Course Description
Drama is a social artistic expression which enables understudies to work imaginatively together, trying different things with thoughts and tackling issues. Understudies apply thinking abilities inside commonsense settings. These abilities, alongside adaptability, sympathy and hazard taking, are both fundamental to Drama practice and perceived as essentially imperative in the working environment and for the duration of grown-up life.
Skills practised in Drama, students will learn co-operation, confidence and effective communication.
The Drama Exams
| Unit | Type | Date | Required | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Devising | End of term: Dec | Group piece Portfolio | 40% |
| 2 | Performance | Late March | 2 Performance pieces each | 20% |
| 3 | Written | May | ‘An Inspector Calls’ Notes on live Performance | 40% |
Performance exam
A visiting examiner marks these.
You must produce 2 performance extracts from the same play.
They can be monologues, duologues, group pieces or a combination of the above. You can play the same or different characters in both.
Timings: Mono – min 2 minutes, max 3 minutes
Duo – min 3 minutes, max 5 minutes
For each extract you perform you will have to write a brief explanation of your intentions in your performance which is sent to the examiner. This need only be 100 – 200 words for each extract.
The plays we will choose from will be:
‘Absent Friends’, ‘The Dumb Waiter’, ‘Living with Lady Macbeth, ‘Burying my Brother Under the Pavement’ and ‘The Spidermen’.
Key Dates for GCSE Drama
| Jan | Mock Exams 3-18 Jan |
|---|---|
| Jan | Mock Exam Results - 30 Jan |
| Feb | Parents’ Evening - 7 Feb |
| 24th Feb | Lines to be learnt for C2 performances |
| March | Component 2- performance exam (date tbc) |
| May | Written exam |
| August | GCSE Results |
Revision Sessions
Revision sessions will run on Wednesdays from 3pm until 4pm starting after February half term in 2019.
Revising for the Written Exam
- 1. Watch YouTube versions of ‘An Inspector Calls’. There’s a good BBC version. Take notes on sound, set, costume. And then look carefully at the characters and how the actors have chosen to portray those characters at key moments. Make notes.
- 2. Take any short section from the text. Read the section. Make a mind map for how you would stage, costume, light, direct, use sound, use set/props for the extract you have chosen. Repeat.
- 3. Go to BBC Bitesize revision. The Drama section is great for revising key terminology. It has tests to do as well.
- 4. Look at the A3 notes on ‘Bouncers’ that I will write. Spend five minutes reading a particular section. Then try to write out as much as you can remember, adding in your own thoughts as you go.
- 5. Revise the context of ‘An Inspector Calls’, use your English notes to help.
- 6. Look online and search costume/props/set for ‘An Inspector Calls’. Make notes/drawings to help you.
