South Africa Grade 12 Dramatic Arts Syllabus

This syllabus outlines the curriculum for Dramatic Arts, encompassing various performance modes, media, and cultural contexts. It aims to develop human creativity through dramatic communication, interaction, and representation. Learning involves experience, reflection, analysis, and re-experience to gain skills, knowledge, values, and insight.

Learning Outcomes

The curriculum is structured around four interconnected Learning Outcomes:

1. Apply Personal Resources: Demonstrate technical proficiency, expressiveness, and creativity by applying internal (sensory perception, imagination, discipline, self-esteem) and external (movement, voice, communication skills) resources. Grade 12 focuses on integrating these skills to convey thought and feeling creatively and effectively. 2. Create, Make and Present: Create and present dramatic products by experimenting with and shaping dramatic elements through artistic exploration and collaboration. This includes developing skills in improvisation, characterization, acting, directing, technical elements, and cultural expression. Grade 12 culminates in polished performances incorporating diverse forms and collaborative processes. 3. Understand and Analyse: Identify, understand, and analyze the content, form, and context of dramatic processes, practices, and products across various periods, cultures, and styles. Grade 12 emphasizes researching and evaluating the dynamic nature and purposes of drama in diverse contexts, including its capacity to affirm and challenge values, societies, cultures, and identities. 4. Reflect and Evaluate: Reflect on and evaluate own and others' dramatic processes, practices, and products. This includes developing empathy, aesthetic awareness, and a specialized vocabulary for critical evaluation. Grade 12 focuses on reflecting on and comparing performances, justifying interpretations, and understanding how drama relates to personal experiences and human experience broadly.

Scope

The subject covers:

• Cultural practices and processes (traditions, customs, rituals) in local, pan-African, and global contexts.
• Oral studies and oracy (praise poetry, myths, storytelling, public speaking).
• Text and context (written, visual, and oral), including the study of texts from conception to reception.
• Performance styles, traditions, and movements, including contributions of indigenous and global theatrical practitioners.
• Dramatic practices, processes, and products (indigenous performance forms, improvisation, acting, directing, design, stagecraft, arts administration).
• Dramatic media (stage, video, film, television, radio, new media).

Educational and Career Links

Dramatic Arts builds upon the foundation laid in the Arts and Culture Learning Area in earlier grades. It prepares learners for higher education in fields like Speech and Drama, Theatre Studies, Media Studies, and related disciplines. It also equips learners with valuable skills for various careers, including arts management, media, entertainment, and other professions where communication, creativity, and critical thinking are essential.