Drama Skills: overview of the acting and interpretation skills in SQA Higher Drama

Drama Skills are the acting and interpretation skills at the heart of SQA Higher Drama. They are what you apply in the practical performance and what you draw on when you write about a text from a performer's perspective. This page maps the skills and links to the detailed answer pages.

The skills this module covers

Voice and movement

The actor's core expressive tools. The voice is shaped by pace, pitch, pause, tone, volume, projection, clarity and accent; the body by posture, gait, gesture, facial expression, eye contact, stillness and use of space and levels. The skill is choosing and controlling these to communicate.

Characterisation and acting

Building a believable character from motivation, status, relationships, objectives and subtext, then sustaining the role with focus and concentration and responding truthfully to other performers.

Text, genre, form and style

Interpreting a text by recognising its genre and conventions, its form and structure and staging, and its style (naturalistic or non-naturalistic), then translating these into justified performance and production choices.

How these skills are assessed

The practical performance (worth the majority of the course marks) assesses the deliberate use and control of skills to communicate to an audience, whether you perform as an actor or in a production role. The question paper draws on the same understanding when it asks you to analyse a studied text from the perspective of a director, actor or designer. So the drama skills are the foundation of every part of the course.

How to study the drama skills

1. Name skills precisely. Learn the vocabulary (pace, pitch, status, objective, subtext, naturalism) so you can describe choices exactly.
2. Always link to effect. For every skill, practise saying what it communicates to the audience and why.
3. Rehearse for control and consistency. Markers reward sustained, motivated choices, so rehearse until characterisation holds from entrance to exit.
4. Read texts theatrically. Spot genre, form and style and turn them into concrete performance and production decisions.

For the official course specification

The SQA publishes the full Higher Drama course specification, specimen and past papers, and coursework documents at sqa.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification, because the assessment structure and recommended texts are board-specific and were updated for 2025-26.