Practitioners and companies overview: the WJEC A-Level Drama and Theatre practitioners and how to apply them

This overview maps the WJEC A-Level Drama and Theatre practitioners and companies, the working methods you apply in the practical components and draw on when writing about staging texts. WJEC lists practitioners and recognised companies whose techniques you use, applying one in Component 1 and a different one in Component 2. This page introduces the most widely studied figures and how to choose and apply them.

What the practitioners are for

Practitioners are not topics to describe but methods to use. Each offers a distinct aim and a set of techniques for achieving it, and the skill the qualification rewards is turning those techniques into concrete, sustained choices in your own work. You apply them in the practical components (AO1 and AO2) and explain them in the creative log and the process and evaluation report (AO1 and AO3).

The practitioners and companies

This module covers five widely studied choices, each with its own page.

1. Stanislavski and psychological realism. Given circumstances, the magic if, objectives and the super-objective, emotion memory, and units and actions, for truthful naturalistic performance.
2. Brecht and epic theatre. The alienation effect, gestus, episodic structure, placards, song and direct address, to make the audience think critically about society.
3. Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty. Total theatre as an assault on the senses, the primacy of sound, light and movement over text, ritual and immersion, to provoke a visceral response.
4. Berkoff and physical total theatre. Stylised mime, the body as scenery, exaggerated controlled physicality, heightened vocal delivery and ensemble work, for a heightened, non-naturalistic style.
5. Frantic Assembly and physical ensemble theatre. Devised choreographed movement integrated with text, building-block devising methods, lifts and contact work, and design-led storytelling.

Choosing and applying a practitioner

You apply one practitioner or company in Component 1 and a different one in Component 2, so plan two contrasting choices. Choose by fit (the methods that serve the material and the audience effect), apply the techniques consistently throughout the piece, and document the influence in the log and report. Naming a practitioner and then ignoring their methods is the commonest weakness.

How to study the practitioners

Drama and Theatre rewards application over description.

1. Learn the aim and the tools. For each practitioner, know what they want the audience to feel or think and the techniques they use.
2. Turn techniques into choices. Practise converting each technique into a specific vocal, physical, spatial or design choice with an effect.
3. Master two deeply. Know one practitioner for Component 1 and a different one for Component 2 in real depth.
4. Match to the material. Choose the practitioner whose methods illuminate the meaning of the piece.
5. Sustain and document. Apply the methods across the whole piece and record them in the log and report.

Where this fits in the qualification

Practitioners are applied in the practical components (Theatre Workshop and Text in Action) and inform the staging you write about in the Text in Performance exam. For the official specification, the approved practitioner list and past papers, see wjec.co.uk, and always confirm the current approved list because it is reviewed periodically.