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HSC · HSC Year 12 · official past papers

HSC Drama past exams 2021–2025, by year and topic

The official NESA exams, marking guides and examiner reports we index, organised by topic and subtopic and labelled with the study design it was written under. Open the official paper, work the question in your own workspace, or bring a tutor into it live.

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ATARMAxxing indexes 5 official NESA Drama papers from 2021 to 2025, with 40 questions mapped to 8 topics. Every paper opens on the NESA website.

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Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptions · 2025–presentDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2019–2024 course prescriptions · 2019–2024

HSC Drama exams by year: official papers & marking guidance

Past exams indexed: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021. Open the official NESA papers, with marking guidance where available.

YearStudy designOfficial paper(s)Marking guidance
2025 HSC Drama examDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptionsDrama written paper ↗Marking guidance ↗
2024 HSC Drama examDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2019–2024 course prescriptionsDrama written paper ↗Marking guidance ↗
2023 HSC Drama examDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2019–2024 course prescriptionsDrama written paper ↗Marking guidance ↗
2022 HSC Drama examDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2019–2024 course prescriptionsDrama written paper ↗Marking guidance ↗
2021 HSC Drama examDrama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2019–2024 course prescriptionsDrama written paper ↗Marking guidance ↗

5 official papers across 5 years (2021–2025), 5 with marking guidance, published by NESA. These span more than one study design; the most recent is Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptions. Earlier papers may cover material that has since changed.

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Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study) · 5 mapped questions

Staging and audience

The staging space

Challenging ideas about Australian society

Stage images and audience

Characters, settings and political ideas

Also in this topic: Topic 1: Dramatic Traditions in Australia (Norm and Ahmed, The 7 Stages of Grieving, The Cake Man, The Removalists) · Topic 2: Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice (Fangirls, The Visitors, Single Asian Female, Neighbourhood Watch) · Staging, space, stage image, character and setting · Audience response and Australian social, political and personal concerns — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 3: The Voice of Women in Theatre · 5 mapped questions

Socio/cultural judgements about women

Directors and women's equality

Female experience through character

Distinctive voices and stereotypes

Challenging situations and women's status

Also in this topic: Plays written by women or as a particular collaboration with women giving expression to a female vision of human experience · TWO plays, one from each list: List 1 Caryl Churchill, Top Girls OR Aphra Behn, The Rover; List 2 Donna Abela, Jump for Jordan OR Mary Anne Butler, Highway of Lost Hearts OR Joanna Murray-Smith, The Female of the Species OR Leah Purcell and Scott Rankin, Box the Pony · Comparison of two female playwrights from different contexts: roles, characters, issues and situations, maintaining or breaking stereotypes, socio/cultural judgements about women · Forms, techniques, performance styles and conventions used to voice issues affecting women's equality, status and identities — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 4: Approaches to Acting · 5 mapped questions

The actor's presence

  • 2025Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptionsDrama written paper Section II Q320 marksExplain how exploring the way an actor's presence is expressed shaped the student's understanding of contemporary theatre practice, drawing on both practitioners and texts.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Training made visible in staging

Space and presence

Exercises and performance aesthetic

From performance to process

Also in this topic: Approaches to actor training in the 20th century and their realisation in production or other performance · TWO of: Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, The Viewpoints Book; Jacques Lecoq, The Moving Body; Jonathan Pitches, Vsevolod Meyerhold; James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta, Jerzy Grotowski (supplementary texts allowed) · Philosophical and practical approaches, techniques, process and specific exercises and their manifestation in performance · The aesthetics and expression of the actor's presence and its relationship to audience engagement; contemporary theatre practice — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 5: Verbatim Theatre · 5 mapped questions

Real issues and the function of verbatim

  • 2025Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptionsDrama written paper Section II Q420 marksExplain how working with the real issues or events in the two set plays shaped the student's understanding of what Verbatim Theatre is for, including the development of an original verbatim piece.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Truth and audience engagement

Authentic communities and events

Shaping direct testimony

Dramatic shape in the student's own verbatim piece

Also in this topic: Plays made from the words of people interviewed about an issue or event, and the social contexts that produced them · TWO of: Campion Decent, Embers; Robin Soans, Talking to Terrorists; Alana Valentine, Parramatta Girls; Tom Wright, Black Diggers · Authenticity and authority derived from direct testimony and community involvement · The tension between maintaining truth and creating dramatic shape, theatricality and audience engagement; the development of a piece of original Verbatim Theatre is required — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 6: Black Comedy · 5 mapped questions

Humour and the controversial

Comedy and controversy

Cathartic relief

Comedic situations, taboo and catharsis

Discomfort and laughter

Also in this topic: Modern comic plays from different countries that deal with what is uncomfortable or suppressed · TWO of: Neil LaBute, The Shape of Things; Nakkiah Lui, Black is the New White; Martin McDonagh, The Lieutenant of Inishmore; Harold Pinter, The Homecoming · The nature of comedy and the use of humour to confront audiences with pain, loss, the controversial or the taboo · Whether laughter provides a cathartic experience; forms, styles, techniques and conventions of Black Comedy — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 7: Multi-Discipline Theatre · 5 mapped questions

Improvisation in the creative process

  • 2025Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the 2025–2027 course prescriptionsDrama written paper Section II Q620 marksExplain how exploring improvisation-centred creative processes shaped the student's understanding of the function of Multi-Discipline Theatre, with one practitioner and an original piece.Official paper ↗Marking guidance ↗Check tutors for this question →

Collaboration and visual form

Technologies, visual form and global issues

Collaboration and cultural issues

Tradition and innovation

Also in this topic: ONE practitioner: Robert Lepage and Ex Machina (Caux and Gilbert; Dundjerović) OR Simon McBurney and Théâtre de Complicité (A Disappearing Number; Ainslie, Rehearsal Notes; supplementary Who You Hear It From) · Philosophies, processes and practices that challenge traditional representation and dramatic narrative in highly visual forms · New and traditional theatre technologies; creative processes focused on collaboration, imagination, improvisation and physical expression · Addressing cultural, personal and global issues through acting, movement, film, music and sound, choreography; process and performance of an original piece is required — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 8: Significant Plays of the 20th Century · 5 mapped questions

Reinventing theatrical style

Revolutionary forms and audience experience

Breaking new ground

Content and shifting paradigms

Characters beyond the audience's own time and place

Also in this topic: How significant theatrical works shifted and influenced the theatrical paradigm of the 20th century and beyond · TWO of: Bertolt Brecht and David Hare, Mother Courage and Her Children; Eugène Ionesco, The Bald Prima Donna; Moisés Kaufman, The Laramie Project; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun · Plays that were revolutionary in their place and time, presented challenging content and reinvented or created new styles, structures and forms · Performance and narrative styles, issues, techniques, conventions and staging, and how the plays broke new ground and affected audiences — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

Topic 9: Japanese Traditional and Contemporary Theatre · 5 mapped questions

Purpose of Japanese theatre

A uniquely Japanese aesthetic

Suzuki and traditional music and movement

Aesthetic and social ideas

Cultural ideas through the body

Also in this topic: The unique expression of the Japanese theatrical aesthetic in traditional and contemporary forms in response to historical, cultural and social context · ONE traditional form (Kabuki: Brandon; Noh: Fenollosa and Pound; Bunraku: Jones) AND ONE contemporary work of Tadashi Suzuki (The Way of Acting OR Allain, The Art of Stillness) · The form's purpose and characteristics; staging, presentation of character, acting styles and training, music and movement · How conventions convey ideas and make meaning for an audience — question-level mapping in progress; the year table above links every official paper.

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