The following questions are intended to help you to deepen the level of analysis that you are putting onto your sheets. The format of the answers is up to you. You may if you wish keep a set of pointers on the sheet which will remind you of the actual point you wish to make in a full essay, or you may wish to write the point in more detail. Whichever, you must make sure that you can use the sheets to answer the questions that come up in Unit 4.
1. How did your role emerge and how was it communicated?
This is so you can write about how you played the character(s). Are you using a physical approach, a verbal approach or something from your own experience. What can you identify with in the character? What is causing you problems and how are you trying to overcome this? How are you determining the walk and gestures of the character? What about the way that they speak? Are you analysing their attitude and motivation? Have you written a small biography for them? What about the use of costumes or props that help to define character. You also need to consider how the character speaks, vocabulary as well as speech patterns.
2. In what way was the stimulus material developed through the drama process?
This should include the research that you did and the ideas that you had as a consequence of this research. The ideas that you came up with on character, structure, design, staging, costume, movement, language, props, venue, ways of working, etc. You can also include the ideas that you suggested but were not used or were tried but didn’t work as this is all part of your analysis of the development process.
The key is to identify how the piece developed as a result of the initial input of ideas. In particular, mention anything which may have been suggested at the very beginning as an initial response and shaped your early work, but later changed as the piece matured.
3. How did group skills contribute to the development of the drama?
Be honest here. There is no need to vent your anger and frustration, but at the same time you should be realistic. Try and write about people’s different working patterns and their strengths and weaknesses. How were the various tasks allocated within the group? Are any of the group particularly good at devising or scripting? How did the group tackle the issue of directing? How did the group contribute to your own personal development?
4. In what ways were acting techniques or design elements and dramatic form used to achieve the intended effect?
Note the emphasis of the question here. You look at the rehearsal process and the final piece. Again the need to show a link between what you are attempting to “tell” your audience and how you are trying to do that is vital.
Genre: burlesque, comedy (greek, roman, black comedy, satire, romantic, commedia del arte), documentary theatre, epic theatre, expressionsim, farce, formalism, kabuki, liturgical drama, masque, morality play, music theatre, melodrama, naturalism, noh play, pantomime, pastoral, political theatre, physical theatre, realism, revue, romanticism, symbolism, theatre of the absurd, theatre of cruelty, theatre of fact, tragedy, tragi-comedy, vaudeville, verse drama and the well made play.
Form : soliloquy, monologue, dialogue, narration/narrative, episodic, cinematic( voice over, flashback, montage) , aside, physicalisation, montage, song, heightened language, plot and sub plot, blank verse, chorus, mime, alienation, repetition, simultaneity, tableau, parallel plotting, act/scene structure and thought tracking.The key here is to explain why things either worked or not. What made the form or genre so useful for communicating your ideas?
5. How did the group plan for a range of responses from the audience?
Back to the key element again. You should know how you want the audience to react to your piece. Ask friends what they thought and then try and identify why it worked, if it did, or why it didn’t. How were you trying to create the reaction that you were after from the audience? You must be aware of the way in which you are seeking to use the various elements of drama in order to communicate to the audience. Everything in your drama should be planned and considered for the effect it will have on the audience. But remember, people view things differently. We all come from different backgrounds, expectations, experiences and cultural reference points. This affects the way we process and understand ideas, concepts and symbols. Don’t despair if they missed the point, the emphasis here is on you being able to show that you are fully aware of the process.
6.How did rehearsals and the production process contribute to the final performance?
What devising techniques were you using in order to develop your piece? What challenges did you face during the process and how did you overcome these? After the preformance has taken place, look back, what issues were you worried about in the process of devising and how did these issues finally turn out ? If you were working towards a particular effect/genre/atmosphere in your piece, how did you try and create this in rehearsal? If you showed work in progress to your teacher or to others, how did this affect your final performance? The last few sessions running up to the performance are usually very important as it is then that the piece really begins to take shape. If you have a dress and/or technical rehearsal, what issues are raised by them and how did these turn out?
7. Explain how research material was gathered and used.
Fairly straight forward this one. The key is to trace the initial idea from the relevant stimulus and show how it developed into a fully fledged piece of the drama. You can talk about how the group shared and used source material even ideas that seemed good but somehow couldn’t be shaped into something that was part of the drama.
8. Evaluate the ways in which ideas were communicated to an audience.
This is one of the many questions that relates to an essential principle in Drama, namely that of the link between what you are communicating and how you are going about it. I would start here with a statement of the main dramatic question of your piece and then a statement of the dramatic question highlighted in any sub scenes. Obviously if you can’t do this then you haven’t thought about what you were doing in any detail so go away and do it now. Once you have the MDQ. You can then identify which techniques ( genre and forms ) you are using in order to present the MDQ. Try and establish a clear link between the way you were working and what you wanted to communicate. If a particular style or form seemed appropriate then you need to say why. Cover all the applicable elements of drama i.e. lighting, costume, props, language, staging etc.
9. Explore the impact of social, cultural and/or historical conditions on the work.
This is linked to the MDQ. What was your initial knowledge of the subject matter? How did research affect this? Remember, if you don’t have an opinion on the subject matter of your material then you are not able to say anything meaningful to your audience. What are the existing opinions of your group and your audience on the theme that you are tackling in your piece? Is there an historical perspective? Are you challenging this? Are you using any historical material or theatre styles? All pieces are influenced by your own social and cultural backgrounds.
10. Indicate how the influences and ideas of other playwrights and/or directors,designers and performers have been used.
Again a question which seeks to give insight into how the piece came about. Anything can be included in this section. Make sure that you chart the link between the source and what this became in your devised piece. You may include a person you know who provided a starting point for a character or perhaps an experience of your own which was useful in helping you to develop the piece as well as the more obvious articles, shows and pictures that you have seen. The course is meant to be an holistic one so if you can refer to work you have done in other sections of the course, so much the better.
