Technicians:

-         Week 9: Complete and collate all sound and music cues

-         Week 13: Sound design implemented in Nexus (including cues)

Make-up:

-         Week 8: Complete make-up research and designs

-         Week 13: Make-up presentation

Stage Manager:

-         Week 9: Complete initial draft of prompt book

-         Week 13: Complete rosters and stage duties list

Properties Manager:

-         Week 9: Complete properties list

-         Week 13: Collate all properties, and completed designs for properties table

Here are the words for one of Darren's great tongue twisters, good luck...

What a to-do to die today at a minute or two to two

A thing distinctly hard to say but a harder thing to do

For they'll beat a tattoo at two to two

a rat-ta-ta, tat-ta-ta, tat-ta-ta, too

And the dragon will come when he hears the drum

At a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two

The unit aims to develop all aspects of a children’s theatre production, from an initial script idea to a public performance. Students enrolled in the unit will need to display a high level of commitment and discipline when engaging in this project because of the ethical issues fore-grounded in the process and in the themes touched on in the script itself. Students are invited to participate fully in the realisation of the performance and will be asked to consider their own engagement with it from a perspective that encompasses the full range of possibilities of theatre as a medium of entertainment/instruction. Apart from using the conventional elements of theatre (a space, a script, actors, crew, lights, costumes and a set) we shall explore the potential of sound, the visual media and possibly puppetry in the devising of the project. There are opportunities, therefore, for all facets of involvement in the making of this theatre piece, although naturally you will select areas of interest or specialisation rather than attempt to cover all of them. A feature of the unit that has received a warm response from teachers is the Handbook for teachers which we devise annually. This includes activities and games that stretch across the primary school curriculum and that allow post-performance participation by the audiences. The idea is for teachers and pupils to use the production as a base for developing literary, scientific, social and mathematical skills as well as offering the students the excitement of a full theatrical production. The work in this unit is crucially ensemble based with my role as director/coordinator and the tutors’ role one of facilitation and quality control. We shall perform ultimately to an audience of children and their teachers and that requires a high degree of professionalism and responsibility to the process and the product of the entire ensemble.

View other Notice Board entries...

2008 Children's Theatre Notice Board

2007 Children's Theatre Notice Board

2006 Children's Theatre Notice Board

...or... 2005 Children's Theatre Notice Board

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Contact Andrew @ thechaseison@optusnet.com.au

This page last updated: 30th March 2009