The set texts and the pre-1956 and post-1956 rule: studying two complete performance texts (one written before 1956, one after) for Sections A and B plus an extract for Section C, choosing from the WJEC lists, and studying each text as a script for performance rather than as literature (AO3 and AO4).

What this dot point is asking

This dot point covers the set text requirements for Component 3 and the most important habit you need: studying a play as a script for performance, not as literature. For the written exam you study two complete texts (one pre-1956, one post-1956) for Sections A and B, plus a third, contrasting text that appears as a printed extract in Section C. You choose from the WJEC set text lists, marked on AO3 and AO4.

The answer

The set text choice is not arbitrary. WJEC requires a spread of texts so that you encounter different theatrical periods, conventions and audiences, and the written paper then asks you to stage them. The single most valuable thing you can do all year is to read every set text with a director's and a designer's eye.

What you study and where it is examined

The two complete texts are the ones you must know inside out, because in the open-book sections you cite precise moments from across each play. The Section C text is contrasting: it deliberately differs in period, genre or style, broadening the range the paper covers.

The pre-1956 and post-1956 rule

The rule is simple but important: one complete set text must be written before 1956 and one after 1956. The year 1956 is a recognised watershed in British theatre, often associated with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and the new wave of socially engaged drama that followed. By straddling this divide, you study contrasting theatrical languages: the conventions of older drama (verse, the chorus, the unities) against post-war and contemporary work (naturalism and its rejections, new staging forms, political theatre). The contrast is examinable, so you should be able to articulate how the periods differ in staging and audience.

Studying a text as a script for performance

This is the dividing line between Drama and Theatre and English Literature. A literary reading of a speech treats it as a poem; a performance reading asks how the actor delivers it, where they stand, how others react, and how light and sound shape the moment. The exam rewards the performance reading, so train yourself to convert every passage into staging.

Knowing the original conventions

To stage an older text well you need to understand the theatre it was written for. A Greek tragedy assumes a chorus, masks and the unities; a Shakespeare play assumes a thrust stage, daylight, minimal scenery and direct address. You need not reproduce the original staging, but you must know it, because the examiner can ask you to stage the text in its period conventions or in a modern reinterpretation, and a strong answer shows awareness of both.

Examples in context

Turning a page into a staging. Suppose a set text contains a tense confrontation between two characters across a table. A literary note might observe that the dialogue is clipped and the subtext hostile. A performance reading makes choices: the actors deliver lines on overlapping cues to raise the tempo; one stands while the other stays seated to create a visible power imbalance; a cold, top light isolates the pair and a low hum tightens the tension. Each choice is named and tied to an audience effect (unease, threat). The literary observation is the starting point; the staging is the answer the exam rewards, and the same discipline applies to whichever texts your centre has chosen.

Try this

Q1. How many complete set texts do you study for Sections A and B, and what is the rule about their dates? [2 marks]

• Cue. Two complete texts; one must be written before 1956 and one after 1956.

Q2. What does it mean to study a set text as a script for performance? [3 marks]

• Cue. Reading every moment as something to be staged, considering performer demands, space and design, and justifying choices by their effect on an audience, rather than analysing the text as literature.

Q3. Explain why WJEC sets the pre-1956 and post-1956 rule and how it affects your exam answers. [10 marks]

• What the marker wants. The 1956 watershed and the contrast in theatrical conventions, periods and audiences it guarantees, and the need to stage an older text with awareness of its original conventions and a modern text with awareness of its style (AO3 and AO4).

A note on the set texts

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. WJEC publishes the set text lists and reviews them periodically, and your centre chooses from the options, so always confirm your specific set texts and the current lists against the WJEC specification at wjec.co.uk.