Top Class Drama Success

Each year, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) run the Season of Excellence program, a series of public exhibitions and concerts in the arts showcasing the very best VCE student work from the previous academic year.

In VCE Drama, a select group of students are invited by the VCAA to perform their solo performance examination a second time before a panel that includes the Chief Assessor for Drama. This panel chooses approximately thirty of the invited candidates to perform in three concerts the following year, known as Top Class Drama. These public concerts are mostly filled with current VCE Drama students and their teachers, eager to see the best performance examinations from the previous year.

More than 1,400 students undertook VCE Drama Unit 4 across the state last year. 2013 Avila College student Maragaret Tanjutco has just been selected to present her solo performance at the Top Class Drama concert on Wednesday 30 April at 10am at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Margaret’s student-written seven-minute solo performance is the character Kate from Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew. Her performance includes a humourous script with razor-sharp wit and a number of sophisticated theatrical devices. The character of Kate was one of ten examination characters choices for students in Unit 4 Drama last year.

Students selected to perform at Top Class Drama are typically assessed in the very high A+ range for their solo performance examinations. Avila College has had great success with students presenting at Top Class Drama concerts. Margaret will be the ninth student to represent Avila at Top Class Drama in as many years.

Justin Cash

The Arts Curriculum Assistant (Drama)