Australian Contemporary Theatre

[dcesaona]

Any ideas as to what they could ask for in the exam next week? They've asked some tricky ones in the past in my opinion, such as the personal and social tensions between characters, as well as conveying Australian values and attitudes. How would you interpret these questions? I see Australian attitudes, in relation to the plays I've studied, as being quite oppressive in nature at times, especially towards our Indigenous culture. Thus, the plays challenge Australian values and attitudes in this way, encouraging the audience to engage with them by having their preconceived perceptions about them challenged.

In the past 4 years they've asked for tension development, stage space, social concerns, and empathy. I feel as though it will be one of these again, or all 4 rolled into one somehow haha. What do you think? 

Also, where's everyone at with their drama study? I've just started today.

[holky]

Hey, which plays do you do?
I do Stolen and Neighbourhood Watch
I haven't started my study yet because I have CAFS on Monday, so I'm focusing on that for now.
I usually use a thesis very similar to yours haha, except, normally I'll talk about decentralising our understanding of the Australian experience from being an overtly white experience, to being a more shared, diverse experience emphasising the stories we have tried to ignore or suppress.
I honestly don't know what to expect from the question, but if they've asked a question before, they generally don't ask it again (generally, they have done so in the past, so it really is a possibility)
I think in terms of questions and adaptability of examples, just be ready to make some reaches if the question is oddly specific
How are you choosing the examples you're going to use?

[dcesaona]

I do the same texts! Yeah now that I think about it I don't think they will use something previously asked. I'm looking at the rubric now and it's really broad and quite general so I'm definitely expecting some kind of a curve ball haha! I'm thinking maybe how characters and the audience interact, or something even more specific. I'll think of some more tricky questions that could be asked and post them here so anyone else can think about them too!

I basically have a broad essay for Australian Contemporary Theatre, which I can adapt and mould to any question, or make enhancements to if needed. For instance, I use an example where the children in Stolen are scrubbing the floor and I talk about the use of humour in non-comical situations in this scene, in order to engage the audience with issues in society. However, if the question asked for interactions between characters, I could build upon my experimental example that I have prepared and say that the repetitiveness of the children's scrubbing and singing, as they maintain a steady rhythm together, establishes a bond between the characters, thus heightening the audience's understanding of the detrimental effects of child labour in Australia's oppressive contemporary society. That was a ramble but basically if need be, I can build on my prepared paragraphs or just use them as they are!

Do you do the same?
Also, best of luck for your cafs exam! 

[holky]

Hey, I love that example so much and the way you extended it is so awesome!
I'm basically going in with a few examples from both the plays and my experimental stuff in class which I can talk a lot about. I don't like preparing essays, because I prefer to think on the spot, but I do analyse my stuff beforehand so I know my talking points (Does that make sense, I feel like I've just blurted out some nonsense haha)
I think you're right, they may hit us with a curveball, so we'll all just have to remember to be really creative in our responses to really reach to the question. But, if it's a tough question, as long as everyone does their best, scaling should help everyone out!

Thank you! Do you have any more exams before drama?

[dcesaona]

Ahh I get what you mean! I don't have any exams until drama haha. I've basically slacked off all day and have done no studying, but I guess we've still got quite a bit until the exam so it's all good!

Anyways, I thought of a few things they could ask, that might be interesting to consider:
- How characters interact in the plays
- Could they ask about lighting (surely they can't be that specific?? **nervous laughter)
- How movement and volume contribute to the staging of experiences in Australian society
- How stage directions engage the audience with issues in society (not exactly sure where this came from in my brain but it's here anyway)
- Something broad about dramatic meaning and how it's created
- How a sense of place is created to explore issues in Australian society (this would be tricky aghgh!!)

So yeah, those are some things I thought of that might be worth considering. I have a feeling they'll ask about a particular element of drama and ask us to centre our responses around that - which in my opinion would be that hardest as it's the most specific (which includes things like lighting and place), as they've asked for other dramatic elements in the past.

Hopefully this helps 

[Potatohater]

I think you're both definitely on the right track in terms of thinking about this easy. When I did my HSC I made a essay scaffold for every question I could find and identified a green tap pattern of asking about the issues explored and how they are represented in the space. Yes, this does mean they sometimes get specific by asking about lighting, space, character etc. I personally reccomend holky's approach because I also liked writing my essays spontaneously in the exam, so what I did was identify all the key issues in the plays and then find experiential and textual examples for as many of those issues as possible. Having all these examples link back to an issue was very easy to mould to any of the essay questions an wasn't restrictive like I perceive essay memorisation to be. Good luck with the exam!!! It actually (believe it or not) has the potential to be the most enjoyable HSC examination due to the creativity you get to express here, so if you can, have fun with it too!