Welcome to Top Class Drama, part of the VCE Season of Excellence 2020, presented by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). Top Class Drama Concerts were scheduled to be presented at Arts Centre Melbourne on 16 and 17 March, featuring the work of 25 performers who received outstanding scores in the 2019 examinations. Unfortunately, due to the public health recommendations the difficult decision was made to cancel these concerts.
Thirteen performers participated in Top Class Drama Online – a series of self-taped videos of outstanding solos, along with discussion forums exploring the process with these high-achieving performers. Top Class Online gives current performing arts students valuable insight into what is required to achieve excellence in their study.
We thank the performers involved in Top Class Drama Online for their incredible commitment and generosity in presenting their work in this different and challenging circumstance. We also acknowledge those performers who were selected for Top Class Drama but were unable to participate in the online program. The full list of Top Class Drama performers is below.
Download the
Top Class Drama 2020 Performer List.
About VCE Drama
In VCE Drama, students devise a solo performance based on one of the 10 prescribed structures offered in the examination. Students use conventions and dramatic elements chosen from a prescribed list, and use an eclectic performance style. Eclectic theatre draws on a range of performance styles to devise performances that go beyond the reality of life as lived. These styles allow an actor to explore and present ideas or stories conceptually. In these performances, students demonstrate their ability to use the knowledge and skills developed in VCE Drama. They are assessed against criteria that include the use of expressive skills, performance skills and the application of production areas.
A summary of VCE Drama prescribed structures represented in these solos can be found below.
Download the
VCE Drama 2019 Solo Performance Characters.
How to enjoy Top Class Drama Online
Top Class Drama Online has been divided into three virtual ‘concerts’, each comprising videos of four or five diverse solos along with an audio-recorded discussion forum with performers, presented by Chief Assessor for Drama Bronwyn Egan.
We recommend watching all the solos in each ‘concert’ in the order listed, then listening to the conversation about the process students went through in developing their solo.
We appreciate your understanding of the context in which these resources were developed, and your forgiveness for occasions of low sound and visual quality.