DramaQ&A by dot point

Costume and make-up design: using costume, accessories, hair and make-up to communicate character, status, age, period and personality, support the action and signal change, and communicate meaning to an audience (AO2, AO3).

Integrating the design elements: combining set, costume, lighting and sound into one coherent design that serves the director's concept, supports the performers and communicates a unified meaning to an audience (AO2, AO3).

Lighting design: using intensity, colour, angle, direction and changes (states, fades, snaps, blackouts) to shape focus, mood, time and place, support the action and communicate meaning to an audience (AO2, AO3).

Set and staging design: using the set, levels, scenery, properties, entrances and the staging configuration to establish place, period and atmosphere, support the action and communicate meaning to an audience (AO2, AO3).

Sound design: using sound effects, music, live and recorded sound, volume, and silence to create atmosphere and location, support the action, mark moments and communicate meaning to an audience (AO2, AO3).

Evaluating the devised work: judging how successfully the finished piece and your own contribution communicated the intention, supported by evidence, and proposing realistic improvements (AO4 dominant).

Investigating a practitioner or genre: choosing and researching the working methods, conventions and style of a practitioner or genre, and applying them to give the devised piece a coherent theatrical language (AO1, AO3).

The devising process from stimulus to performance: responding to and researching a stimulus, generating and selecting material, structuring and rehearsing the piece, and refining it into a finished performance (AO1 dominant).

The final devised performance: realising the piece live as a performer or designer, applying vocal, physical and interpretive skills (or a sustained design) to communicate the intention to an audience (AO2 dominant).

The portfolio of supporting evidence: documenting and reflecting on how the devised piece and your own contribution were created, developed and refined, as the chief evidence for AO1 (AO1 dominant).

Dramatic conventions and devices: monologue, aside, direct address, flashback and flashforward, slow motion, marking the moment, multi-role and other stage conventions used to shape time, focus and meaning for an audience (underpins all components).

Explorative and rehearsal techniques: improvisation, hot-seating, still image, thought-tracking, role play, cross-cutting and other techniques used to explore character, situation and meaning and to develop devised and scripted work (underpins all components).

Genres and theatrical styles: naturalism, epic theatre, physical theatre, theatre of the absurd and others, their defining conventions, and how a style shapes performance, staging and design choices (underpins all components).

Staging configurations: end-on/proscenium, thrust, in-the-round, traverse and found or promenade spaces, the actor-audience relationship each creates, and how the choice shapes sightlines, intimacy and meaning (underpins all components).

The roles and responsibilities in theatre: the work of the performer, director, and the set, costume, lighting and sound designers, plus the playwright and stage manager, and how the roles collaborate to realise a production (underpins all components).

Analysing the design and staging: examining the set, costume, lighting and sound design and the staging configuration of the live production, their effect on the audience, and evaluating how successfully they communicated meaning (AO4).

Analysing the performers: examining the vocal, physical and interpretive choices made by the actors in the live production, their effect on the audience, and evaluating how successfully they communicated meaning (AO4).

Evaluating the directorial concept and audience impact: examining the director's overall interpretation and how performance and design served it, and evaluating the production's success and its impact on the audience as a whole (AO4).

Watching and recording live theatre: choosing and seeing a live production during the course, taking structured notes on performance, design and direction at specific moments, and preparing the evidence for the Section B evaluation (AO4).

Writing the Section B response: choosing between the two questions, structuring an analytical and evaluative answer on the live production, balancing analysis with evidenced judgement, and managing timing under exam conditions (AO4).

Acting skills for performance: applying vocal, physical and interpretive skills to realise a character and communicate the writer's intentions in the two text extracts for the visiting examiner (AO2 dominant).

Building an interpretation and concept: deciding how the extracts should be interpreted and unified by a clear concept, and rehearsing to realise that interpretation consistently for the visiting examiner (AO2).

Choosing a play and two extracts: selecting a published performance text and two extracts from it that suit the performers, show contrasting demands, and meet the requirements for the visiting examiner (AO2).

Performing as a designer: realising a design (set, costume, lighting, sound or puppets) for the two extracts that supports the text and communicates to the audience, assessed by the visiting examiner (AO2).

The visiting examiner: how Component 2 is assessed live by an Eduqas examiner against AO2, what they reward, and how to prepare a performance that realises the text to a high standard on the day.

Answering Section A: managing the structure, command words and timing of the set-text questions, reading the role signalled by each question, and writing justified practical choices under exam conditions (AO3).

Approaching the set text: studying one chosen text from the Eduqas list as a script for the stage, preparing for Section A questions answered as a performer, director and designer in the Interpreting Theatre written paper (AO3 dominant).

The context of the set text: understanding the social, cultural, historical and theatrical context in which the play was written and set, and using it to justify performance, directorial and design choices (AO3).

The set text from a designer and director's perspective: suggesting and justifying design choices (set, costume, lighting, sound) and directorial choices (staging, blocking, pace, concept) for the set text and their effect on the audience (AO3).

The set text from a performer's perspective: suggesting and justifying vocal, physical and interpretive choices for a character at specific moments in the set text, and their effect on the audience (AO3).