Theatre
Tradition
Workshops
Year 11 Theatre Term 2
Created by Jane Penhallurick
For Carey Baptist Grammar School
What is it?
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Develop a really detailed understanding of a
Theatre tradition (from the list) that is underpinned
by a sound theoretical understanding of this
practice – this means RESEARCH
Select a CONVENTION of this practice and
physically and practically explore it
Prepare an A4 2 sided handout
Run a 20 minute workshop for your peers
(probably only Year 11s) introducing the tradition
and then explaining and demonstrating the
convention
Why? Porque? Perche?
 This
task links to the Theatre in Context
thread of the syllabus
 It’s a great chance for peer teaching and
learning
 Helps develop your research skills
 It is a practice for the Research
Presentation (20% in year 12)
So where do I start???
Wayang golek puppets
http://riugo7.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/wayang-golek-wooden-puppets-from-west.html
 1.
Choose a partner
 2. Choose one of the following Theatre
Traditions (first in best dressed)…
Comedy and Tragedy, Ancient Greece
* No Ancient Greek Tragedy because you know it!
Comedy and Tragedy, Ancient Rome
Topeng Dance, Bali
Kecak, Indonesia
Wayang golek puppetry, Indonesia
Wayang kulit shadow puppetry, Indonesia
Peking opera, China
Yuan Drama, China
Khayal al-zill shadow puppet, Egypt
and Judy
English Renaissance Theatre, England Punch
puppets
Victorian Melodrama, England
Punch and Judy puppets, England
Restoration Comedy, England
Medieval Mystery plays, England
French farce, France
Karagozi shadow puppetry, Greece
Kathakali, India
http://www.iandenny.co.uk/page24.htm
Barong dance, Indonesia
Commedia dell’arte *not if you did Year 10 Drama!
Bunraku, Japan
Kabuki, Japan
Kyogen farce, Japan
Noh Theatre, Japan
Rakugo theatre, Japan
Talchum mask dance, Korea
Shadow Theatre, Taiwan & China
Noh mask
Hun lakhon lek puppetry, Thailand
Karagoz shadow puppetry, Turkey
Pantomime, United Kingdom
https://wildesound.wordpress.co
m/2013/05/27/noh-theatre-abrief-intro
How to choose?
Obviously there are a LOT of theatre traditions.
Consider if you want to choose a western or nonwestern tradition. Try to make links to other aspects
of the course…
For example, perhaps you did the Butoh workshop at
Drama Camp last year and are interested in a
Japanese Theatre tradition. Maybe you have seen
a pantomime in the UK and are interested in the
Punch and Judy puppets. Maybe you have very
little experience of any Asian styles and want to
choose one you have never heard of?!
One of the criteria assesses how you connect your
workshop to you as a theatre student.
Research!
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Acting in Person and Style and/or Wikipedia,
and a basic internet search is a good place
to start
The librarians are your friends! Ask them to
help you access journal articles
Excursion to the State Library and/or the VCA
library. Again, ask the Carey librarians to help
you access the online catalogues so you
know what you’re looking for before you go.
Is there anyone who might be an expert?
Could you email them some questions?
What to look for in your
research
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What is the CONTEXT of this theatre tradition? Where,
when, who, why?
What does it look like? Can you find a performance on
youtube? What do you notice?
What is the specific terminology of the theatre practice?
E.g. nava rasas in Kathakali, lazzi in Commedia
What is the performance space? What is the actoraudience relationship?
What sort of texts do the performers/productions use?
What sort of production elements do you see? Costume,
sound, lighting, etc?
What are the ACTING CONVENTIONS (this is essential
information for your workshop)
What do you notice about the
actors in performance?
 Gesture
 Face
 Body
 Movement
 Voice
What do the experts emphasise about this
theatre practice? For example GESTURE is
incredibly important in Old Greek Tragedy,
MOVEMENT is important in Commedia
Moving from theory into
practice
It’s important that you have a
sophisticated understanding of
your theatre tradition before you
start planning your
workshop…and I can tell if you
don’t!
Cool, so I have lots of info.
Now what?
You need to focus in on a specific
convention of your theatre tradition. The
convention needs to physical and
practical:
 Gesture
 Face
 Body
 Movement
 Voice
Commedia example…
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Through research you have discovered the actors in traditional
Commedia used highly stylised movement, stance and
gestures specific to each of the stock characters. An audience
would know immediately who each character was just by the
way that the actor walks and stands.
Your workshop could focus on MOVEMENT of Arlecchino (one
of the stock characters)
Your workshop could teach the movement specific to
Arlechinno through demonstrations and practical exercises
(think of Rosa’s workshop if you did year 10 Drama) The class
would physically experience creating the movement of
Arlecchino
In your discussion/explanation you can link this back to some of
the significant aspects of a Commedia performance. It’s very
visual, as it’s performed outdoors in a large town square;
doesn’t need a shared language; exaggerated and almost
grotesque stock characters; the same characters in different
shows.
So you’ve given the class
 1.
A practical experience of working with
ONE physical/practical conventions of this
theatre practice
 2. Made links to your theoretical research
 3. Shown the class the REASON for this
particular convention
Each Theatre style/practice will suggest a different
type of workshop
You need to include
* An detailed explanation of the theatre tradition
* A demonstration of the convention
* Practical exercises to teach the convention to
your peers
This can be in any order you like. You can use
something like a powerpoint to support your
presentation. You should create an A4 two sided
handout to support your presentation.
Bibliography
You will need to include a bibliography of
ALL the resources that you have consulted
developing your workshop. These could
include:
Books, journal articles, websites, primary
recources (such as an interview), youtube
clips
Criteria
A: Understanding the Theatre
Tradition
(see pg 59 of 2016 Theatre Guide)
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To what extent does your presentation
demonstrate an understanding of the
theatre tradition?
Have you chosen an effective (and
practical) convention
Have you consulted a broad range of
resources? (shown in your bibliography)
B: Practical application
 Have
you selected appropriate activities
to explain/present/demonstrate your
chosen convention?
 Have your ‘students’ been given a
practical experience of gesture or face or
body or movement or voice?
C: The Presentation
 Is
the workshop engaging and suitable for
your peers?
 Have you used your body and voice to
communicate your ideas?
 Is the workshop well structured?
D: The Learner
 Have
you explained WHY this practice
and your chosen convention
 Explain how this practice could inform
your work as a theatre maker
 Connect your theatre tradition with other
work that you have undertaken in the
course