Exploration and Vision

In the Exploration and Vision area of study, students focus on the development of their critical and creative thinking skills. They explore dramatic ideas, theories, and works by critically viewing a range of live theatre and/or screen productions, by engaging in workshops with professionals (where possible), and by investigating dramatic styles, and/or innovations from local, global, contemporary, and historical contexts.  

In Exploration and Vision, teachers program the study of a dramatic text (or texts) and a selection of two or more dramatic styles, innovators, or movements. The choice of texts in Exploration and Vision must be different from the texts produced by students in the group production, but may be written by the same authors and may involve the same dramatic styles. 

Students are provided with opportunities to explore a selection of dramatic styles, innovators, and/or movements. They are encouraged to experiment, take risks, suggest innovations, and explore hypothetical possibilities. Teachers provide access to a range of dramatic works, events, and source material, including, where possible, local and/or Australian drama, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander drama or perspectives, and drama from other cultures and/or periods. 

Teachers should provide students with opportunities to analyse, compare, and contrast dramatic works, events, and source material. Analysis and evaluation may involve stylistic, thematic, and/or aesthetic connections between dramatic sources. Students identify and analyse how works, events, and source material have informed and/or influenced their own dramatic ideas and/or practice.  

Students engage with and critically examine a range of dramatic works, events, and source material which may include, for example: 

• viewing, analysing, and evaluating two or more current live professional theatre and/or screen productions, with a view to informing and shaping the student’s own development as a dramatic artist in a role (e.g. actor, director, designer, playwright) 
• engaging in workshops, mentorships, and/or masterclasses conducted by professional local and global practitioners, to shape and influence the student’s own dramatic understanding and skills development  
• investigating and experimenting with contrasting dramatic styles or innovations 
• exploring and analysing a dramatic text with a view to creating a director’s or designer’s vision for staging, informed by the student’s investigation of theory, theatre viewing, and practical experimentation 
• exploring and analysing drama as an avenue for social change with a view to conceiving a self-devised hypothetical performance 
• exploring and analysing theatre and/or film of Aboriginal artists for its perspectives and contributions to Australian and global drama  
• exploring and analysing a variety of theories and styles and how they might influence the staging of a text or a design for a production; for example, how might Artaud, butoh and verbatim theatre be synthesised to inform the staging of a contemporary hypothetical production of Macbeth 
• investigating, exploring, and analysing creative, entrepreneurial, and logistical processes for mounting a hypothetical touring production 
• exploring and analysing two or more film-making styles and how they might influence a treatment and/or screenplay for an original film 
• researching, experimenting with, and evaluating live-streamed theatre, and its capacity for conveying the ideas and aesthetics of theatre 
• researching, experimenting with, and analysing processes for adapting a short story for stage or screen, with a view to a hypothetical creative outcome. 

Exploration and Vision is mainly assessed through Assessment Type 2: Evaluation and Creativity. 

The relationship between content and assessment is shown through the following diagram.