Performing as a designer: realising a design (set, costume, lighting, sound, puppets or multimedia) for two extracts, supporting the performers and the writer's intentions, and demonstrating design skills for an audience (AO2).

What this dot point is asking

Component 03 can be taken as a designer instead of a performer. The designer realises a design, in one discipline such as set, costume, lighting, sound, puppets or multimedia, for the same two extracts, and is assessed on the same AO2 (apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance). This dot point is about what a realised design must do: support the performers, serve the writer's intentions, and communicate to the audience, all judged by the visiting examiner as a live realisation rather than a plan on paper.

What a designer is assessed on

The key word is realised. The examiner is not marking a mood board or a written plan; they are marking a design working in performance. A clever idea that is not realised, or that does not function in the live extracts, earns little. So the design has to be built, operated and integrated with the performers, and judged by what it does for the audience in the room.

Supporting the performers and the meaning

This is the principle that separates strong design from decoration. Ask of every choice: what job does this do for the audience's understanding at this moment? A side-light that isolates a character as they make a confession deepens the moment; a flashy effect that draws the eye for its own sake undercuts it. Because Component 03 is a performance of two extracts with performers, the design must also work with them, not around them: lighting, sound and set should support the actors' choices and the relationships they are creating, not compete with them.

Working across the disciplines

The same principle applies whichever discipline you take, but each has its own tools. Lighting shapes focus, mood, time and place through intensity, colour, angle and changes (fades, snaps, states). Sound sets atmosphere and signals action through music, effects, recorded voice and live sound, with attention to level and timing. Set establishes place, period and the use of space, and shapes where the action happens. Costume communicates character, status, period and change. Puppets and multimedia extend the storytelling where the text invites them. In every case, the assessed skill is realising deliberate, communicative choices for the two extracts, grounded in the text and serving the writer's intentions.

Examples in context

A lighting designer on two extracts might keep a warm, even wash through a domestic scene, then, at the moment a character admits a secret, fade the wash and bring a single cold side-light onto them, isolating the confession so the audience's focus narrows with the character's. In the second, more public extract, a brighter, flatter state exposes the same character to scrutiny. The states are realised, operated live, and tied to the meaning the performers build. A costume designer might dress the character plainly at first, then add one telling item that signals a changed status in the second extract, communicating the shift without a line.

Try this

Q1. Name three design disciplines a candidate could be assessed in for Component 03. [3 marks]

• Cue. Any three of set, costume, lighting, sound, puppets, multimedia.

Q2. Why must a design choice support rather than distract from the performers? [2 marks]

• Cue. Design serves the storytelling and the performers; a choice that pulls focus undercuts the meaning they are building.

Q3. Explain how your design supported the performers and the meaning of your two extracts. [8 marks]

• What the marker wants. Specific, realised design choices, each tied to a precise effect for the audience at a named moment and to the performers' work, serving the writer's intentions, not a general description of the design.