Quick questions on Individual Project Critical Analysis: HSC Drama practical

A typical 3,500-word Director's Folio structures as:

3,500 words. The word count is strict; substantially over or under reads as not meeting the brief. Footnotes are typically counted within the word limit; check your school's rules.

An academic essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Footnotes (or in-text citations, depending on the chosen referencing style) and a bibliography.

The essay is submitted to the school for school assessment, then forwarded to NESA at the end of the year along with the logbook.

The topic is registered with NESA early in the year (usually Term 1). The registered topic is binding; you cannot change the topic substantially after registration.

"Brecht" is too broad. "Brecht's use of song in The Threepenny Opera" or "Brecht's verfremdungseffekt in Mother Courage as a response to the political moment of 1939" is workable.

The student needs to be able to find primary plays and secondary scholarship. Topics on canonical figures (Beckett, Brecht, Lawler, Williamson, Enoch and Mailman) have plentiful scholarship. Topics on emerging figures may have limited scholarship.

A topic that has no genuine controversy ("Beckett used minimal sets") gives no room for an argument. A topic with real critical debate ("Is Mother Courage a critique or an endorsement of Mother Courage's economic survival?") gives room for argument.

Topics that build on the Australian Drama and Theatre core or the Studies in Drama and Theatre elective use what the student already knows. The Critical Analysis essay does not need to overlap with the written exam topics, but it often does.

"The history of Australian theatre" is too big. "The reception of Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in Melbourne and London 1955 to 1957" is bounded.

The plays themselves. Read each play under discussion fully, multiple times. Watch productions where available (Belvoir, STC, MTC and major British and American companies often have archival recordings or production photographs).

Critical books and articles. The Currency Press editions of Australian plays typically include scholarly introductions. The Cambridge Companions series (Cambridge Companion to Brecht, to Beckett, to Australian Theatre) is a standard starting reference.

Programme notes, archival reviews from newspapers (the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian have archived reviews), production photographs, video recordings where available (the National Library of Australia, ScreenSound Australia, individual company archives).

For contemporary topics, interviews with practitioners (where ethically appropriate and with consent) can be primary material. Many Australian playwrights, directors and designers are accessible and willing to talk to serious senior students.

Drama theory and criticism. Aristotle, Brecht, Boal, Lehmann's Postdramatic Theatre, Carol Martin's Dramaturgy of the Real.