Drama is taught from year 7 through to year 13 at Waiheke High School and covers a broad range of genres and theatre technologies.
In the junior areas, drama covers the basics of improvisation and theatre sports as an introduction to performance. Students then have repeated opportunities to experiment with a variety of scripts from various genres. They also look at the New Zealand History of theatre and sample styles from early Greek and Italian performance. By year ten students will be familiar with Shakespearean text and the mechanics of internal and external dramatic techniques. Students learn to create characters and have opportunities to write their own plays using the devised process.
In the senior levels students experiment with a range of genres and participate in the full process of a major production. They also learn the details of creating a character and study at least two international directors. Students also devise their own performances and go to see theatre in Auckland to widen their appreciation of acting and directing styles. Waiheke students have enjoyed success at all levels in their theatre studies at Waiheke High and our senior students have gained scholarship three times in the past eight years placing them in the top three percent of the nation’s high school performers.