1. Analysing Drama Texts

2. General Questions How do playwrights use setting?
How do playwrights use dramatic irony?
How do playwrights use stagecraft?
What makes a play powerful and dramatic?
How are the characters portrayed?

3. What is the purpose? How? Themes
Message - political, social, historical
Entertainment
Following specific conventional form
How?
Irony - dramatic, comic and literary
Comedy
Tragedy
Satire
Slapstick
Controlling audience focus

4. From the beginning consider:
Initial stage directions - props, their placing, lighting, setting, prologue, character descriptions, sound effects, costumes etc
Where the story begins
What/who is being shown initially and what/who is being concealed
What atmosphere is being created from the outset and how this is achieved
What is revealed of the ‘hidden’ storyline in initial lines

5. Look for: Historical, contextual and convention/genre references
Stock and unconventional characters
Unusual/multiple staging, including what type of stage it is written for (Proscenium Arch/Traverse/In the Round/Thrust/Arena)
Changes in stage management: lighting/sound effects/scene changes/costumes

6. Characters and their relationships through ...
Descriptions in stage directions
Dialogue - soliloquies, monologues, stichomythic conversations, stage directions, dramatic dashes, italics, capitals, different language use, song etc
Stage directions - body language, proxemics, facial expressions, tone of voice, movement, eye contact, levels and gesture
Reactions to others
Context - social and historical
Clues to off-stage or previous events and their reactions
Through whose perspective does the audience view events?

7. Structure
How is the text pieced together - where does it begin for the audience?
Time lapse - 24 hr/weekend/years
Sequencing of events and cross-cutting - linear, chronological, parallel, flashbacks, flash forwards
Foreshadowing
Play-within-a-play - metatheatre
Choral intervention
Revelations through letters, gossip etc
Denouement - satisfactory ending?

8. Miscellaneous Title of play
Specific language used - tone, dialect, colloquialisms, accents
Stagecraft throughout play - changes and consistencies
Symbolism, motifs, extended metaphors etc
Names of places and characters
Changes in characters and relationships
Exits and entrances
Surprises through concealment, revelations, plot structure

9. Types of comparative questions:
“In plays, no one arrives on or leaves from the stage without contributing in some way to the complexity of the play.” Considering two or three plays you have studied, compare the impact on meaning of some arrivals and departures from the stage.
What dramatic techniques have playwrights used to convey ideas and/or beliefs in two or three plays you have studied, and how effective have they been?
“Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” Focusing on one of these demands show playwrights use different dramatic techniques in creating interest in two or three works you have studied.
Compare how structure or organisation has been used to shape meaning in two or three works you have studied.
Writers make many deliberate choices in the course of creating their works. Considering one or two stylistic aspects, compare the effectiveness of some choices writers have made in two or three works you have studied.

10. Main body paragraphs
The first sentence needs to tell the reader what the focus of the paragraph is going to be clearly and in as few words as possible.
The second sentence should include your first piece of evidence (usually a quotation)
The next part of the paragraph will usually be two or three sentences of analysis of the first quotation.
Now link this to the next section of the paragraph (which will be a comparison with the second text)
Now include another quotation/close reference
Now analyse this quotation, and draw the texts together
You may want to finish this paragraph by bringing the reader back to the main focus of the point you are making.

11. ADVICE
Introduction - keep it short! Mention texts and authors. Show you understand the question. Include a thesis or argument.
Main body - 5 good paragraphs (next slide)
Conclusion - needs to be succinct. Tie arguments and ideas together. Reference back to your introduction. Do not repeat yourself from main body. ANSWER THE QUESTION.
TEXT EXAMPLES:
Writers make many deliberate choices in the course of creating their works. Considering one or two stylistic aspects in ‘Death of a Salesman’. How effective are they?
What dramatic techniques have playwrights used to convey ideas and/or beliefs in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and how effective are they?

12. Mark Scheme Criterion A Knowledge and understanding
How well do you know the texts you have studied? Do not spend valuable time providing unnecessary biographical context on each writer. Your essay should analyse the texts you have studied and consider their literary merits.
5 marks
Criterion B
Response to the question
Have you completely understood the question? Strong answers come from students who have read the question carefully and interpreted it accurately. Look at the wording, underline the key parts of the question, and satisfy yourself that you are comfortable with what is being asked of you.
Criterion C
Appreciation of the literary conventions of the genre
Do you understand the conventions of the genre you are writing about? Do you appreciate how these conventions shape meaning? This is an opportunity to show the examiner how much you have learned over the last two years so use it.
Criterion D
Organisation and development
How well structured is your essay? There should be a clear, concise and direct introduction, followed by a full development of the key ideas (which are linked); and there should be an unambiguous conclusion which neatly summarises your thesis.
Criterion E
Language
Your language should be precise, varied, and clear. Your language use is, inevitably, fundamental to you conveying your meaning, and although it is tempting to try to impress an examiner with elaborate phrasing it is often advisable to concentrate on making your ideas as clear as they can be. In other words, say something clever but say it as simply as possible.