By Maddie A., Year 11
In Year 11, our teachers have just assigned us our first joint Drama and Music assignment. We’re working in small groups to create a drama and accompanying soundscape, which is background or atmospheric music. The performance – be it a drama, comedy or piece involving physical theatre – is to include some form of rising tension. It must be three scenes long and incorporate different aspects of each student group’s ideas and skills. In class, we’ve been developing our drama skills by learning about body language, facial expressions and focus. Click here to read about the various performances we’ve put on, including Commedia dell'arte and physical theatre. We’ll be tapping into what we’ve learned so far for this assignment.
Simultaneously, in Music, we’re starting to compose the soundscape. A recent activity has prepared us for our current assignment. We created a short story with a soundscape, which allowed us to experiment with different instruments and timing structures to either build or diminish tension from the story. We’ve also been analyzing music in film trailers and TV shows to get a better idea of how soundscapes can affect a story or scene.
This project is really challenging and something we’ve never done before, so it’s a lot of fun. Stay tuned for more updates!