NET Scheme News 2024 Summer issue 46

The Speak Up –Act Out DramaCompetition organisedby the Regional NET Coordinating Team (RNCT) of the NET Section has been through a number of manifestations over the years since it was first launched in the 2008/09 school year as the ‘Speak Out – Act Up!’ Improvised Drama Competition. In the 2019/20 school year, the competition was rebranded with more fitting phrasal verbs – Speak Up (not Out) – Act Out (not Up)! – and the inverted commas were dropped. The competition then survived the pandemic years by morphing into the Speak Up – Act Out! On Air! Improvised Drama Competition,a live radio drama competition conducted in real time via Zoom . This school year, for the first time since the pandemic, Speak Up – Act Out has returned to the stage (minus the exclamation mark) with two categories for schools to choose from: Improvised Drama (formerly known as the 1-day Improv category) or Devised Drama (formerly known as the 2-week Improv category). The stimulus for the Improvised Drama category this year was a line of dialogue, given to teams on the day, only a few hours before they performed; the stimulus for the Devised Drama category was an image, emailed to teams approximately ten school days before each session. To support teachers with training students in improvised drama techniques, the Speak Up – Act Out Improvised Drama Workshop was also brought back, but with a new emphasis on teaching students how to devise a story from an image.Teachers new to improvised drama were required to attend the workshop so that they could train their students for the competition. Many of the drama activities featured in the workshop could also be integrated into English lessons to enhance student learning. What follows are some of the highlights of the Speak Up - Act Out Drama Competition 2023/24,beginning with the two workshops that were held in November 2023; then moving on to the Improvised Drama session that took place on a Saturday in late April 2024; and finally, on to the five sessions of the Devised Drama category,which also took place in late April 2024. For information about the prize-winning teams in each session of the competition, please visit the NET Scheme e-Platform. Speak Up - Act Out Improvised Drama Workshop The Speak Up – Act Out Improvised Drama Workshop is a full day workshop (6 hours) on the use of improvised drama techniques. The workshop was offered twice to accommodate as many teachers as possible. The first workshop took place on 8 November 2023 at the NET Section office in Tsuen Wan. The second workshop happened one week later on 16 November 2023 at Stewards Pooi Tun Secondary School. 20 NET Scheme News Issue 46 Drama Competition Speak Up – Act Out is Back on Stage