Study design explainers and theatre makers, for drama classrooms.
Nick Waxman hosts The Aside Podcast, a Drama Victoria-supported resource that sets VCE Theatre Studies explainers beside interviews with theatre makers. One episode works through audience culture as a study design concept, and in another Alana Valentine traces Watermark back to the real people whose stories she gathered.
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The Aside Podcast is a drama-education show for teachers and students, hosted by Nick Waxman, supported by Drama Victoria and recorded at Geelong Grammar. Its episodes open with an acknowledgement of Country. Two kinds of episode follow. The first is the curriculum explainer, where Waxman takes a concept from the VCE Theatre Studies study design and makes it concrete. His episode on audience culture shows how. He contrasts musical theatre audiences, who expect high production values and faithful versions of shows they paid a lot to see, with fringe festival crowds open to meta-theatre, satire and a little discomfort. Then he considers what an audience at a First Nations work might value: truth-telling, cultural protocol, authentic voices. He is careful to say the material draws on VCAA presentations but is his own interpretation, not official advice. The second kind is the interview. Alana Valentine, whose Watermark appears on the 2025 VCE Theatre Studies monologue list, explains that her characters are versions of things people told her. In one moment a character sniffs empty perfume bottles because she loves the smell of anything that is not mud, and it came from a woman Valentine visited who did exactly that with her. Director Beng Oh frames Soul of Possum, a new work by First Nations writer Brodie Murray, as Murray's contribution to a conversation between black and white Australia. Oh's production shows events through the eyes of Wemba Wemba men, and in his words it is slightly gothic. Terence Clarke, who wrote the music for The Venetian Twins, recalls how the piece travelled some distance from Goldoni on its way to becoming a musical. He also says he cannot start directing until he has decided what a play is about, usually one or two abstract nouns, and that he keeps that answer to himself. This matches a question Waxman puts to more than one guest: beyond the plot, what is this piece really about? Comedian Greg Larsen is asked how he decides when to play it straight and when to be in on the joke, and Waxman makes no secret of being a fan. The feed also carries Time To Act, a separate series hosted by Kelly McConville, a drama teacher, researcher and executive officer of Drama Victoria. It brings together education, creativity and climate justice, and its guests share drama-based sustainability lessons, including a 30-minute workshop after which young learners understood what caring for country means. The value is in the pairing: the study design's vocabulary on one side and the people who make theatre on the other.
Made for: Suits a drama teacher or VCE Theatre Studies student in Victoria who wants study design concepts explained plainly and wants to hear playwrights and directors talk through the thinking behind their work.
What sets it apart: It is tied to one specific curriculum. VCE study design explainers sit beside interviews with playwrights, directors and performers, and Nick Waxman keeps asking makers what a piece is really about beneath its plot.
The Aside Podcast exists to educate Victorian drama teachers and students about all things theatre, it is hosted by Nick Waxman and features many special guests. The Aside Podcasts are a free resource supported by Drama Victoria - Australia’s oldest Drama Association
A flood play's empty perfume bottles might be the detail your next theatre lesson needs.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Greg Larson traces the comic control behind staying straight, breaking character, and playing a version of yourself.
The Aside works best when it settles into a practical question for comedy performers: when should a person stay straight inside a scene, and when should they let the joke be seen?
A grounded look at drama as a practical route into climate justice inquiry.
Drama gives climate justice a practical classroom shape in this second episode, with educators describing movement, role-play, and inquiry as ways for students to explore sustainability and climate change.
A playwright traces Watermark from flood stories and perfume bottles to the stage.
The Aside's conversation with playwright Valentine presents Watermark as theatre built from lived encounters, especially stories gathered from people affected by a flood.
A thoughtful account of adapting The Venetian Twins into a musical and treating the audience as part of the performance.
The Aside's conversation with Terrence Clark AM frames The Venetian Twins as a clear case study in theatrical adaptation: first the search for a vehicle for Drew, then the shift from literal translation toward musical form.
The actor grind, told plainly.
Tap teaching, phrasing, and practice made clearer.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Small habit changes meet hands-on AI experiments.
An interview with playwright Alanna Valentine about her play Watermark, aimed at Victorian drama teachers and students.
Nick Waxman interviews Greg Larsen on The Aside Podcast, focusing on Larsens work in The True Australian Patriots, The Greg Larson Show on Grouse House, and his stand-up process.
Catherine Sarchest turns 22 three-year-olds into frogs, then drops literal rubbish into the pond.
Alanna Valentine describes Watermark as a verbatim theatre piece about Catherine, Northern Territory, after the 1998 flood and its 18-metre inundation.
Terence Clarke says the cast was told, "Don't give funny performances" and "Be truthful."
Jo Raphael’s rainforest exercise makes interdependence visible when removing trees forces every ecosystem role to respond.
The Aside host Nick Waxman asks artistic director Leo Gene Peters how A Slightly Isolated Dog adapts Jekyll and Hyde for theatre studies.
Jackson Peel, writer and director of The Beep Test, describes success as the musical’s central theme, including pressure to become a football player or celebrity.
Helen Stevens describes how Dead Puppet Society adapts its visual theatre process for drama teachers through physical play and ensemble trust.
An interview with a veteran drama teacher about her journey into drama education and the transformative power of theatre in schools.
A podcast for Victorian drama teachers and students, featuring a discussion about a memorable drama teacher named Ron.
Host Nick Waxman and guests discuss the 2023 VCE Theatre Studies monologues, exploring challenges and opportunities for students.