DRAMA PROCESS
1. RESPOND TO THE STIMULUS
What themes or issues does the stimulus make you think of? (e.g.Family Matters? Murder? Deceit? Greed? Disloyalty? Conflict? War? Accidents? Prejudice? Secrets? Loss? The Environment? The Supernatural?) What emotions does the stimulus convey to you?
2. DISCUSS YOUR IDEAS WITH YOUR GROUP
a) Share your ideas and listen to and respond to others’ by supporting, commenting and questioning.
b) Then begin to construct the story:
What could have happened? What characters could have been involved?
How will your story begin, develop, reach a turning point and conclude?
3. CAST THE DRAMA AND SET UP YOUR SPACE
a)Who will play which character?
b)How will you use space and furniture to represent the setting(s)?
4. REHEARSE AND REVIEW
a)After every rehearsal discuss its strengths and weaknesses. (An average of 10 rehearsals is recommended for exam work.)What is strong and effective? What needs to be added, changed or removed?
b)What drama skills are you able to use well (e.g. voice and movement) and what skills do you need to develop?
c) How reliable and impressive are you as a group member? What are your strengths and weaknesses?
While rehearsing and reviewing consider also:
d) What type of staging will you use and why?
What drama form will you choose and why?
What type of structure will you choose and why?
What conventions will you use and why?
What theatre arts will you use and why?
5. PRESENT TO AUDIENCE
Ensure that when presenting you can be seen by blocking yourselves appropriately within the performance space. As well as this, the blocking you choose for each scene should also help the audience to understand the relationships between the characters.
Also use clear, precise movements, gestures and facial expressions to communicate characters’ feelings and reactions to the audience.
Ensure the characters can be heard by using projection, volume and clarity when speaking dialogue, as well as tone and pitch.
Ensure that you stay in role at all times no matter what. Avoid corpsing.
Ensure that any mistakes are covered up by improvising.
Ensure you act on cue and that technical effects such as lighting and sound are also carried out on cue.
EVALUATION
(Audience Reaction)
How did the audience react to your drama? Were they attentive? How do you know?
Were they responsive? (Did they react during the performance? How? What comments did they make afterwards? Were they confused by aspects of the drama? What did they learn?)
(Your and Your Group’s Performance)
Use the advice in the previous section to explain how well you and your group performed.
What, as an individual, could you have done better as a group member during rehearsals and in the earlier parts of the drama process?
What, as an individual, could you have done better as a performer in the final presentation?
Looking back over your contributions throughout the entire drama process what did you do particularly well, as a group member and/or as a performer?
(Targets)
Based on your progress to date, what do you now want to achieve in the next unit of work/course either in terms of being an effective group member and/or an effective performer?