Why We Love Helping Students Create Their Own Plays
There is something special about stepping onto a stage and performing a story that nobody has ever seen before.
During the second semester each year, our term based drama classes across both primary and high school take on one of the most exciting parts of the Play on Stage program. Rather than rehearsing an existing script, students work together to devise and create their own original theatrical productions.
Every class begins with a shared concept and a professionally designed framework created by experienced educators and playwrights. From there, our students become storytellers, collaborators, performers, and problem solvers as they build the world of their play together.
Building Confidence Through Creative Ownership
When students help create a performance, they naturally become more invested in the final result.
Rather than simply learning lines, they contribute ideas, solve story problems, develop characters, and discover how individual scenes fit together. Their suggestions help shape the production, giving them a genuine sense of ownership over what they perform.
This process encourages students to speak up and share their imagination in a supportive environment. Every contribution has value, whether it becomes part of the final script or simply inspires someone else's idea.
By the time performance day arrives, students are not only proud of what they have achieved, they understand how they helped bring it to life.
Learning How Stories Come Together
Creating an original play gives students an insight into the creative process that sits behind every piece of theatre they watch.
With guidance from our facilitators, students explore questions such as:
Who are these characters?
What problem are they trying to solve?
What should happen next?
How can we make this moment funnier, more exciting, or more surprising?
How do we create a satisfying ending?
Improvisation becomes an important tool throughout this process. Students experiment with different ideas before working together to choose the moments that best serve the story. Our facilitators help shape these ideas into clear scenes while ensuring every student has meaningful opportunities to participate.
Along the way, students also develop an understanding of story structure, character relationships, audience engagement, and the collaborative nature of theatre making.
Guided by Experienced Educators and Playwrights
Although every production is unique, students are never expected to create an entire show from scratch.
Each semester begins with a carefully planned creative framework developed by our experienced team of educators, theatremakers, and storytellers. This provides a clear beginning, ending, and overall direction while leaving plenty of room for each class to develop its own ideas.
Our facilitators guide students through a structured devising process that introduces one scene at a time. Through drama games, improvisation activities, discussion, rehearsal, and creative exploration, classes gradually build a complete performance over the course of the semester.
This balance between structure and creative freedom allows students to experience the excitement of original storytelling while feeling supported at every stage of the journey.
Every Performance Is Completely Unique
One of the most rewarding parts of our second semester productions is that no two performances are ever the same.
Even when classes begin with a similar framework, each group brings its own personalities, humour, imagination, and creative ideas into the rehearsal room. Characters evolve in unexpected directions, funny moments emerge through improvisation, and students often surprise themselves with the stories they create together.
The result is a collection of original productions that celebrate collaboration as much as performance. Students leave with a deeper appreciation of theatre, stronger creative confidence, and the knowledge that they helped create something that did not exist before they walked into their first rehearsal.
We cannot wait to see where this year's imaginations take us! If you want to know more about our Brisbane drama programs and why we do what we do, contact us today!