Drama and Theatre Studies

Course summary

In A Level Drama and Theatre, the theoretical study of practitioners, theatre history and theatrical genres underpin practical explorations, encouraging students to interpret text in challenging and innovative ways. Students perform published scripts, and learn to devise and write their own work. The course provides students with transferable skills, including teamwork, problem solving and the ability to deal with challenging situations, that are desirable in many different careers. The course is delivered in three components. The first is devising, which amounts to 40% of the course. This involves creating an original piece of theatre based on a stimulus and a key practitioner. Students can take the role of performer/designer/director. Students also complete a portfolio evidencing the devising process and evaluating the final product. The second component is text in performance covering 20% of the course. This includes a group performance of an extract from a professionally published play or a monologue/duologue from a published play. The final component, which includes a written exam, covers 40% of the course and is about theatre makers in practice. Students evaluate live theatre, they deconstruct a text from page to stage in light of the work of a key practitioner and they interpret a performance text and re-image a directorial concept.