School theatre productions are performed throughout Australian secondary schools each year. Currently Broadway model musicals are often performed as the content of these school productions. The examination of the secondary school production involved in this research focuses upon a Victorian coeducational government secondary school’s collaborative rewrite, rehearsal and performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Drawing from literature in Drama in Education, Theatre in Education, Applied Theatre, Australian Curriculum documents, Pedagogy, Authentic Learning, Extra-curricular education and Creativity, the question, ‘The school production – To be or not to be?’ Deals with the very nomenclature of the school production by examining the following two questions:
1. What are the experiences and benefits for the students involved in the authentic model of school production?
2. What is the teacher’s experience while working on an authentic school production?