← Drama syllabus

ScotlandDrama

Drama Skills

3 dot points across 3 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you build, sustain and communicate a believable character in a Higher Drama performance, and respond truthfully to other actors?

Characterisation and acting: building a believable character through motivation, status, relationships, objectives and subtext, sustaining the role with focus and concentration, and responding truthfully to others on stage.
How SQA Higher Drama actors build and sustain a believable character: working from motivation, status, relationships, objectives and subtext, holding focus and concentration throughout, and responding truthfully to other performers on stage.
11 min answer →

How do genre, form, structure and style shape the way a drama text is interpreted and performed for an audience?

Interpreting text through genre, form, structure and style: recognising how dramatic conventions, staging form and theatrical style shape meaning and guide performance and production choices.
How SQA Higher Drama students interpret a text through genre, form, structure and style: recognising conventions such as naturalism and epic theatre, identifying the staging form, and using these to justify performance and production choices that shape meaning for an audience.
11 min answer →

How do you use voice and movement deliberately to communicate character, relationships and meaning to an audience in a Higher Drama performance?

Voice and movement as the actor's core expressive skills: using pace, pitch, pause, tone, projection, posture, gait, gesture and stillness to communicate character and meaning to an audience.
How SQA Higher Drama actors use voice and movement to communicate character: pace, pitch, pause, tone and projection for the voice, and posture, gait, gesture, stillness and use of space for the body, all chosen on purpose to reach an audience.
11 min answer →