GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies

1. GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies

2. GCSE DRAMA REHEARSAL STRATEGIES Introduction Role-play Soundscaping Cross-Cutting Split-screen Flashback Forum Theatre Still Image Hot-Seating Tableau Thought-Tracking Marking The Moment Conclusion Narrating

3. GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal strategies During your GCSE Drama course you will use a number of techniques to explore issues and characters in drama. You will learn to create characters of your own too. By using different rehearsal strategies and techniques, you will follow in the steps of professional actors and directors.

4. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA When you consider exploring techniques for devising and rehearsing plays, you will find many strategies that will assist you in your rehearsals. Different techniques will be used during the course and we are going to consider some that you may come across whilst working with your drama teacher.

5. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA You will need to consider many aspects of drama; Space Roles Technology Your audience are just the initial items that will need to be on your list when you begin to plan a production.

6. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA The important thing to remember during your GCSE drama course is that you will adopt a variety of strategies in order to arrive at the end product of a production.

7. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA You will also spend time discussing: Vocal effects Breathing Movement Understanding a character Exploring the meaning of the drama in groups

8. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Of paramount importance is using explorative strategies to create drama. Drama does not just happen. Remember, months of hard work goes into professional productions. A great deal of thought and discussion goes into a final production. One person is not responsible for the production. It really is a team effort.

9. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Working with other people in a co-operative manner is all part of a GCSE Drama course. You will have many ideas that you will want to share with others; they too will have ideas that they want to share with you. Engaging in many of the rehearsal strategies that we shall be discussing will enable you to explore situations and to decide on the best techniques for presentation.

10. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Professional actors and directors adopt many of these strategies when first working together on a production. When you write about your work, you will be expected to include these strategies in your explanations to show how you explored a character or scene and how the production was devised through these strategies.

11. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA By using these techniques, you should be able to explain how your understanding was enhanced of a character, situation or a performance skill. You need to remember though that the technique you use must be there for specific reasons. You will not be able to use them all at once!

12. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Cross-Cutting Cross-cutting allows you to look at a scene from different perspectives. In other words, you can take a scene or a number of scenes and re-order them so that they take place in a different order to the one that the playwright had anticipated. You can ‘cut’ backwards and forwards to different moments of the drama.

13. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Cross-Cutting By using cross-cutting you can explain to the audience why things happened and what the reasons were for characters to act in a particular way.

14. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Cross-Cutting By moving backwards and forwards through time, you can make the action more poignant for the audience. A funeral scene, for example, can take place before a scene where the deceased person is still alive, making plans for the future and enjoying himself.

15. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Cross-Cutting Many drama productions take place in a linear timeline. In other words, time on the stage is like everyday time. It is sequential. However, this can make drama predictable. By changing the timeline and taking scenes out of order, the action can be broken up.

16. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Cross-Cutting In this way, the audience may be aware of the significance of what a character says or does, whereas the character may seem oblivious to it.

17. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Flashback By using flashback, you present a scene to your audience that is out of sync with time. You literally ‘flash’ back to the past.

18. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Flashback By using flashback, you can communicate a story or information about a character to your audience in order to clarify the plot or the character’s actions for them. Flashback helps the audience to understand the present.

19. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Flashback Just as you can use flashback to take the action backwards, you can also use flashforward in the same way to take the action forward in time to enhance tension.

20. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Forum theatre Forum theatre is a rehearsal technique that can be used as you are rehearsing a scene. The actors act out the scene, watched by a group of observers. At any time during the rehearsal, the actors who are participating or the observers who are watching the scene can stop the action and interrupt.

21. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Forum theatre Actors or observers can make suggestions about how things could be tackled differently. Someone else might even take over a role and suggest other possibilities of how to present that role.

22. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Forum theatre The whole idea of forum theatre is to share ideas for the common good of the production. By using other people to shift the focus of the scene or to suggest alternative actions, the scene may be considerably improved. If the person who makes the suggestion takes on the role too to show exactly what they mean, this can be helpful.

23. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Forum theatre When undertaking forum theatre, you need to accept that others may have very good ideas. Just because they interrupt you, does not mean that full scale arguments should break out! You have to accept that this is a strategy to improve the overall production not to have a dig at you personally. This is not the moment for sulky temper tantrums.

24. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Hot-seating Hot-seating is a technique to deepen the actor’s understanding of a character and the role of that character.

25. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Hot-seating This is a group technique where the actor playing a role sits in the ‘hot seat’ and is questioned by other members of the group. That actor has to answer the questions in the spirit of the character that he/she is playing.

26. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Hot-seating By using this technique, the actor can begin to deepen his/her understanding of the character. The character becomes more believable to the actor as he/she discusses issues in the role of the character.

27. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment When you have created a piece of drama, you, your fellow actors and the director may decide that there is a moment in the action that is of particular significance.

28. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment It may be that the moment represents a particular significance for that character. It could also be that that moment sheds light on much of the action that has taken place up until that moment.

29. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment Or that moment may evoke certain strong feelings in a character. To ‘mark that moment’ as a special moment in the play, a particular technique may be used.

30. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment The action might be ‘frozen’ at that moment so every one stands completely still on the stage.

31. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment A spotlight might be used on one character to highlight them.

32. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment By marking this moment, the actors send a clear message to the audience that this is a particularly important moment.

33. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Marking The Moment Inner thoughts might be spoken out loud. This is known as self-narrating.

34. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Narrating Narrating is a spoken commentary that accompanies the action that is taking place on the stage. It can be spoken by a character or even a number of characters. It can also be spoken by a ‘narrator’ who is standing on the sidelines and is not part of the action.

35. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Narrating Narrating is useful for informing the audience about the action in a more neutral way than if the character narrated the story personally. It reveals part of the plot to the audience in a way that the character cannot do.

36. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Narrating A letter or a diary could be read, for example, so that the audience has more information on the action. Narrating can take place during a scene or between scenes.

37. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Narrating Narrating can provide background information that it would be difficult to act out or to bring into the plot in any other way.

38. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Narrating Be wary though of too much narration. Audiences will not want to sit listening to large chunks of narration – they prefer to see action and interaction between characters. The narrator has to be interesting for the audience and has to have something really worthwhile to say.

39. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Role-Play Role-play is another strategy which allows an actor to deepen his/her understanding of the character.

40. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Role-Play The actor pretends to be someone else and takes on their role completely. By putting themselves in the role of a character, the actor imagines exactly what that character thinks, feels, believes, and how they would act in a certain situation.

41. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Role-Play Role-play is important if you are going to make your audience believe completely that you are the character. By using your imagination as to what it is like to be that character, you will persuade your audience that you are that character. Every production you will take part in will involve some sort of role-play.

42. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Soundscaping Soundscaping is used to create the sounds and atmosphere of a particular moment. The actor will use his/her voice and body to capture the sounds associated with the atmosphere of a situation or place.

43. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Split-screen Split-screen is just that. You divide the stage into two and one part of the stage shows one scene; the other part shows a different scene. In this way, the audience gains two different perspectives on a situation.

44. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Split-screen So, for example, the parents of a teenager could be on one side of the stage explaining a situation from their point of view. Their daughter could be on the other side of the stage explaining what should be the same situation to her friends. The content of the speeches and the understanding of the different characters may, however, be totally different.

45. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Split-screen Split-screen is effective when one scene freezes and the action moves back to the other scene.

46. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Still image A still image can be thought of just like a photograph. One person in the group takes responsibility for positioning individuals in the group into a tableau so they are standing as a group in complete stillness. That one person is acting like a sculptor in forming the image of the scene.

47. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Still image The group as a unit make up an image – so, for example, there may be six people on stage and by stopping the action for a moment, the audience can be allowed to look at the actors’ facial expressions and body language in more detail than usual.

48. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Still image In a panic situation or a situation of high tension, the audience would be able to see the fear or horror on the faces of the actors. They could also examine the gestures that the actors are in the middle of making. The image is a group situation but the audience can examine the whole situation in minute detail.

49. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Tableau Tableau is another word for freeze-frame or still image. Tableau is the word for ‘painting’ in French and that is exactly what it is on the stage.

50. Rehearsal strategies GCSE DRAMA Tableau The actors adopt a pose and freeze, just as if they were in a painting or a photograph. Tableaux (the plural is tableaux) can be linked to the next strategy that we are about to consider, ‘thought-tracking’.