Video Transcript (plus Presenter's Introduction)
Presenter: With the 2020 pandemic having led to schools engaging in online learning, VCE students are expressing their frustrations towards the execution of their performance subjects. Georgia Dunne reports.
Reporter: The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, and subsequent lockdowns, particularly in Victoria, impacted everyone on varying scales, including VCE students. With educational institutions moving to online learning, students had differing opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of studying from home. A particularly negative evaluation, however, has surfaced towards the performance subjects, such as Theatre Studies.
Reporter VO: Online learning was not for everyone, and Braybrook College student Emrys Lennie was one of countless teens that found the off-campus delivery to be quite jarring.
Emrys Lennie: Personally, I hated learning online. It gave me, there was no, like, check that I was still doing my work, or that I—I could just sit there and do none of my work and have no consequences because no one was there to tell me that I had consequences.
Reporter VO: More specifically, due to the major practical element of the VCE Theatre Studies units, the subject took a hit during the 2020 online learning, as students report that they were unable to interact and participate fully in classes. Lennie expressed that the performing arts were not as supported as they could have been.
Emrys Lennie: “I definitely think that they weren’t, because... I wasn’t able to properly have a performance space in my own room. It would’ve been much more helpful if the curriculum had changed... focusing more on gestures rather than the performance aspect. Focusing on smaller parts like hand movements, like I’m doing right now, and facial expressions, walking, like, exploring the different spaces you have, like how a living room is much bigger than your bedroom, for example, and knowing how to confine your performance to a small space.”
Reporter VO: The lack of curriculum alteration was the main source of many student’s dissatisfaction with the class, as Theatre Studies assignments were designed to be in-person plays and performances. The King David School student Liad Navon expressed his distaste at the execution of his Theatre Studies, saying,
“The subject could have been slightly altered, as we knew our play wasn’t going to go ahead. We should have instead spent more time on the analytical side of Theatre Studies, rather than the performance side. As much as I love performing, I feel it would have been a better use of our time.”
Reporter VO: In regards to the future, Lennie believes that they had altered their career plans after 2020 VCE, but is still taking Theatre Studies this year. Navon, however, still continues to enjoy acting despite the negative reviews of 2020 Theatre Studies, saying that,
“Despite having a year of basically no performing, it is still 100 percent something I love, and something I’ll definitely aim to do in some way after my time at school.”
Reporter VO: It seems that although students may not have enjoyed the online classroom, you can certainly take the actor out of the theatre, but you can’t take the theatre out of the actor.
Georgia Dunne, Deakin News, Melbourne.
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