Drama Q&A by dot point

The historical and cultural context of Australian theatre, including the development from colonial entertainment through to a distinctive national tradition from the 1950s onwards

Contemporary Australian playwrights of the 2000s and 2010s, including Andrew Bovell, Hannie Rayson, Michael Gow, Patricia Cornelius, Joanna Murray-Smith and the major institutional companies that produce them

David Williamson and the tradition of Australian political comedy, including The Removalists (1971), Don's Party (1971), The Club (1977) and later works

Indigenous Australian theatre as a major movement in contemporary Australian drama, including Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, Jane Harrison, Andrea James, Nakkiah Lui, Leah Purcell, and the dedicated Indigenous theatre companies

Louis Nowra and the development of Australian theatre beyond the New Wave, including Inner Voices (1977), Visions (1978), Cosi (1992), Radiance (1993) and the wider 1980s and 1990s playwriting

The New Wave of Australian theatre, including the Australian Performing Group, the Nimrod Street Theatre, the political and vernacular character of the work, and the playwrights who emerged from this period

Ray Lawler and the Doll Trilogy as a foundational movement of Australian dramatic realism, including the form, style, dramatic conventions and Australian cultural context

Detailed dramatic analysis of The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman (1995), including form, structure, performance style and themes

Detailed dramatic analysis of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), including structure, character, dialogue, symbolism and themes of mateship, ritual and ageing

The Group Performance as a practical assessment task, including the devising process, ensemble work, performance criteria, and the externally marked panel day

The Individual Project Critical Analysis (Director's Folio) path, including the 3,500-word Folio requirements, text choice, research methods, and the Folio's relationship to the written paper

The Individual Project Design path, including the four design specialties (Set, Costume, Lighting, Promotion and Program), the portfolio requirements, and the role of design in theatre

The Individual Project as a practical assessment task, including the five options (Critical Analysis, Performance, Design, Scriptwriting, Video Drama) and the choice considerations

The Individual Project Performance path, including monologue and devised solo options, rehearsal process, and panel-day performance

The logbook as process documentation for the Group Performance and Individual Project, including what to record, how to structure entries, and the function of the logbook in the assessment

The four design elements (set, costume, lighting, sound), including what each contributes to a production and how they work together to produce dramatic meaning

The director's role in theatre, including the development of a directorial concept, the rehearsal process, working with actors and designers, and the major directorial traditions

Focus and ensemble work as performance skills, including individual focus, ensemble focus, listening, responding, shared rhythm, and the practices that build ensemble

Movement and physicality as performance skills, including posture, gesture, gait, stillness, spatial awareness, physical character, and the techniques used to develop physical performance

The production roles in theatre, including director, producer, dramaturg, stage manager, designers (set, costume, lighting, sound), and the relationships between them

Voice as a performance skill, including breath, resonance, articulation, pitch, pace, volume and accent, and the techniques used to develop vocal range and clarity

Bertolt Brecht and epic theatre as an elective topic, including verfremdungseffekt (alienation), gestus, narrative theatre, and the major plays (Mother Courage, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Threepenny Opera)

Comedy of manners and Australian comedy as elective topics, including Restoration comedy, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, and the tradition of Australian comic playwriting

Greek theatre as an elective topic, including the Dionysian origins, the architecture of the amphitheatre, the conventions of mask, chorus and three actors, and the structure of tragedy

The three great Greek tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides), including their major plays, dramatic innovations and the philosophical concerns of fifth-century Athenian tragedy

Physical theatre as an elective topic, including its history (Jacques Lecoq, Decroux, Grotowski), its conventions, and the contemporary companies (Frantic Assembly, DV8, Complicite, Legs on the Wall)

Political theatre as an elective topic, including its history, central techniques, and key practitioners (Brecht, Piscator, Joan Littlewood, Boal, contemporary Australian companies)

Detailed dramatic analysis of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1953), including structure, character, language and the relationship between form and philosophical content

Theatre of the Absurd as an elective topic, including its philosophical context, central conventions, and major playwrights (Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, Genet)

Verbatim theatre as an elective topic, including its history (Anna Deavere Smith, the Tricycle tribunal plays, Roslyn Oades, Alana Valentine), techniques, and ethical questions