Key Frameworks Of Ideas

Writing About Personal Journeys

Hi, I'm Helene and the key facilitator for this workshop. As a French born person who has lived in three different continents, I'm excited about exploring this topic with your students. The use of language reflects a personal journey, which is why I chose to write in first person in this blurb and will avoid the internal self negations of using "proper English".

The beginning of the workshop focuses on energies and feelings. By identifying this first, one can then learn how to transform the different moods into performance and written pieces. For example, in one of the games we will look at chaos, stillness, noise and silence and in which energy you feel more at home. Have you felt any of these in your own personal journey?

Exercises go on to explore how word association can turn into sentences. The students will also get the chance to work with the actors, getting to discover how different feelings can also be transformed into difference movements on stage. The last short exercise students will write a short paragraph responding to the prompt 'how i came to school today.' This piece can be descriptive or focus on the emotion. It is a great starting point that can get the creative writing flowing.

Red Chair is the first mentor text I want to explore. I want students to talk about books that changed them. I love this text and want them to consider the question "what is my red chair?" as a writing prompt.

With the second mentor text, students will be asked to write about the feelings a human can have when interpreting someone else's story. In the final part of the workshop actors will perform a student piece in different styles to help understand the ideas of audience, purpose, context and writing style.

Finally, students will have the chance to rewrite or continue one of their pieces focusing on a different audience, writing style, context or purpose.

Writing About Protest

Drawing on the training of the key facilitator Paul Robertson, the short writing exercises focus on responding to embodied elements of protest. Somatic exercises give students a way to feel what its like to; voice your "NO", take a stance either with or against the majority, strive for a collective goal and fail, and imagine what its like to have the names of loved ones disrespected.

As we move on to the mentor texts chosen by the school, we have exciting material on all sides. The humour and satire of Vonnegut could be the prompt to write about, banning a loved activity as a "postive". The Friday essay, if performed, will emphasise chants and singing as a binding force in protest. The suffragette piece would be delivered, focusing on particular phrases and how they grow in significance with repetition.

Mayne Wyatt's monologue is an exceptional performance. To be culturally sensitive, we would rather not perform this text. If schools want to explore this text, we ask that you provide a way of screening his performance. We are happy to help students to unpack it while acknowledging that we do so through a non-indigenous Australian lens.

Throughout the session, students will be encouraged to explore writing, not just about historical protests, but also about the action of protesting and/or things for or against which they might be willing to protest themselves.

Writing About Play

Play is our foundation for social connection as human beings.

When we participate in play in the form of games, sports and improvisation, we strengthen our communication, and interpersonal and personal awareness. When we view play - we bond and create shared experiences through attending sports games, exhibitions and live performance.

We also agree to play by society's rules or not and our choices, our willingness to play along or not, often effects change. The rules of society and play are not universal, they change within different contexts, time periods and countries.

Play is also at the very basis of creativity: blank page paralysis is mitigated when a writer sets aside cohesion and simply responds. An initial response is facilitated by experimentation, and further inspiration can be found both within following rules and by breaking them.

These concepts of play are introduced and embodied through activities in the short form writing activities.

This workshop is based on the studies of Dr Robert Reid PHD, a leading practitioner of play in Victoria. It is led by Anastasia Sidorova and James Adler. Ana is an actor, writer and filmmaker. She is also an avid writer and has recently completed her film Rotting Hill. James brings decades of experience as a critically acclaimed performer as well as being a published writer and poet/lyricist. His play "An Actor Prepares" has been performed in Victoria, South Australia, Europe and America.

Writing About Country

Shiralee is a proud indigenous Noongar/Gunaikernai woman. James' family is of migrant and refugee origin. Both have lived in city and rural Australia. Their combined heritage enables them to offer unique insight into the theme, the mentor texts, and the ways suggested by the VCAA that students could write about country.

Short writing exercises in this workshop focus on, pre and post-colonial "Australia", city and country, migration, resettlement, identity (and losing one's home/country) as well as discrimination. Given that Split was written by a Noongar woman, Shiralee's people, we strongly suggest that schools choose this as one of the two mentor texts we explore on the day. Her knowledge could be what opens the door to writing about country with reference to indigenous Australia.

The facilitators are both professional actors, directors and writers. They are two of the most experienced arts educators available. Shiralee co-created the indigenous actors' programs at VCA and WAPPA. James created the Eagle's Nest Schools program. They have mentored thousands of young people in the art of telling and writing stories.

The workshop combines techniques from Western and Indigenous approaches to creating stories and is a must for any school wanting students to thrive at "Writing about Country"

Special guest facilitator: SHIRALEE HOOD