Work samples

The Arts: Drama

Years 7 and 8

Above satisfactory

Scripted: Pyramus and Thisbe

Summary of task

Students were engaged in a unit of work on Elizabethan drama using Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the key text for a performance-based assessment. They studied style and the acting conventions of the play’s original context. They also learned about performing to style using:

  • soliloquy and aside
  • an opposite gender role
  • presentational acting
  • costume-based stagecraft.

Students were assessed on their choice of a section of the script that they developed to represent their understanding of style and convention. This was at the end of a 10-week unit that included the ‘moved reading’ of the entire play. The performances were finally presented to a community audience in an outdoor setting.

Achievement standard

By the end of Year 8, students identify and analyse how the elements of drama are used, combined and manipulated in different styles. They apply this knowledge in drama they make and perform. They evaluate how they and others from different cultures, times and places communicate meaning and intent through drama.

Students collaborate to devise, interpret and perform drama. They manipulate the elements of drama, narrative and structure to control and communicate meaning. They apply different performance styles and conventions to convey status, relationships and intentions. They use performance skills and design elements to shape and focus theatrical effect for an audience.

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