Section C the set extract: answering a question on an extract from a third contrasting text, printed in the paper, by realising the extract in performance with specific staging and design choices justified by their effect on an audience (AO3 and AO4).

What this dot point is asking

This dot point covers Section C of Component 3: a question on an extract from a third, contrasting text, which is printed in the paper. You realise the extract in performance, making specific staging and design choices justified by their effect on an audience. Because the extract is supplied, the focus is on close, detailed work on the printed passage, reading its action and style and staging it precisely. It is marked on AO3 and AO4.

The answer

Section C tests the same theatre-maker skills as the rest of the paper, but on a passage you meet largely for the first time in the exam. The examiner wants to see you read an extract closely and turn it into staging, which is the core craft of the whole subject.

What Section C asks of you

The word contrasting matters: the extract is chosen to differ in period, genre or style from your studied texts, broadening the range the paper covers and testing whether you can read and stage an unfamiliar theatrical world.

Reading the extract closely

Start by reading the extract for its dramatic content: what happens, the mood, and where the shifts and turning points are. Note any stage directions, because they signal the playwright's intended staging and give you evidence to build on. Identify the style and conventions the extract suggests (a naturalistic scene, a verse passage, a presentational or absurdist moment), since these shape how it should be staged.

Staging the printed passage

Now make choices anchored in the page. As a director, decide proxemics, the stage form and the picture the audience sees. As a designer, choose set, costume, lighting and sound with accurate technical detail. Add performance choices (vocal and physical) for the key beats. For every choice, refer to the specific line or direction it responds to and state its effect on the audience. The strongest answers track the extract's shifts and stage each one.

Honouring the contrasting style

Because the extract is contrasting, do not simply transplant the staging of one of your studied texts. Read the conventions of the extract and stage in keeping with them: an absurdist passage may call for a non-naturalistic space; a verse scene may call for a presentational, direct address relationship; a naturalistic extract may call for a detailed box set. Matching your staging to the text's own theatrical language is itself worth marks.

Examples in context

Staging a printed extract closely. Suppose the Section C extract is a tense two-hander in which the mood shifts from forced politeness to open hostility, with a stage direction noting a long silence at the turn. A generic answer makes choices that could fit any argument. A strong answer reads the shift and stages it: in the polite opening the actors sit at a measured distance with bright, even lighting and controlled, courteous delivery; on the printed silence the candidate holds a three-second stillness and dims the warm light a notch to register the change; as hostility breaks through, one actor rises and crosses to loom over the other while the sound design introduces a low, growing hum, and the delivery sharpens in pace and volume. Each choice is tied to the printed line or direction it answers and to a clear audience effect (comfort giving way to unease and threat). The answer is rooted in the supplied extract, which is what Section C rewards, whatever the contrasting text turns out to be.

Try this

Q1. How does Section C differ from Sections A and B in terms of the text? [2 marks]

• Cue. Section C is on an extract from a third, contrasting text that is printed in the paper and not studied as a whole play, whereas A and B are on your two complete set texts.

Q2. Why should you read the stage directions in the Section C extract carefully? [3 marks]

• Cue. They signal the playwright's intended staging and the key shifts, and give you printed evidence to anchor and justify your own staging choices.

Q3. Using a printed extract, explain how you would stage the moment to communicate its meaning, as a director and designer. [15 marks]

• What the marker wants. Close reading of the extract's action, style and shifts, with specific director and designer choices anchored in the printed lines and stage directions, each justified by its effect on the audience (AO3 and AO4).

A note on the format

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The exact form and mark tariff of Section C are set by WJEC and reviewed periodically. Always confirm the current Component 3 format against the WJEC specification at wjec.co.uk.