Drama and Theatre Studies

Course summary

Component 1: Theatre Workshop Students reinterpret an extract from a published play text in the style of an influential theatre practitioner, therefore creating a truly unique and creative version of a known play. Students reflect on their rehearsals and influences in their written coursework (a creative log). Component 2: Text in Action Students create two performances based on a choice of stimuli provided by the exam board. One performance is a devised piece of theatre in the style of a theatre company, genre or practitioner, whilst the second involves performing an extract from a published play in a contrasting style to the devised piece. Students reflect on the rehearsal process and evaluate the final performance in their coursework (a process and evaluation report). Component 3: Text in Performance This is the written examination which is 2 hours and 30 minutes in length and consists of 3 sections. Section A involves answering two questions referring to a section from Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo. Section B involves answering one question on how to interpret Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for a contemporary audience, and in Section C students are given an extract from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to answer questions on. All questions are from the point of view of an actor, a director or a designer. Students take a copy of the text into the exam for Sections A and B. Students must refer to live productions seen on the course to justify their responses for Sections B and C.