DramaQ&A by dot point

Knowledge and understanding of design skills: set (including props and levels), costume (including hair and make-up), lighting (colour, intensity, angle, state) and sound (effects, music, underscore), and how each creates location, mood, period and meaning for the audience.

Knowledge and understanding of practitioners, genres and styles of drama and theatre: naturalism and Stanislavski, epic and political theatre and Brecht, and physical and devised theatre, and how each shapes acting, staging and the audience's experience.

Knowledge and understanding of staging configurations and stagecraft: proscenium arch, thrust, in the round, traverse and end on staging, the stage directions and areas (upstage, downstage), and how the chosen configuration changes the actor and audience relationship and the staging of a moment.

Overview of the practical, non-examined units: Unit 1 Devising Theatre (devise an original piece from a stimulus influenced by a practitioner or genre, with a supporting portfolio and evaluation) and Unit 2 Performing from a Text (perform two extracts from one play, or realise a design).

Knowledge and understanding of acting skills: the vocal skills (pitch, pace, pause, tone, volume, accent, emphasis) and physical skills (posture, gesture, gait, facial expression, eye contact, proxemics), and how an actor combines them to build a believable character and communicate meaning.

Analysing and evaluating a piece of live theatre seen, for Unit 3 Section B: describing specific acting and design choices, analysing how they created meaning and effect, and reaching supported evaluative judgements on how successful they were, using precise drama vocabulary (AO4).

Answering the set text as a designer in Unit 3 Section A: explaining choices of set, costume, lighting and sound, and a chosen stage configuration, to realise a moment and shape the audience's response, with reasons linked to meaning, mood and period.

Answering the set text as a director in Unit 3 Section A: explaining an overall concept for the play and how you would direct a moment, using blocking, pace, mood, and the actors' performances to communicate meaning and shape the audience's interpretation.

Answering the set text as a performer in Unit 3 Section A: explaining how vocal skills (pitch, pace, pause, tone, volume) and physical skills (posture, gesture, movement, facial expression, proxemics) would communicate a character and moment to the audience, linked to motivation and intention.

The structure of Unit 3 Interpreting Theatre: a 1 hour 30 minute written exam worth 40 percent (60 marks), with Section A on a studied set text answered as performer, designer and director, and Section B an evaluation of live theatre, assessing AO3 and AO4.