HIGHER DRAMA Preparation for Performance with special thanks to Mrs Wright in Portree for sharing her very helpful tips on this

IN YOUR EXAM YOU WILL BE MARKED ON; Communicating the agreed interpretation of acting concepts by demonstrating an understanding of character through textual clues Sustaining character and conveying relationships through credible interaction with other characters Appropriate and effective use of voice Appropriate and effective use of movement Impact on audience

REQUIREMENTS Max 2 sides A4 typed – approx. 1000 words. But less than that is preferable! It should provide a concise description of your research, role and interpretation of that role during the rehearsal process. You need lots on rehearsal process. You need lots on how you will portray the part physically and vocally. BUT make sure what you write is what you do! Contextualise the extract – what has happened before/after – shows wider knowledge of play – research

Paragraphs could tackle the following: 1. Intro to the roles – who you play, what occurs in the scenes, context of the scene/point it occurs in the play. 2. Research undertaken for each role – what and why it helped 3. Rehearsal techniques + how they contributed to your portrayal. For example, link things you did to how it helped you to develop the role. Include challenges and how they were overcome (and not ‘my pal was off so it was hard to rehearse’ – that is an N4 answer) 4. Your vocal interpretation – tone, accent, pace, intonation, use of pause, etc… 5. Your physical interpretation – posture, gesture, mannerisms, gait, facial expressions, eye contact, focus etc …. Costume/props might be important to mention for some roles 6. Relationships with other characters – what is it and how is it shown by your acting/use of proxemics/staging decisions etc 7. Audience response – what/how do you want the audience to feel about your character? Consider mood and atmosphere.

REHEARSAL TECHNQIUES YOU MIGHT REFERENCE Hot seating – to better understand your character and their feelings about other characters Improvisation – freedom from the text within the structure of the scene External director Video + review Audience feedback – to gauge whether you are communicating the desired emotion/relationship etc. Experimentation with different staging set ups Wearing appropriate clothing to help ‘get into character’ Practising with props Anything that helped get you in the mood/right emotional state to play the role Observation from life Observation from film/earlier productions to help with understanding of characterisation and motivation Emotional memory/recall Being off book – early line learning – to free you to explore the movement and intention fully in rehearsals

Other words or ideas that might be helpful! Stylised/Naturalistic portrayals Credibility of relationships/believability/finding the emotional truth of your role Projection Motivation Responding to other characters Non-verbal character actions and reactions – ie. what you do when you are not speaking! Establishing the mood/atmosphere Use of dramatic pause

YOU CAN SEND US YOUR DRAFTS… 53DR TO jwallace039@highlandschools.org.uk 54DR TO kvanexa162@highlandschools.org.uk DUE DATE THURSDAY 2ND APRIL