That's the Ticket! No Sugar Set Design Exercise (HSC Australian Drama & Theatre)

This is a 17-page A4 resource for use in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) Drama course. It may be used upon completion of reading the play No Sugar by Jack Davis, which is part of Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study), Topic 1: Dramatic Traditions in Australia as unit support or for further revision. Depending on how it is utilised, it can cover between 1-3 days of classes or even fill in as a valuable casual lesson.

This exercise seeks to bring together both theoretical and experiential understandings of the play by guiding students through the use of "techniques and conventions to convey ideas and influence the ways in which audiences understand and respond to ideas and images presented in the theatre." (Board of Studies, NSW 2015-1017)

In it, students explore the possibilities of designing two distinct playing spaces for a contemporary production of No Sugar by drafting floorplans and designing scenic art. They also explore the implications of set design choices in relation to previous HSC Written Examination questions provided. Valuable concepts such as the floor plan, sightlines, masking, audience orientation, and the perambulant model are discussed, and research of Aboriginal cultural and the use of ICT are added as well.

This resource is flexible enough to provide differentiation for students who may only need to learn some basics of set design to those who have chosen Set Design for their Individual Project and may be able to go a bit further.

And never fear! Four pages are devoted to a Teacher’s Appendix (or answer key) which provides example sketches and explanations for teachers who are less familiar with set design, as well as starter questions to help students make the link between their theoretical and experiential knowledge of the play and the types of questions they will be required to answer for the HSC Drama Written Examination.

And did I mention my own original colour illustrations? You get them, too.