Drama Tuesday - A Challenge for Drama Teachers

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 In conversation before the show with Mitch, the Principal, an interesting question came up. What are the equivalent performance challenges for the drama students? 

This is a really important question. 

While we may want all our students to experience the “high” repertoire – the most challenging and thought provoking repertoire, are those scripted drama choices age appropriate? What valuable learning would year 8 and 9 students find in the set texts lists of Year 11 and 12. Consider the example of set texts for Year 12 below; even with that repertoire there are legitimate interrogations (see discussion in Lambert, Wright, Currie, & Pascoe, 2016) ). 

What will we have our Years 8 and 9 drama students perform?

That’s my challenge. 

  • Where are the plays that are age appropriate have sufficiently large casts with solid acting challenges?

  • Where are the plays with brand recognition for parents?

  • How do we find plays that will also be accessible to younger audiences that will be the next generation of students for John Curtin.

  • What would or could be workable repertoire for Years 8 and 9? And not be twee or unchallenging.


There’s a danger of trying to find the watered down classics. That’s not a solution. There’s a whole publishing industry based on inconsequential and trivialised scripts for so-called younger people.

But what will our students perform? And not every production needs to be from the high repertoire. There’s a place for popular plays to be included in the list.

Some suggestions to start the conversation

One (perhaps outrageous) idea could be the adaptations of Dickens such as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. 

Before you think I am off my rocker because it’s a monumental work running for 8.5 hours, played usually over two nights. Think about it though. 

The scope of and style of this version presents a challenge. Played on open stage, with the ensemble cast playing multiple roles and moving rapidly from scene to scene, in the right director’s hands, this could be suitably challenging. 

There are multiple roles. You could even have one cast (and director) do Part 1. Another Part 2. 

There is a recognition factor. 

There is scope and ambition. 

Or you could do others last in a similar mould. Edgar has also a version of Christmas Carol.

The actor who played Nicholas Nickleby had an illustrious career as a director and he collaborated on another favourite of mine: Peter and the Starcatcher. 

Like the RSC production this adaptation of a 2004 novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, adapted for the stage by Rick Elice is open-ended and age appropriate. 

An ensemble of actors enters a bare stage. After some bickering, they welcome the audience to the world of the play and describe what's in store: flying, dreaming, adventure and growing up. It is wildly exciting and open ended with scope for imagination. 

What other ensemble shows could work?

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I hesitate to suggest The Grapes of Wrath because of some of the materials but the version by Frank Galati could work. Originated at Steppenwolf in Chicago and using innovative open staging, the production has scope and vision. There are scenes that may be a bridge too far for schools, though. 

Then there’s plays like The Children’s Crusade and The mask of Agamemnon or Gunslinger shows of that ilk that were popular in the 1980s (and produced by the WA Youth Theatre Company. 

More contemporary, ATYP. –Australian Theatre for Young People – Also offer some good scripts for younger actors. (https://atypondemand.com.au) But they don’t have the cachet if established scripts and productions. 

But what are your suggestions for plays that will work for Year 8 and 9 students?

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Example of set texts from the Western Australian ATAR Drama course (2021). Which of these would be suitable for performance by Years 8 and 9?

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Scripts 

Edgar, D. (1992) The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Dramatists Play Service, New York, N.Y.

Elice, R. , 2012, Peter and the Starcatcher: The Annotated Script of the Broadway Play, Disney Editions ISBN13: 9781423174059

Galati, F (1995) John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Eichosha. 9784268002266

Bibliography

Lambert, K., Wright, P. R., Currie, J., & Pascoe, R. (2016). Performativity and creativity in senior secondary drama classrooms. NJ Drama Australia Journal, 40(1), 15-26.