Academic
A2 Drama and Theatre Studies Course Outline
A2 Unit 3: Exploration of Dramatic Performance
40% of the total A2 Marks
Content summary: This unit requires the creation of a unique and original piece of theatre. The knowledge and understanding gained in the AS units can now be applied to a created production. Students will be assessed on both the process of creation and the finished product in the form of a performance to an invited audience.
Assessment:
- Students will be assessed on the research and development of their work as well as the final performance in front of an identified audience. They are also required to complete an evaluation on both the process and performance of their work.
- Written evidence will be required reflecting the research and development work as well as a video/DVD of the final performance.
A2 Unit 4: Theatre Text in Context
60% of the total AS Marks
Content summary: This externally examined written unit requires the detailed study of one set play text and one prescribed historical period of theatrical development.
Assessment:
This is an externally assessed unit.
- This externally assessed unit takes the form of a 2-hour-and-30-minute written paper in three sections.
- Sections A and B require students to explore one play, from a choice of three set play texts, from the point of view of a director in both an academic and practical way.
- In Section C a selection must be made of one from a choice of three historic periods of theatre history. A live performance of a play from the chosen period must be experienced and evaluated and a comparison made with the original staging conditions of the play.
AS knowledge and understanding
This Advanced Subsidiary requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- how performers, designers and directors communicate meaning to an audience theatre practice through their own engagement with the medium as both participant and informed audience member
- the appropriate vocabulary and specialist terminology for the subject.
- a minimum of two published plays demonstrating understanding of how style, form, dramatic structure and characterisation can be interpreted and realised in performance, and how plays relate to their historical, social and cultural context – they must be varied in terms of period and genre the work of at least one influential director, designer, theatre company or other practitioner who has made a significant contribution to theatre practice.
This Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced specification should develop students’:
- ability to form judgements about live theatre based on their understanding of drama and theatre
- use of subject-specific terminology in a range of contexts
- performance and/or production skills appropriate to the creation and realisation of drama and theatre
- ability to work creatively and collaboratively to achieve shared dramatic intentions
- ability to respond to plays imaginatively conveying ideas clearly and coherently.
Unit 3 Exploration of Dramatic Performance
This unit requires the creation of a unique and original piece of theatre. The knowledge and understanding gained in the AS units can now be applied to a created production. Students will be assessed on both the process of creation and the finished product in the form of a performance to an invited audience.
This unit focuses on a group production in response to either:
- stimulus material, themes, ideas, issues or
- a published play.
Students will have the opportunity to:
- create an original piece of drama
- apply the knowledge and experience gained in the AS units
- work co-operatively in a creative context
- develop drama and theatre through background research and
- practical exploration
- synthesise and apply knowledge of dramatic forms and genres
- explore stylistic features of performance
- perform a created piece of drama to an identified audience.
Unit 4 Theatre Text in Context
This unit requires the detailed study of one prescribed play and one prescribed historical period of theatrical development.
Sections A and B
In Sections A and B students will have to study one play from a choice of three, developing and shaping their ideas for a proposed production of the play from the perspective of a director.
The choice in this section is either:
- Aristophanes — Lysistrata
or
- Christopher Marlowe — Dr Faustus
or
- Georg Buchner — Woyzeck
Section C
In Section C students are required to study and research the original performance conditions of a play written and performed in one of three given periods of theatrical development.
A live production of the chosen play, at which students respond as a member of the audience, will be at the centre of this section.
The time period chosen in this section must not be the same as the one chosen in Section A and B.
The choice in this section is either:
- 525BC–AD65
or
- 1564–1720
or
- 1828–1914
Students will be required to evaluate the ways in which directors, designers and performers have used the medium of drama to interpret the chosen play in a contemporary performance and to relate this experience to their understanding of its original performance conditions.