Draft Task 4 Drama

Australia Under Fire is a play written by Ilo McDonald and Nik Krastev. It is a play about how human impact affects the fires in Sydney, Australia. We described the issue and the causes of it. There are elements of tragedy and determination involved in the artwork. In this essay we will visit the SOI (Artists draw attention to issues of human impact on the environment (locally or globally)), view how learning was transferred into this artwork, and we will view a critique of the play.

       My play draws attention to the problems caused by humans on the environment. This happens in many different forms, such as air pollution, water pollution, and sea levels rising. The artwork presented by Nik and I is a play focused on the way that humans make the world dryer. Our target area where this was a real problem is Australia, in the province of New South Wales. The activities which result in ecosystems getting dryer are clearing forests, promoting grazing, dispersing plants, altering ignition patterns and actively suppressing fires. In the play, Mr. Kelvin Jones (Nik) has recently lost his son and has a wife in the hospital as a result of the raging wildfires in Sydney. He draws attention to this issue by going to see the Environmental Minister Mr. Waldorf (Ilo), describing the issue, and gives reasons why this issue happened in the first place. He mentions that humans play a large part in increasing the risk of wildfires as the climate, as a result, gets drier. He then presents an argument in the way that he would like to provoke Mr. Waldorf to help the issue in any way he can. In the end, they both become climate change activists. Artists have a responsibility to speak out about the impact humans have on the environment to the extent that they can manipulate or provoke the audience into seeing the effects first-hand. The artists know that they have an audience that wants to see what the artists do. This means they can incorporate elements in their artwork that show the audience this issue and the negative effects.

I have transferred my learning into my play in the way that we have focused a lot in the past about flash drama. In past units we learned the processes and techniques used in flash drama. Since we made a flash drama play there was a lot of consideration of the specific characteristics. Another way I incorporated my learning from task 1 into the play is that when I critiqued the two plays, I learned a lot about what makes a flash drama performance appealing. They only use one location and time, otherwise it becomes too much for the allotted time. These plays also often have a singular issue. This permits them to focus on that issue in depth during the play. There were only 2 characters in my performance, and both had a significant role. The protagonist changed drastically by quitting his job in my performance. He did this to make a difference, and it was crucial to the storyline. There was an absence of subplot because the time limit only permitted us to focus on the main issue which were the wildfires. There was also minimal scenery and props. In our play we used a desk, a phone, a computer, and some clothes suited to the characters.

The plot of the play Australia Under Fire is about an Environmental Minister who is persuaded to quit his job and become a climate activist by a man who has lost everything to one of the many wildfires/bushfires in Australia. The main purpose of this play is to focus on the problem of the dryness and fires due to the human impact on the environment of Australia. The issue it is dealing with is the fires in Australia. The intended audience is the drama class and the pupils in it. The skills used in the play were emotions, storyline, reasoning, and making realistic points related to the SOI. These skills were used to come together and make a play that will succeed. The purpose of this play was achieved quite well. This was because the characters were played to the extent that the plot described the issue and the specific solution for this issue. The emotion was represented very well and when the Environmental Minister broke down crying it was very heartfelt and moving to the audience. Also, the points Kelvin was making about the fire and how it destroyed his life is relatable for some people in Australia who were also negatively affected by this disaster. This play was aimed to be descriptive and moving. It achieved this goal because it felt like a play which made people think about the message. There are a few strengths in my play that are very important. It was very directly representative of the SOI. We also offered a solution to the presented issue. Another strength is that our characters both had experiences with the fires so they could relate to each other. They wanted to help because of what the fires took from them. A point to improve is making our emotions believable. An example of this is when the Environmental Minister breaks down crying. It just doesn’t seem believable. Another point to improve is our planning for the play. It took us a very long time to plan for the play and get started.

To conclude, our play was quite successful. It showed the statement of inquiry blatantly. It also visited a problem caused by human activity. Our play intended to educate the audience about this issue and showed what some people are doing as a result of climate change.