Projects

As part of its activities Drama Australia conducts a number of projects.

The impetus for the projects comes from the state and territory drama associations that comprise the national organisation. The special projects vary in focus and duration but generally fall into one or more of the following categories:

A special publication

The appointment of a special advisor, for a specified time, to assist Drama Australia to enhance its work

The writing and dissemination of a ‘policy’ or ‘guidelines’ document focussing some aspect of drama education

A survey or small research project intended to enhance the work of drama educators

For more information contact

Jo Raphael

Drama Australia Director of Projects
projects@dramaaustralia.org.au

Current Projects

Drama Australia can be running several projects concurrently. Each project has a ‘project officer’ who runs the project. Drama Australia’s Director of Projects oversees the overall running of the various projects and provides support to the project officers. The current Director of Projects is Jo Raphael.

2008-2009 Acting Green - Teaching and Creating Sustainable Drama. This project, initiated by Drama Victoria, will involve the scoping, researching and creation of a set of guidelines and implementation kit that will assist Drama teachers in teaching about and teaching for a sustainable future.

Past projects

Past projects from recent years have included a diverse range of initiatives. Not all of the Drama Australia projects from recent times are listed here. This is a representative sample.

2008-2009 Working Conditions for Teaching and Learning in Drama – Position Paper on Working Conditions and Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines for Teaching and Learning in Drama in Australian schools. This revision of the 2001 document was initiated by Drama Tasmania and is intended to be both a support for enhanced working conditions for drama educators across all sectors and a guide to teachers on issues of health and safety in their drama teaching. It is available as a PDF under guidelines on this web site.

2006-2008 The VINE Project was a Drama Australia project, initiated by Drama Victoria, involving local and international sharing of performance making processes through web based technology. This project took place in the two years leading up to the IDEA congress in Hong Kong, 2007. Central to the VINE Project was the multi-user blogging environment http://vineblogs.net where students and teachers of drama created and shared blogs about their drama and performance making experiences.

2007 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Guidelines document
A new version of the mid-1990s document for drama educators was completed and published in 2007 and is available as a PDF under guidelines on this website.

2007 The Drama Australia Equity and Diversity poster. A poster was created to highlight the main points of the complete Drama Australia Equity and Diversity Guidelines document. The complete guidelines document is available as a PDF under guidelines on this website.

2006 Sensitive Issues – Drama and Health Project
This project looked at the interrelationships between
drama education and health related imperatives. It was run by Helen Cahill
from the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. The
findings of the project were published The Drama Australia Journal - NJ

2005 Drama Makes Meaning
A new version of the mid-1990s Drama Australia advocacy and information brochure regarding drama education in Australia.

2004
The Drama Australia Equity and Diversity guidelines document – featuring position papers, information and guidelines for teaching drama in relation to issues of gender, culture and linguistics, sexuality and disability

2001-2003
Technology project – this project established the association’s www presence including the launch of the Drama Australia website. It also made recommendations and provided advice about the use of technology in the drama classroom

2001
Working Conditions in the teaching and learning of drama- a guidelines document regarding the conditions for the teaching and learning of drama in schools in Australia.
Click here

1998
Arts Industry survey – a small research project established to ascertain how the arts industry saw its relationship to drama educators and investigating ways in which this relationship could be fostered and improved

1998
Gender Equity Policy – guidelines for the teaching of drama in relation to gender issues. This was the forerunner to the 2004 Equity and Diversity document

1995
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Studies policy statement and guidelines – a document which provide advice for the teaching of drama to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and to the teaching of drama students of all backgrounds about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives

Projects

Current Projects

Past projects

Member Associations