Learning Journey Secondary 2026

Outsider explores how the roles of victim and bully can shift, and how easily anyone can be pushed to the edges of a community. Three performers bring to life a story of changing power and fragile belonging: an individual is quietly excluded for being different, but when they form new bonds with other outsiders, they begin repeating the same behaviours that once hurt them. As the tide of judgment turns back on those who started it, everyone must confront the truth about harm, responsibility, and the courage to break the cycle.

Through physical storytelling, multi-role performance, and expressive movement, students witness how fear and insecurity can create cruelty—and how empathy requires accountability. The story speaks directly to the realities of peer dynamics, shifting friendships, social pressure, and the search for identity.

In the question-and-answer segment, students engage with the cast to explore how themes are shaped through direction, staging, and character transformation. This dialogue links the creative decisions onstage to deeper critical thinking about behaviour and consequences.

During the 60-minute drama workshop, students analyse the story’s moral questions and emotional tensions. Through improvisation and ensemble activities, they examine cycles of exclusion, the responsibilities of leadership, and how victims can also become perpetrators. They experiment with dramatic forms to explore perspective, empathy, and the impact of action—and silence—within a group.

Learning Outcomes:
• Explore social belonging, exclusion, power, and moral choice through drama
• Strengthen analysis of theme, motivation, and consequence
• Develop confidence in discussion, collaboration, and empathetic interpretation

Adapted from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, this production invites students to consider leadership, ideology, and the dynamics of power. What begins as a revolution built on fairness and equality becomes a cautionary tale about control, corruption, and self-interest.

Through ensemble performance and physical theatre, the play visualises the rise and fall of an ideal. Students are prompted to question how power shifts, how truth is shaped, and how moral choices are tested when authority is unchecked.

The post-performance discussion gives students the chance to ask about adaptation, symbolism, and the creative choices behind translating a classic text into live theatre. They learn how ideas move from page to stage, and how theatre can illuminate social commentary.

In the 60-minute drama workshop, students unpack the play’s major themes of power, justice, and responsibility. Through role-play and structured improvisation, they experiment with hierarchy, persuasion, and leadership. They explore the consequences of choices made for personal gain versus collective good, developing insight into civic and ethical reasoning.

Learning Outcomes:
• Analyse leadership, equality, and corruption through dramatic interpretation
• Connect literature and performance to moral and social understanding
• Build critical thinking, expression, and collaborative inquiry