Note from Director of Conference

This year’s state conference invites you to consider all that an education in Drama can encompass. We’ve built on the success of our earlier conferences and have listened to feedback from the 2010 conference: we’ve aimed to build the conference experience that Drama educators want to have.

As we move towards a new National Curriculum, key in our minds is the question of Direction. This subtheme of our conference explores where we are heading and considers the compasses that might help to show us the way. We’re hosting key thinkers and practitioners connected to the concept of a National Curriculum in a forum where our delegates will have a chance to ask questions and get the latest update about where we are in the development of the Drama curriculum.

As a teaching methodology, Drama offers opportunities for Inclusion. A selection of workshops this year focuses on how we can work more inclusively with a broad range of people in our community. Through these workshops we are examining the challenges and opportunities through our teaching practice when working with all students, including people on the Autism spectrum, students with physical and intellectual disabilities, students from different cultural backgrounds and students with behavioural management issues.
The theatrical process is a joy and a bane for many drama educators, hence our focus this year on Encompassing the Production Process. We want to discuss a number of aspects of production, including stagecraft development and production management. In brief: how do you make a play in a school without losing your mind?

Part of what delegates have always appreciated is the broad Scope of workshops. This subtheme allows opportunity for our delegates to specialise in areas of interest, specific areas of curriculum concern, and new drama teaching innovations.

There will be formal and informal opportunities to network, great trade displays, delicious food, a few drinks, a new website, a new 2012 program and more things than can be encompassed in one sentence.

Welcome to the 2012 Drama Victoria State Conference!

Michael Waugh
Director of Conference