[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 2.1: Warm-up – Flocking]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Okay, class. Today, we are going to be practicing some flocking. So, what I need you to do is I need you to get into two groups of four. And we're going to, first of all, form a diamond shape.

[Drama teacher arranging students into a diamond shape]

Okay. So, I need one person up the front, 2 on the side, and one at the back. So here. Just, maybe just a little bit here. And Dexter over here. Okay.

So, the top of the diamond is actually going to be the leader, okay? And I want you to just sort of take on what the lead is doing, just copying everything they do. So just some gentle subtle movements to start off with. And what we really want to see is that you become the one organism and you all sort of copy and become the one movement. Okay?

We're going to start with Jess and Rue leading, and whenever you want you can just turn either way and then we'll have a new leader, okay? Whoever's facing the front, okay? So just starting off with soft, gentle movements. And go.

[Students moving their arms and bodies, following each leader]

So, everyone needs to start copying. We might start building the movement. Maybe we could start moving more than just our arms. And we could turn around whenever we like. So, Dexter’s leading now, excellent. Leading over here. Yep. So, trying to copy exactly what they're doing.

Excellent. Okay, we'll wrap that up now.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 3.1: Warm-up – Line, circle, clump, wall]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Okay guys, can I just get you into a nice, even circle?

[Students and teacher form a circle]

I'm going to adopt a neutral stance, relaxing our shoulders. Can I use this time to get into tune with each other, each other's bodies? So our goal is that no one is a leader, but we're going to move as one and we're going to hopefully all lunge and clap at the same time. Okay? But we have no assigned leaders. Just going to see how in-tune we can get at the start of this.

[Students and teacher lunge and clap in unison]

I think we can do better. Deep breaths.

[Students and teacher lunge and clap in unison]

Pretty good. Let's all take a step back. Another deep breath.

[Students and teacher lunge and clap in unison]

Let's do one more and see if we can absolutely smash it out of the park. Deep breath.

[Students and teacher lunge and clap in unison]

Oh. Good work. Okay, now that we are all kind of in sync, we're tapped into each other, we're going to expand on this. So we're going to see if we can still, without talking, make some shapes. So, we might make a clump or a circle. We might get into a line. We might become a wall, okay? But we have no leader and we're just following whatever happens. Really deep breath again.

[Students and teacher move in unison, forming a clump]

And turn, next offer.

[Students and teacher move in unison, forming a line]

Let's keep our offers flowing so it's never, our offers never stop.

[Students and teacher move in unison, forming a circle, then a wall, a clump, a circle, a line, a wall, a circle, and finally a line]

Okay, well done. I think we are all very nicely in tune with each other.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 3.2: Literal to abstract – Canon]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Okay class, we're going to continue with movement. Only this time we're going to experiment with canon. So, in a canon we're looking at things kind of rippling through, okay? So, for instance, we might start with Yashal and then continue down the line. So, you'll do a movement. And then when you stop, you'll mimic it and do the exact movement. And then it will go through. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Same over here. Okay. So, we'll start with Juno and then we'll go through and we'll copy exactly what they're doing, okay?

So, the first movement is just going to be a yawn, okay? We're going to wake up in the morning. Imagine you're waking up and you're just taking a nice big yawn and nice big morning stretch. Okay. Ready. Set. Go.

[Students yawn one by one in a chain reaction]

Perfect. I saw the same movement over here, and the same movement here. And we saw some different types of movements, but that was great. This time I want to see you devise your own waking up scene, okay? This time it doesn't have to be the exact same action. It could be the exact same action but exaggerated. Or you could add a different type of action that also shows waking up apart from a yawn, like eating breakfast or brushing your teeth, okay? So I'm just going to give you a few minutes to devise what you're going to do in your groups. Okay. Ready. Set. Go.

[Wipe transition indicating time has passed]

Now we're going to look at them one at a time. So, perfect. We're going to look at this group first, okay? So, starting with Juno. When you're ready.

[Students yawn one by one, each more exaggerated than the last]

Perfect, we saw the exaggerated yawn go through. And we even had added levels which was perfect and very intriguing for the audience. What about this group over here?

[Students act out eating cereal one by one, each action more exaggerated than the last]

Excellent. We're eating cereal over here, but we exaggerated the movements every single time. More purposeful movements. Perfect. Okay, so that is basically the canon movement, as we go through the movement and action or gesture will ripple through the group one at a time. Perfect. Well done.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 3.2: Literal to abstract – Chorus movement]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Hi, class. Today we're going to continue with movement, but this time we will be looking at literal movement going into abstract movements. Okay, so to start us off, we need to be in a neutral stance. And what I want you to do as a class is, without speaking, I want you to form a ship.

[Students move into positions to form the shape of a ship]

Excellent. We've got an offer. We accept and we extend it. So how can you contribute? Perfect. Excellent. I love the levels and the shapes that are happening here.

Now the ship is going to move. Okay? So, remember we're going to make an offer and then we're going to accept and go along with it, okay. So, moving ship.

[Students start moving through the space as an ensemble with a gentle bobbing motion]

Excellent. We’re bobbing. We're going forward. Nice. Okay. So, we'll go back to our neutral stance now. So, what do we think? Was that a literal movement or an abstract movement? Literal. We could see the ship that was literally there and it was moving.

Now we're going to work into more symbolic concepts, more abstract. So, this is really tricky. But we're going to, without talking, form the colour green. Now, make an offer. If you see someone making an offer, please continue forward with it. Okay, go.

[Students move into positions to form the shape of trees]

Excellent. Okay. Still, make it a still green tableau. Perfect. I see we've got maybe a forest happening here, so we're going environmentally green. Love it.

Now we're going to add the movement. How would this green move?

[Students begin swaying in the shape of trees]

Excellent. We've got swaying and we're doing it sort of together. Lovely twirls over here. Perfect. Okay.

So obviously this is kind of literal because we do have trees. Except this the stimulus was green. So it started off as abstract. But we've created a literal image from the original abstract stimulus. So well done. Okay. So that was literal movement going into abstract. Perfect. Well done.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 4.1: Warm up – Voice]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

All right guys, we're going to do a quick vocal warm-up when we get into the first activity. So, let's just, everyone has to start by holding our necks nice and warm. Give it a little bit of rub. We’ve been yelling too much, maybe. So, we’ll start with some ‘Oh’.

[The students engage in a call and response of different noises led by the teacher]

Now this one I can't do it very well, so let's see if it works. Very nice. All right everyone, nice, work on your face. Lovely. Nice open mouth. Excellent.

Can I get a nice big circle for me? So don't go too big. I don't want to miss you guys.

[Students move to stand in a circle]

Okay. We're going to go around the circle for a second. I'll start us off so we know what we're doing. We're going to introduce ourselves. We'll say our first name. We're just trying really extend those syllables. Really hit some of those notes in there.

And because that'll be just too easy if I make you do it by yourself, you're going to do an action. Then we're going to call and respond. So, I'm going to do it first. You're going to send my name back to me and copy my action. All good? Wonderful. Alright. My name is Emily.

[As each person says their name, they add a physical action. The rest of the group repeats the student's name and the action in unison]

Class

Emily.

Teacher

Beautiful. Let's go round.

Amelia

My name's Amelia.

Class

Amelia.

Courtney

Courtney.

Class

Courtney.

Lucille

Lucille.

Class

Lucille.

Roley

Roley.

Class

Roley.

Lawson

Lawson.

Class

Lawson.

Najwa

Najwa.

Class

Najwa.

Teacher

Beautiful job guys, really nice.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 4.2: Vocal techniques – Voice]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Alright, before we get started and our next activity, what are some of the things we can do as actors to change our voice for a character or a role? Yeah.

Student 1

Volume.

Teacher

Absolutely.

Student 2

Tone.

Teacher

Yes.

Student 3

Pitch.

Teacher

Absolutely. Anything else?

Student 4

The speed.

Teacher

Oh, yeah. If you go too fast, very different character than a character who talks so slow. Alright. One more?

Student 5

Accent.

Teacher

Yes. If we want to and we're confident, we can do an accent. What we're going to do today is we're going to focus on some of the simpler ones. We're going to focus on volume and we're going to focus on speed. So, let's do two groups. Easily right down the middle.

You guys are going to make a very short scenario for me. I'm going to give you a very short time to plan it out. But you are going to be two teenagers sneaking in past your curfew. The other two are going to be their parents waiting for them. I'm going to give you about two minutes maybe, very quick scene, but this group you're going to focus on volume. You're going to think about how you can change your volume to show the two characters, the two groups of characters, and what the scenario is for them.

You guys, speed is going to be your objective. Who's going to talk fast here? Who's going to talk slow? Are they going to change? Okay. I’ll give you two minutes devising time. Break into your groups. Try and think about what you can do. You can use other techniques, but focus on volume here, speed here.

[Wipe transition indicating time has passed]

Wonderful, I'm going to start with my volume group. Let's have a look at volume. Let's see what volume can come up with. Alright, volume. Let’s see it.

[Students 1 and 4 act out a scene of sneaking back home while whispering, with Students 2 and 6 acting as their parents and speaking loudly]

Student 2

And where have you 2 been?

Student 1

Oh, sorry.

Student 6

Don't you know your curfew?

Student 4

We were just having a little break outside because it was really stuffy, you know.

Student 2

In skirts and skinny tops? You been to the club, haven’t you?

Student 4

Oh, no no no no no.

Student 6

Time is ticking, mate. Get to bed.

Student 2

Grounded for the next ... how long should we ground them for? A year.

Student 4

What?

Student 1

No!

Teacher

Beautiful. Excellent job. I love the modulation of volume. And I love the whispering moments to double check the grounding. Parents need to maybe figure that out. I love it, alright. We've got some speed happening here. Let's see how we go.

[Students 3 and 8 acting out scene of sneaking back home while whispering quickly and frantically, with Students 5 and 7 acting as their parents speaking slowly and sternly]

Student 3

Okay, all clear.

Student 7

Where have you 2 been?

Student 8

We’re so sorry, oh my God, we snuck out. She told me to.

Student 7

There’s no excuse. You guys know your curfew, and you still snuck out on us.

Student 8

Okay. We’re sorry. It won't happen again.

Student 3

It was her fault.

Student 7

Doesn’t matter. You guys are still grounded, and I'm very, very disappointed in you. We are both very disappointed.

Student 5

Very.

Teacher

Nice. Excellent job. What a great job you both did is showing the difference that can come for character with just volume and speed. Well done.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 5.1: Warm up – Soundscape]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Alright, so today we're going to start out with a quick warm-up. We're going to make a soundscape. First thing I need everyone to do. Stand in a circle for me. Alrighty, just a quick show of hands. Who feels confident they're going to be the first person to go? Yeah, I thought you might. Alright.

[Throughout the sequence, the teacher models each action, and the students repeat as a practice]

First thing you're going to do for me. We're going to go around the circle. You're going to be my first, which means you're going to start us off. You don't have to do anything with your voice, guys. We're just going to start by making a storm sound by just rubbing our hands together. Okay, everyone, do a quick rub. Make sure you got it, make sure your hands work. Excellent. Alright. And stop.

We're going to start after about 3 seconds. We're going to carry it on. And you're going to keep making the rubbing the hand sound until gets back to Elijah. Then it's going to come to you. Okay. When it gets back to you, we're going to transition to a new sound. Do you feel like you can remember your sounds in order? We'll find out.

Next sound is the click. Can everyone give me a quick click? Beautiful. So, it’ll be the same thing. We'll transition, then when it gets back to you, you change from the rubbing of the hands, you’re going to go to the click. Okay? I'm gonna give you 4 steps.

Third one, after you get to the click, when it gets back around to you after the click you're going to change from click tapping your thighs. Excellent.

And the last one, stomping of your feet. And pause. When we’ve done stomping of the feet, we're going to go back around again. Then we're going to go back to the previous one. So, what was after stomping of the feet? Yes, it was the thighs. So, thighs, then click, then rub. So, rub, click, thighs, stomp. Once we've got the stomp, we go back to ... alright, are we ready to start? Alright, let's see how we go.

[Students begin, one by one, rubbing their hands together quickly to create a layered sound. Once the sound has gone round the circle they begin clicking, then tapping their thighs, and finally, stomping]

And end. Beautiful job guys, well done.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 5.2: Playing with possibilities – Lighting]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

Ok guys, so we're going to use our torches to create some tableaux. And we’re going to have a look at how it creates and changes focus in a couple of different ways. Okay? So, I'm going to give you some instructions. And then we're going to just workshop and see what tableau we can come up with. Sound good?

Okay, so our first one is going to be, we want to use our torches to create focus on one person. So quickly do a tableau where we're creating our focus on one person using our torches.

[All students direct their torches at one student]

Fantastic. Okay, torches off. Now we're going to do a second tableau where we are 2 opposing sides. We're going to use our torches to really show a contrast between the 2. Can we do that?

[Students lean towards either side of the room, directing their torches at the group standing opposite them]

Brilliant. And torches off again. This time think Greek theatre and we're going to make us look like one chorus that's going to work in unison. Can we do that?

[All students direct their torches upwards at their own face]

Brilliant! Torches off again. Our last tableau. We're going to use maybe a surface in the room to really highlight one person and see how we can use reflection and other surfaces to create focus using our torches.

[One student stands in the centre, while the remaining students kneel on either side with their torches pointed towards the student in the centre]

Perfect. Looks brilliant. Torches off. So that was really great, guys. We used our torches to really create focus in a really simple but effective way. Good job.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]

[Text on screen reads, ‘We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.’ Screen also shows ‘NSW Government Waratah logo.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Stage 5 Drama activities. Activity 5.2: Playing with possibilities – Shadow]

[Drama teacher addressing class of students]

Teacher

So, we're going to look at how we can enhance some of our scenes using shadow work on our white wall here. So, I'm going to give you guys some scenarios to work with. I'm just going to see what images we can create that are going to add to our already developed tableau scenes, okay?

So, our first one is how can we enhance our two sides having an argument using our shadow wall behind us?

[All students direct their torches at the white screen in the background, holding their hands in front of the torch light to create shadows of fingers pointed at either side of the room]

That's really good. Can we play with when we move our torches and see how that adds to our shapes? Fantastic.

Okay we’re going to turn our torches off. And next time we're going to work together to see how we can manipulate our lighting so that it makes things that change size look even larger. So, we might work with our monster and see how we can make the shadows make our monster look even bigger than it already was.

[Three students move to the centre of the room and kneel down, before slowly standing up creating writhing shapes with their hands. The remaining students lie down, pointing their torches upwards at the students, creating a distorted shape against the white screen.]

Fantastic. And pull those torches back and make that bigger image. Yeah, that's brilliant. Great work guys. I'm going to do one more. Torches off. This one, we're going to see if we can start in one shape and then use our shadows to enhance a transition into a different kind of image that's unsuspecting to our audience.

[Four students form a heart with their arms in front of the screen. Two stand to shape the top, two kneel to shape the sides. One student kneels in the centre, smiling, hands cupped under the chin. The remaining students sit downstage, shining torches on the group to cast the heart’s shadow onto the screen. The four students then curl their hands into claws, and the centre student’s smile turns to fear]

Yeah, a really quick change. Well done, guys. We’re going to pop our torches off. So, you can see, you know, we often rely on our body and our faces to create those images, and when we add lighting to it, we add an extra dimension and depth to our performance. Great work.

[Screen shows, NSW Government logo waratah and ‘© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) 2026.’]

[End of transcript]