Memorandum to Schools 116/2007

13 December 2007

VCE Drama and Theatre Studies 2008 Playlist - Updated

Drama Unit 3, 2008 Playlist

The following plays have been selected for study in 2008. This list should be considered in conjunction with the requirements set out in Unit 3 Outcome 3 in the VCE Drama Study Design (2007–2011). Students will undertake an assessment task based on the performance of a play on the Playlist. Question/s will also be set on the performances of the plays in the end-of-year Drama written examination.

Notes

1. Schools should note that in the plays The Australian Marriage Act, Asylum and Frank Woodley - Possessed a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. They occur with intermittent frequency. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.

2. Whilst the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity might be needed where particular issues or themes are explored. Before selecting plays for study teachers should make themselves aware of these issues and themes prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript, for example by reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company and/or attending a preview performance. Information provided in this notice about themes and/or language used in specific plays is intended as a guide only.

1. 39 Steps, English adaptation (2007) by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan (1915) and the film by Alfred Hitchcock (1935)

Melbourne Theatre Company
Venue: The Arts Centre Playhouse
Season: 5 April – 10 May 2008
Booking enquiries: www.mtc.com.au or (03) 9684 4513

39 Steps is based on the original novel and Hitchcock film of the same name. This new version is a comic parody of the thriller/suspense/spy genre and both represents these original versions and transforms them. Four actors transform across a vast range of characters in a play structured around the main scenes of the film. Non-naturalistic techniques including transformation of object and place are used with suspense, romance and irony in a pared back setting where stagecraft is used to enhance the parody.

2. Kindertransport by Diane Samuels

Machination Ensemble Theatre
Venue: Theatreworks
Season: 16 – 17 April 2008, 27 April 2008
Bookings: gm@theatreworks.org.au or (03) 9534 3388
Enquiries: machination_ensemble@hotmail.com

Kindertransport is a work of transformational, visual and expressionistic non-naturalistic theatre presented in a strongly abstract style. Based on the experiences of the many children who were sent from Germany to England before the outbreak of World War II, Kindertransport tells the story of Eva/Evelyn who left Hamburg for England in 1939. Adopted by the Miller family, Eva/Evelyn’s repressed secrets are gradually revealed through use of disjointed time sequences and transformation of character. Against a strong naturalistic text, projection, sound and choreography are used to layer images and symbolise the inner struggles of Eva/Evelyn, her birth and adoptive mothers, her daughter Faith and various authority figures in Germany and England .

3. Australian Marriage Act by Marcia Ferguson

Arena Theatre Company
Venues: ‘In schools’ tour to regional and metropolitan schools throughout Victoria . Arena will broker joint performances for regional schools who have small class numbers.
Season: 14 April – 2 May 2008 with options to extend to 5-9 May 2008
Bookings: bookings@arenatheatre.com.au
Enquiries: www.arenatheatre.com.au or (03) 9329 6266

Inspired by the real-life story of a teenage Australian couple who sought permission to marry through the court system, Australian Marriage Act is a non-naturalistic work performed by three actors who each transform to a range of characters. Disjointed time-sequences are used to tell the story of the couple’s relationship as they struggle to marry before the birth of their child. The production also features manipulation of objects and places with the action choreographed to a non-stop techno sound design.

Schools should note that this play uses a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases. They occur with intermittent frequency. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.

4. Asylum by Kit Lazaroo

Here Theatre
Venues: La Mama Theatre and a regional tour to Hamilton , Horsham, Colac, Portland and Robinvale facilitated by Regional Arts Victoria
Season: Melbourne , 20 February – 8 March 2008
Regional tour, 17 – 21 June 2008
Metropolitan and regional bookings and enquiries: (03) 9347 6948 or maureen@lamama.com.au

Asylum challenges an audience to think about the refugee issue in new ways. Lally Black is a psychiatrist who is struggling to maintain compassion for her clients. Yu Siyang, a Chinese woman who has caught HIV while in Australia as a student believes that Lally is the key to claim for asylum. Puppetry, dream sequences, physical theatre, sound, music and transformation of character and object are used to create this layered non-naturalistic work.

5. Possessed by Frank Woodley with director by Kate Denborough, sound by Paul Mac and design by Christina Smith

Token Events
Venue: Comedy Theatre
Season: March 19 – April 13 2008
Enquiries: (03) 9417 4700 or www.token.com.au

A physical theatre work for solo performer, Possessed is a comedy that also looks at serious issues such as loneliness, agoraphobia and senility in a sensitive light. In the absence of other cast mates, the solo performer uses non-naturalistic techniques of transformation of character and disjointed time-sequences as he interacts with the music, set and lighting to convey the story in inventive ways.

Theatre Studies Unit 3, 2008 Playlist

Schools should note that the following plays have been selected for study in 2008. This list should be considered in conjunction with the requirements set out in Unit 3 Outcome 3 of the VCE Theatre Studies Study Design (2007–2011). Students will undertake an assessment task based on the performance of a play on the Playlist. Question/s will also be set on the performances of the plays in the end-of-year Theatre Studies written examination.

Schools should note that in the plays Tartuffe and Shirley Valentine a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. They occur with intermittent frequency. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.

Note

While the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity may be needed where particular issues are raised. In selecting plays for study teachers should make themselves aware of these issues prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript.

1. As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Bell Shakespeare
Venues: Shepparton, Mildura, Frankston, Warrnambool, Ballarat, Dandenong, Warragul, Sale , Ringwood, Geelong , Moonee Ponds and Nunawading
Season: 4 March – 19 April 2008
Enquiries: education@bellshakespeare.com.au or 1300 305 552 271

An intricate plot, comedy, romance, soundtrack, live music performance, disguise, cross-dressing, movement and dance all feature in this new production of As You Like It. Dad has made the big ‘treechange’ and the kids aren’t really happy about him doing it by himself. Rosalind packs her bags and together with friends Celia and Orlando heads for the forest of Arden to find her father. Incognito, Rosalind, goes undercover to right wrongs and in the process develops a surprising insight into the nature of love.

2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Australian Shakespeare Company
Venues: Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne and regional tour to Sale , Wonthaggi, Bendigo and Shepparton
Season: Melbourne , 28 December 2007 – 16 March 2008
Regional tour, April 11 – May 3 2008
Enquiries: (03) 8676 7509

Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story revolving around conflict between families. With a cast that includes indigenous actors, this very physical production will explore the play’s themes in ways that connect to contemporary Australia , a country at war in two countries and in conflict with our own indigenous people to highlight that it is the next generation who suffer from the current conflicts.

3. Tartuffe adapted by Louise Fox from the original by Moliere

Malthouse Theatre
Venue: Merlyn Theatre
Season: 15 February – 8 March 2008
Enquiries: education@malthousetheatre.com.au or (03) 9685 5165 or (03) 9685 5164

Incorporating a large traverse stage that wraps around the audience something like a wave with an adjacent crucifix shaped swimming pool surround by mock grass this production of Tartuffe juxtaposes the bourgeois world of 17 th century France with the bourgeois world of 21 st century Australia. Combining witty high brow and bawdy low comedy the structure and narrative of the work is faithful to much of Moliere’s original play but will be scattered with interruptions in the form of music, singing and other absurd physical moments. Costumes for some characters will retain elements of 17 th century fashion while others will be dressed in very contemporary costumes.

4. Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell

HIT Productions
Venues: Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne , and Dandenong, Altona, Horsham, Portland , Colac, Shepparton, Benalla, Traralgon, Sale , Yarram, Moonee Ponds, Ringwood, Moorabbin, South Morang
Season: 10 May – June 15 2008
Enquiries: nava.c@hitproductions.com.au or (03) 9599 0899

Shirley Valentine is a 42-year old mother and housewife who feels she has stagnated and is in a rut. After her best friend wins an all-expenses paid holiday to Greece for two Shirley packs her bags and heads for the sun. Performance choices made by the actress allow the audience to share in her journey of development.

5. Through the Looking Glass composed by Alan John, adapted by Andrew Upton from the novel by Lewis Carroll

Victoria Opera @ The Malthouse
Venues: The Merlyn Theatre
Season: 17 – 31 May 2008
Enquiries: education@malthousetheatre.com.au or (03) 9685 5165 or (03) 9685 5164

An ensemble of singers/actors each transform across a range of roles in a dream-filled landscape, where surreal fairytale characters, an author and his creations inhabit the looking-glass world. Grown-up Alice believes that she lost her childhood to Carroll through the act of placing her in a story. Alice has to journey through the story again in order to find who she is and finally be able to utter her name. Puppets and marionettes are also used with a design that features a large glass box, partially shattered into which a series of exaggerated images from the story are flown. The libretto draws directly on Carroll’s verse and wit, quoting directly from Alice in Wonderland. The remaining language is contemporary and presents the larger story of Alice trying to reclaim her childhood.

Theatre Studies Unit 4, 2008 Playlist

The following plays have been selected for study in 2008. This list should be considered in conjunction with the requirements set out in Unit 4 Outcome 3 in the VCE Theatre Studies Study Design. Studies will undertake an assessment task based on the performance of a play on the Playlist. Question/s will also be set on the performances of the plays in the end-of-year Theatre Studies written examination.

Schools should note that in the play Chrysalis a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. They occur with intermittent frequency and are generally consistent with much current contemporary theatrical language usage. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.

Whilst the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity may be needed where particular issues are raised. In selecting plays for study teachers should make themselves aware of these issues prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript.

1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Melbourne Theatre Company
Venue: The Arts Centre Playhouse
Season: 9 August – 13 September 2008
Booking enquiries: www.mtc.com.au or (03) 9684 4513

Set on a large cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s, Cat on the Hot Tin Roof explores the social status of each of the characters in this particular world. The play focuses on themes including mendacity, avarice, inheritance, ambition, race, social status and sexuality within a family setting. This production of a classic work from the canon of American Realist theatre will be presented in a manner faithful to the original script using the theatrical style of heightened reality.

2. Chrysalis by Dina Ross

Soul Theatre Incorporated
Venue: Carlton Courthouse
Season: 6 – 23 August 2008
Enquiries: alicia@soultheatre.org.au or (03) 9481 2626

Chrysalis is a play for three actors. It deals with issues of actual and presumed guilt through the case of Annie, an Australian mother, accused of serial infanticide. Annie’s lawyer is Steffie, a woman struggling with her own guilt over an abortion. An expert medical witness whose evidence is eventually discredited is the third character. Theatrical styles used in the performance incorporate monologue and dialogue, actual representation of factual events and a dream-like quality associate with each character’s fears and nightmares as they recollect their past. The use of video-taped images and scenes heightens the complexity of the story-telling and adds to the multi-layered nature of this work.

3 Three Short Absurd Plays: The Lesson by Ionesco, Picnic on a Battlefield by Fernando Arrabal and Le Professeur Taranne by Arthur Adamov

Ignite Productions
Venue: Theatreworks
Season: 20 – 30 August 2008
Enquiries: igniteprods@yahoo.com.au

An ensemble of actors will present these short plays allowing students to focus on acting within each play and/or how the actors tackle their different roles and the contexts of each play. The Lesson is concerned with language. It is a demonstration of the basic impossibility of communication – words cannot convey meanings because they leave out of account the personal associations they carry for each individual. In Picnic on a Battlefield, Arrabal creates a Chaplinesque comedy without a redeeming happy end. The world of the play derives its absurdity from the fact that the characters see the human situation with uncomprehending eyes of childlike simplicity. Based on a dream the playwright once had, Le Professeur Taranne is the nightmare of a man trying to hold onto his identity though unable to establish conclusive proof of it.

4. The Time is Not Yet Ripe by Louis Esson

Here Theatre
Venues: Melbourne , Courthouse Theatre
Regional tour: Shepparton, Echuca and Hamilton
Season: 26 August - 13 September
Metropolitan bookings: (03) 9347 6948 (11am - 5pm) or maureen@lamama.com.au
Regional tour enquiries and booking: Regional Arts Victoria: (03) 9644 1800 or enquiry@ray.net.au

Set on the eve of a Federal election in Federation era Melbourne , Esson’s political satire The Time is Not Yet Ripe raises issues that are still relevant today through the story of Doris Quiverton, daughter of the Prime Minister, and her fiancée, Sydney Barrett, socialist candidate for the seat of Wombat. When Doris and Sydney contest the same seat for opposing parties, they are forced to choose between love and political ideals, personal happiness or the greater good of Australian society. The production uses some abstraction in design and performance and is played within a large square of Edwardian furniture and pot plants which is gradually disrupted and overturned through the play. Eight of the actors play double roles.

5. Three Oaks by Monica Raszewski

Rah Rah Productions
Venues: Melbourne : Courthouse Theatre
Regional tour: Dandenong, Sale , Hamilton , Mildura, Swanhill, Wodonga, Benalla, Bendigo , Kyneton. Other venues including Ballarat, Geelong , Darebin, Berwick and Warragul to be confirmed.
Enquiries: 0403 138 641 or kimberleyg@optusnet.com.au

Three Oaks uses physical non-naturalistic theatre, music and an interactive design that offers different perspectives to the viewer and creates a sense of place. Posing questions like ‘what remains of a life once a person has died? and ‘what can those who are left make of the bits and pieces?’ the work plays with memory moving quickly through fragments of the past and present. Margaret is trying to reconstruct her dead father’s life from memory and to retrieve relics so that she can write a book. Her mother and sister contribute their perspectives in a story that moves between Australia and a forest in Poland .

6. Wicked – The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz by Winnie Holzman (book) and Stephen Schwartz (score)

Gordon/Frost Organisation
Venue: The Regent Theatre
Season: from July 2008
Enquiries: wicked@acmn.com.au (attention Jane Ross)
Bookings: Ticketek Groups (03) 9299 9030. Note: All Theatre Studies units 3 and 4 classes qualify for group booking rates.

Wicked is a contemporary Broadway style music theatre work that asks ‘Is there an objective source that defines good and evil or are they matters of one’s personal feelings and opinion?’ Elphaba, born green and later to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, later Glinda the Good are amongst the central characters. Based on the prequel novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked draws on historical, literary and theatrical traditions to issues of tolerance, propoganda and the suppression of minorities.

If you have any enquiries please contact Helen Champion at the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on (03) 9651 4668.