Text in Performance overview: how to study the WJEC A-Level Drama and Theatre Component 3 written exam

This overview maps the WJEC A-Level Drama and Theatre Component 3: Text in Performance, the only written examination in the qualification. Where the two practical components are non-exam assessment, this paper carries the examined knowledge and is the home of AO3 and AO4. It tests your ability to stage set texts and to evaluate live theatre, all in writing.

What the Text in Performance exam tests

Component 3 is a 2 hours 30 minutes written exam worth 120 marks (40 per cent). It assesses AO3 (knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed) and AO4 (analysing and evaluating your own and others' work, including live theatre). You answer everything as a theatre maker, justifying choices by their effect on an audience, rather than as a literary critic.

The structure of the paper

The paper has three sections, each rewarding a different scale of answer.

1. Section A: structured questions on a complete set text. Shorter, focused questions realising specified moments in performance. Open book on a clean copy.
2. Section B: the extended essay on a second set text. A single long essay building a sustained directorial or design concept across the whole play. Open book on a clean copy.
3. Section C: the printed extract. A question on an extract from a third, contrasting text, printed in the paper, realised closely from the page.

Across your complete set texts, one must be written before 1956 and one after 1956, guaranteeing a contrast in theatrical periods and styles.

The theatre-maker roles

In every section you write as a performer (voice and body), a director (space and staging) or a designer (set, costume, lighting and sound). Whatever the role, the method is the same: a specific choice, justified by its effect on the audience. This is the single most important skill in the paper.

Live theatre evaluation

WJEC requires you to watch live theatre, and the paper asks you to analyse and evaluate a professional production you have seen. The skill is to recall specific moments, analyse their audience effect, and judge how successfully they created meaning. Evaluate the production, not the play.

How to study Text in Performance

Drama and Theatre rewards staging and justification over plot and theme.

1. Stage every text. Read each set text as a script for performance, converting every moment into choices.
2. Always justify by audience effect. A choice is incomplete without its effect; pair them every time.
3. Use the open book well. Cite precise moments from your two complete texts in Sections A and B.
4. Practise the extract. Rehearse close, detailed staging of unseen-style extracts for Section C.
5. Keep a live theatre log. Record and evaluate specific moments from productions through the year.

Where this fits in the exam

Component 3 is the written paper; Components 1 and 2 are the practical, non-exam components. For the official specification, set text lists, past papers and mark schemes, see wjec.co.uk, and always revise from the current specification because question style and set texts are board-specific.