Drama

Skills and conventions

Devising

Theatre history

Shakespeare

Set text

Theatre styles

Introduction to common Drama techniques, such as freeze frame, thought tracking and flashback. Students also learn about the effective use of a performance space.

Students learn how to use both spontaneous and rehearsed improvisation effectively.

Students learn about melodrama, stock characters and Victorian theatre. They also explore a Melodrama-style script.

Students learn about Elizabethan theatre. The focus is the Mechanicals’ scenes and how to incorporate visual comedy. Students use props to aid their performances.

Students explore a whole text including how to interpret stage directions, breaking the 4^th wall and creating a performance as a whole group.

Students learn how to incorporate physical theatre techniques into a performance. They also develop their use of lighting to create mood and atmosphere.

Exploration of Drama techniques which will be developed throughout the year. Scenarios, improvisation, and scripts are used to help demonstrate students’ understanding of the techniques and how to apply them.

Students are shown Picasso’s Weeping Woman as a stimulus. Students are taught how to build up a devised performance. Each week students are given a new scene and performance style or convention to add to their piece.

Students learn about Commedia Dell ‘Arte as a performance style within the history of theatre. Students perform the stock characters using both written scenarios and scripts. Students workshop the use of masks.

Macbeth

Students learn about Jacobean theatre.

Students will explore the witches’ scenes, learning about Indonesian shadow puppets and creating their own. They use lighting to create atmosphere.

Students explore specific scenes from the text. Each lesson students perform a different scene, incorporating different performance styles as well as adding  sound / soundscapes into their scenes

Students learn about archetypal characters, different genres, and silent movies. Students film their own silent movies in their chosen genre in front of a green screen.

Further exploration of Drama techniques which will be developed throughout the year. Scenarios, improvisation, and scripts are used to help demonstrate students’ understanding of the techniques and how to apply them within a GCSE level text.

Students are exploring documentary and verbatim theatre. They are guided to build up a documentary-style devised performance. Students are given a factual stimulus to use to create new scene. They use different performance styles or conventions to add to their piece.

Students explore Face by Benjamin Zephaniah. Selected scenes are explored such as prologue and chorus/ensemble work. Students explore the use of masks to portray multiple characters.

Romeo and Juliet

Students explore gangs, as a theme. Students learn about using animal studies to create believable characters. Students perform specific scenes using their knowledge of animal characteristics.

Students explore Blackout by Davey Anderson. Each lesson students are given a different part of the monologue as a starting point. Students create “off script” performances, exploring the social issues raised in the monologue.

Students learn about naturalism and how this evolved into realism. Students learn about Stanislavski as a practitioner and how to apply his methods of acting, using a GCSE level text.