HSC Drama Practice Questions
The 64 practice questions inside the HSC Drama Mastery Pack, grouped by area of study. Every question comes with a full worked solution.
- Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study): the mandatory Section I question
- Multiple choice × 5
- Discuss × 1
- Topic 1: Dramatic Traditions in Australia
- Multiple choice × 4
- Explain × 1
- Analyse × 1
- Topic 2: Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice
- Multiple choice × 4
- Explain × 1
- Compare × 1
- Topic 3: The Voice of Women in Theatre
- Multiple choice × 3
- Compare × 1
- Topic 4: Approaches to Acting
- Multiple choice × 3
- Explain × 1
- Topic 5: Verbatim Theatre
- Multiple choice × 3
- To what extent × 1
- Topic 6: Black Comedy
- Multiple choice × 3
- Analyse × 1
- Topic 7: Multi-Discipline Theatre
- Multiple choice × 3
- Explain × 1
- Topic 8: Significant Plays of the 20th Century
- Multiple choice × 3
- Evaluate × 1
- Topic 9: Japanese Traditional and Contemporary Theatre
- Multiple choice × 3
- Explain × 1
- Critically studying: elements, styles, experiential evidence and essay craft
- Multiple choice × 10
- Describe × 1
- Outline × 1
- Group Performance and Individual Project (practical components, not in the written paper)
- Multiple choice × 4
- Explain × 1
- Discuss × 1
Show the worked answer
Answer: Worked solution
The moment I would stage is the arrival of Sergeant Simmonds and Constable Ross at Kenny and Fiona's flat in The Removalists, when the police shift from comic visitors to violent enforcers. Williamson's point is that authority in this world is self-interested and brutal, and that the audience's laughter has made it comfortable.
I would keep the house lights at a low glow through Act One so the audience is aware of itself laughing at Simmonds' bullying of Ross. At the moment Ross first strikes Kenny, the house lights snap out and a single hard white light from directly above isolates the two men, flattening shadows and making the blow forensic rather than theatrical. The removalist's furniture, piled in the corners, frames the space like a cell.
Proxemically, Simmonds would stand on the edge of the light, close enough to stop Ross but choosing not to. That stillness is the attitude to authority made visible: the senior officer's inaction licenses the junior's violence. In our class workshop, when the 'Simmonds' actor simply watched without speaking, the audience's laughter died and several students looked to each other, uncertain whether to keep watching. The staging exposes authority as complicit, and it implicates the audience who, moments earlier, enjoyed its jokes.
20 full-length practice exams with worked solutions, 20 revision notes, 64 practice questions and 200 flashcards.
Preview a sample note and question free on the HSC Drama hub →