A2 Drama and Theatre Studies: the Essential Introduction for Edexcel

A2 Drama and Theatre Studies: The Essential Introduction for Edexcel

A2 Drama and Theatre Studies: The Essential Introduction for Edexcel builds on the skills developed during the AS year to provide clear and informative guidance to Units 3 and 4 of the speciﬁcation. The textbook provides further information on rehearsing, performing, directing and textual analysis, together with new material on deconstructing a script, devising theatre and preparing for the ﬁnal examination. Features of the text include:

• overviews of speciﬁcation and assessment requirements; • written and practical exercises; • a glossary of useful words and terms; • in-depth analysis of the three key plays – Dr Faustus, Lysistrata and Woyzeck; • extension exercises to stretch the more able student; • worked examples to illustrate best practice; • sources for further study; • advice on study after A level.

Written by a senior examiner and a principal moderator, this book and its companion volume for AS level offer informed and supportive exercises to ensure that students reach their maximum potential in achieving A level success.

Alan Perks is a senior examiner. He works regularly with students and teachers across the key stages on individual projects and long-term drama strategies. He also teaches across the age ranges, including the A level course, part-time in a school in Derbyshire.

Jacqueline Porteous is a Principal Moderator with over 20 years of teach- ing experience in the discipline. She teaches the A level course and leads a Performing Arts Faculty. This material has been endorsed by Edexcel and offers high quality support for the delivery of Edexcel qualifications. Edexcel endorsement does not mean that this material is essential to achieve any Edexcel qualiﬁcation, nor does it mean that this is the only suitable material available to support any Edexcel qualiﬁcation. No endorsed material will be used verbatim in setting any Edexcel examination and any resource lists produced by Edexcel shall include this and other appropriate texts. While this material has been through an Edexcel quality assurance process, all responsibility for the content remains with the publisher.

Copies of official specifications for all Edexcel qualifications may be found on the Edexcel website: www.edexcel.org.uk A2 Drama and Theatre Studies: The Essential Introduction for Edexcel

ALAN PERKS AND JACQUELINE PORTEOUS First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Alan Perks and Jacqueline Porteous All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Perks, Alan, 1956– A2 drama and theatre studies : the essential introduction for Edexcel / by Alan Perks and Jacqueline Porteous. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978–0–415–43658–8 (hb : alk. paper) – ISBN 978–0–415–43659–5 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Theater. 2. Theater–Production and direction. 3. Drama. I. Porteous, Jacqueline, 1961– II. Edexcel (Organization) III. Title. PN2037.P44 2009 792.071–dc22 2008013906

ISBN 0-203-86701-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0–415–43660–5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–43661–3 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–87119–7 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–43660–1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–43661–8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–86701–3 (ebk) Contents

List of illustrations vii Acknowledgements viii

PART I: GETTING STARTED WITH THE A2 YEAR 1

1 Introduction 3 2 Making good use of this textbook 6 3 Theatrical timeline 15 4 Two golden rules 18 5 Who are they? Examiners and moderators unmasked 20 6 A ﬁnal few words before you get started 22

PART II: OVERVIEW OF UNIT 3 23

7 Research and exploration 27 8 Development and structure 38 9 Performance 47 10 Evaluation 52 11 The Supporting Written Evidence Document (SWED) 58

PART III: OVERVIEW OF UNIT 4 63

12 The demands of section A 84 13 The demands of section B 100 14 Exploring interpretations for section B 111 15 The texts for section A and section B 116 16 The role of director in section A and section B 120 17 Annotating the text 128 18 The demands of section C 131 19 The historical periods 146 vi contents

20 Theatre evaluation 152 21 Deconstructing the questions 158

Conclusion: drawing the course together 160 Appendix 1: drama school or drama degree? 163 Appendix 2: useful websites 165 Appendix 3: further reading and suggested viewing 169 Glossary of useful words and phrases 173 Index 178 Illustrations

2.1 The Globe Theatre 14 4.1 Use the word-count facility on your computer 19 II.1 The three possible routes for Unit 3 26 7.1 The library will be able to help you ﬁnd books and resources 28 7.2 Can you tell the difference between a SWED and a SWEDE? 29 7.3 Keeping a notebook is a key tool for drama research 29 7.4 Medals 31 7.5 Remembrance Poppies at Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium 32 7.6 A WAAC’s call-up papers and travel documents 33 III.1 Claire Higgins in Hecuba by Euripides at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009 75 III.2 Zoe Wannamaker in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre in 2008 79 18.1 Joanna Lumley and Annabel Scholey in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Shefﬁeld Crucible in 2007 132 Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Drama Department and Drama students at The Ecclesbourne School, Derbyshire, for all their creativity and hard work, with particular reference to the class of 2008, the class of 2009, Jade Richards and Monty Till. Thanks also to Edexcel for endorsing the book, and to the many drama teachers and students who have shared their thoughts with us along the way. Thanks to Ruth Williams and her students at Bishop Gore School, Swansea for permission to reproduce extracts from theatre evaluations. A word of thanks, again, for those who have quietly supported from a distance with a cup of coffee or glass of wine, and to our respective four- legged friends for regularly reminding us when it was time for a walk. The authors and publishers would also like to thank the following for their kind permissions:

• Chris Webb for the cover image from a production of Hetty’s Dream by Tony Jones and Tom Elston • Guardian News & Media Ltd for permission to reproduce ‘When Travesty becomes Tragedy’, by Duncan Campbell • Alena Melichar for permission to reproduce the image from Hecuba. • Catherine Ashmore for permission to reproduce images of Much Ado about Nothing and The Cherry Orchard. GETTING STARTED PART I WITH THE A2 YEAR

1 Introduction

It is always good to know where we are coming from at the start of a new academic year, and one of the first things we need to do is to re-establish very quickly what we understand by drama and theatre in relation to this A2 year of the course. As a starting point for the AS year, we felt that this was useful for students just so that we all know what to expect from the A2 year. It could be that it is even more relevant now as we head into the second, and final, pair of units of the course. In broad terms therefore, drama is mainly concerned with the process of exploring and is about using a range of techniques to access the given material, often in workshop activities, and theatre is about engaging an audience through a range of performance techniques and elements following a period of preparation and rehearsal. The Edexcel GCE Drama and Theatre Studies Specification states that:

The A2 year requires you to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• At least two more published plays of which one must be pre- twentieth century. • The connections between theory and practice demonstrated through a range of forms, genres and performance styles. • The directorial overview required in the interpretation and realisa- tion of a theatrical performance. • How relevant research supports practical work.

As an A2 student it is expected that you will develop:

• A more advanced level of performance and/or production skills. • The ability to think independently, make judgements and reﬁne your work in the light of research. • The ability to analyse the ways in which different performance and production elements are brought together to create theatre. 4 getting started with the A2 year

How do we go about it then, building on the skills that were developed in the AS year? The important thing to remember is that you have chosen to continue with Drama and Theatre Studies and you will have had a good reason for doing so. It may be that your AS year produced results that encouraged you to continue. It may be that it was always your intention to take the course through to the end of the A2 year. Whatever your particular circumstances, it is worth your while having another look around you at the start of this phase of the course. All the other people in the room will have good reasons for being there too – perhaps the same as yours, perhaps not, but think about this:

Once again, you are all in this together.

Those people sitting around you are going to continue to support you in getting the grade you want from this course, building on your achievements in the AS year, and you will be doing the same for them. We stated in the Introduction to the AS book that this course is about you being part of a group, actively engaged in a range of activities. Having completed Units 1 and 2 you will be fully aware of what we meant by this, and the fact that you are still here is an indication of how effectively you were able to contribute to the group’s success in the AS year and, for you, how much you were supported by others in exactly the same way. You are much more on your own in the A2 year with Unit 3, making demands on you and your group for which your teacher can only guide you, not tell you what to do. This may sound like something of a relief – we all enjoy independence and being able to make important decisions about our work without being unduly pressured to take the work in a direction we do not want to take it. With this independence comes responsibility, however, for you to ensure that every person in your group is able to access the marks available for this unit. It has to be said right from the start, and very clearly, that there is abso- lutely no point in continuing with this course if you are going to find it difficult to work with others, without the close supervision or guidance of your teacher. If you think this is going to be the case, then you need to consider your position within the group very carefully. Your teacher will, of course, have an input and not allow you to go completely off the rails with Unit 3, and will probably have more of a direct input into your preparation for the written examination that is Unit 4, but he or she is not allowed to direct your work for performance in the A2 year. Should you decide to continue – and we hope you do – then the good news is that the A2 year is more about you and your ideas than the AS year. You will not have achieved what you have to date working in isolation. This course is about you in relation to others and nobody in the room around introduction 5 you can succeed without you all working together and getting to grips with the demands of the two units that will complete your A level study. Look at your achievements to date, either in terms of UMS scores or grades – or a combination of both. Whatever points you have accrued cannot be taken away from you; that is your starting point for the A2 year and it is already effectively ‘banked’ for you to build on in this second half of the course. Everything that you have been part of in the AS year will directly impact on your contributions to the A2 year; nothing should be ignored or forgotten. You will have developed skills that you can now use in taking your experiences as an individual to the required level in order for you to be able to access the higher marks in both of the A2 units. There is no point looking back and resting on your laurels; you have to see the AS year as the starting point that will take you into the demands of the A2 year. It may be a good idea to work with a partner early on in the new academic year and list the skills you think you have now acquired that may be of use when looking into the new year. Keep the list in your notebook or, if this is a class activity, keep it in a ﬂipchart for you to refer back to when you feel as though Unit 3 is stalling and you are struggling for ideas about how you might be able to take it forward. It is not enough to have done well in the AS year and to expect those points already accumulated to grow by themselves. What you need to do now is to be focused and to keep questioning to ﬁnd new ways of extending and developing your knowledge of theatre and performance, and your place within that in relation to the full A level. We hope you will continue to be challenged by the course and by the demands of the A2 year and that you will rise to the challenge, pushing yourself harder in order to achieve more. Some things about the A2 year will be more straightforward than others, and some activities will engage you more effectively, but, at every stage, you need to be looking to focus on the task, to be clear about what you need to do and to get on with it. You will be largely responsible for Unit 3 with your teacher guiding you but your teacher may lead you more when it comes to looking at the demands of Unit 4. We hope this textbook will help you in the structuring of your work.