THE WORKING NOTEBOOK

The Working Notebook will provide you with material that you can use to create your Coursework portfolio.

• The Working Notebook should be a hardback book that can be used during each lesson and also taken home.
• Use this notebook to record your responses to the lessons and your thoughts about the Drama you create.
• The notebook should form a link between one lesson and the next. It should help you to remember the activities you have completed and the moments of Drama that you have created.
• Write directly into the notebook and also paste materials in. Include images, drawings and photographs.
• Focus on the immediate within the lesson as well as deep thoughtful reflection.
• Remember to discuss form and con tent.
• Include questions that you feel are important.
• The Working Notebook should build evidence of your skill development and also be a record of the work you have covered.
• The Working Notebook will provide material for you to use for your portfolio.

Each week in your Working Notebook ensure you have answered the
Following questions:

• What was our Drama about?
• What Explorative Strategies did we use?
• What aspects of the Drama Medium did we explore?
• In our Drama what Elements of Drama stood out?
• What Drama Texts did we respond to?
• What did I think about this work?
• How could it have been improved further?

Coursework Portfolio

You must complete 2 pieces of coursework

• One on Paper 1 Unit 1 improvisation
• One on Paper 1 Unit 2 Scripted performance

You have a choice of whether you produce your coursework on A3 or A4, you can also choose whether to handwrite it or use ICT.

Each piece of coursework is to be no longer that 12 A4 sheets on one side/6 A4 sheets on both sides or 6 A3 sheets on one side.

You must use all of the information that you have written on the unit in your working notebook. Specific details that you need to include will be high-lighted by your teacher during and at the end of the unit.

All coursework deadlines must be met.

You must also include a Theatre Review in your portfolio. Details of what to include are in this handbook. You will be taken to a theatre or have a theatre group visit the school so you can complete this part of the course. It is also a good idea to write a review on theatre that you see in your own time. This could be submitted as part of your coursework.

PAPER 2 PERFORMANCES
(and others along the way!)

TEN THINGS TO DO AND TEN THINGS TO AVOID

Ten things you should do:

1. Make notes regularly about your work.

2 Ensure that you keep a written record of what you have decided when you are devising or rehearsing. Also write down what you are going to start with next lesson. This way you will not waste time trying to remember what you did last lesson and where to begin.

3 Discuss your ideas and your responses with your group and your teacher.

4 Make positive and supportive comments on each other’s work to encourage exploration.

5 Continue to reflect on your Drama activities outside the Drama lesson.

6 Keep your group size manageable — a group that is too large often means too many ideas (and sometimes too many arguments). A good size for a group is about five people. The minimum number in a group must be three and the maximum must be nine.

7 Try to keep your performance to a sensible time limit. Good performances often leave the audience wanting more. Poor performances often leave the audience wanting to go home! A rough rule of thumb is five minutes for each performer; so a group of three would perform for about 15 minutes. A group of nine will perform for about 45 minutes. Remember this is only a guide. A group of nine might well put together a stunning performance which lasts 30 minutes but will be perfectly sufficient for the examiner to award marks to each person.

8 Try to work out the overall structure of your performance before you fill in the details.

9 Review and evaluate your work as you go along — don’t be afraid to cut bits that are not working.

10 Act and react.

Ten things you should avoid:

1 Coming out of role.

2 Each performer wearing black for your performance. This makes the examiner’s life very difficult, trying to work out who is who. If you must wear black, wear something to distinguish you from the other performers such as a piece of coloured ribbon worn around your wrist or pinned to your T-shirt. Or better still a personal prop or small item of costume for your character.

3 Becoming obsessed with changing your clothes to represent different characters or the passage of time. If you are constantly leaving the acting space to change your top it can become very tedious and time-consuming. A different character can be suggested by the addition of a small item of clothing such as a scarf/sash, belt or hat — but not all at the same time! These are quick to put on and take off.

4 Always using plastic school chairs for your performance. Try to find alternatives such as wooden boxes or blocks, old wooden chairs that you can paint to fit into the style of your performance.

5 Getting obsessed with props and scenery. Some performances take longer changing the scenes than they do to perform! Ask yourself if the props and scenery are essential to the action or can they be suggested through mime or physical theatre techniques.

6 Blackouts as much as possible. Make transitions through the Drama not through the darkness.

7 Walking in a circle chanting louder and louder until the person in the middle screams.

8 Negative criticism of the work made by fellow candidates that causes self-consciousness and blocks exploration.

9 Mime knocking on a door and stamping with your floor to create the sound effect.

10 Using the same music in your presentation as any other group in your class.

WRITING A THEATRE REVIEW

The first thing you need to get right is the title, this must be laid out as follows: The title of the play, who performed it, the theatre you saw it in, the date you saw it.
The first paragraph should explain briefly what the play was about - you do not get any marks for writing a side of A4 telling the story!
Then you need to write about what you saw that night, and what you thought of it. Always explain why and give examples. Here are some areas you could write about.

ACTORS
• Were they good or bad? Why?
• How was the character portrayed to the audience?
• How did you know whether the character was good, bad, happy, sad, etc., what did the actor do to show this?
• How did you realise this?
• Did you have a favourite? Who? Why?

SET
• What did the set look like?
• Draw a diagram to show this
• How was the space used by the designer?
• Did the colour have any significance to the play? (e.g. A red set for danger, brown if the people are boring)
• What?
• Did you like the set? Explain

LIGHTING
• What were the lights like?
• Did they add to the atmosphere of the piece? (e.g. blue lighting for night time, cold, yellow lighting for the sun or warmth). How?
• Did the lights help the audience watch the actors (focus their attention)? How?
• Did you like it? Why?

COSTUME
• What were the costumes like?
• Did they work with the rest of the play?
• Did they follow any colour theme? (e.g. a black costume could be for a villain and a white for a hero).
• Did the costume say anything about the character? (e.g. a leather jacket can mean they are tough, or they ride a bike or they need to keep warm).
• Did they help the characters become real to the audience? How’?

Then finish this with a paragraph about your opinion on the play. Would you watch this play or anything by the playwright again? Explain why?