N E W S L E T T E R SEPTEMBER 2010 2010-2013 Syllabus The Irish Board of Speech and Drama is delighted to introduce its new 3-year Syllabus, effective from 1 September 2010. In addition to containing exam requirements, the Syllabus also has a lot of information about what our examiners look for from candidates, our regulations, how to organise exams and what you need to do on exam day. There is also, on p6, a very useful overview of why speech, drama and communications is so important. Fees for 2010-11 are printed on a separate sheet enclosed with the Syllabus and also available on www.irishboard.
Entry Forms Entry Forms are also enclosed with your syllabus. You may photocopy them if you wish. All Entry Forms are also available on www.irishboard.ie. Otherwise, phone or email us and we’ll be more than happy to post you a supply. Entry Forms must be submitted in relation to each exam centre. They really make our job a lot easier and minimise the possibility of mistakes and misunderstandings being made. We need to receive them and your fees not less than one month before the proposed date of your exams.
Advance Notice The more notice you can give us of your proposed exam date(s) the better. As soon as you’ve set a date (and have checked it against schools calendars/ Communion and Confirmation dates), please contact us, even if it’s three or four months in advance.
In Grade 3 we require the candidate to explain the simple pause and demonstrate where a sense pause and a breath pause were taken in the recited poem. Most of the other changes simply make it clear that reading, mime, improvisation and musical theatre selections should be introduced. A simple introduction is all that’s necessary to create the context for the examiner.
dramabooks.ie An exciting new one-stop online shop for our publications www.dramabooks.ie was launched in August. On www. dramabooks.ie you will find all our publications and CDs – short plays, monologues, duologues, teachers’ handbooks, theory books, Movement to Music and Theory CDs. We are able to provide a lot more information about the contents of the books online than we ever were in a printed catalogue. Please drop in browse.
Syllabus Changes Teachers like our exams. They like that they can choose poems and pieces themselves, that they are practical, age appropriate and provide for plenty of choice, and that they make sense. We’ve made very few changes to the Syllabus, with the exception of the Musical Theatre syllabus which has had a major overhaul. Most changes have been made to clarify what is required from candidates or to iron out ambiguities. Two important changes (again more by way of clarification rather than substance) have been made in Grades 2 and 3 of the Grade exams: Grade 2 now requires the candidate to describe the illustration, as an introduction to the discussion with the examiner.
Pay Exam Fees Online You can now pay your exam fees online with your credit card on www.irishboard.ie.
Acting Performance Exams On p9 of the Syllabus, we outline what our examiners are looking for in Drama, Mime and Improvisation. It is important in Acting Performance exams for candidates to show that they can MOVE and GESTURE appropriately. Please choose pieces in which ALL of the skills of acting can be demonstrated. An absence of movement and gesture is likely to result in a significant reduction in marks.
Irish Board of Speech and Drama, D11 Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 Tel: 01 216 4270 E-mail: mail@irishboard.ie
N EWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2010
Musical Theatre Exams
Irish Board Resource Centre
With High School Musical, Hairspray, Legally Blonde and now Glee, Musical Theatre has exploded in popularity in the last few years with many more speech, drama and communications teachers offering it to their students. We’ve offered exams in MT for the last three years and have been delighted with the response. This year we have revised our MT syllabus to provide more focus and structure and to provide for a better progression through the grades (see p26-28). As before, we offer MT exams for Solos, Duologues and Groups. Candidates achieving 85% or more in solo and duologue exams receive a gold Irish Board of Speech and Drama Acting medal. We have also introduced a MT Diploma – the Diploma of Associate in Musical Theatre Performance. This exam will provide those with excellent technical and interpretive skills to further explore the genre (see p37 of the Syllabus)
Please do visit the office. We’d love to see you, make you coffee and offer you our biscuits. We have over 500 books on poetry, mime, stage direction, the voice, drama, public speaking and so on. Our library catalogue is on www.irishboard.ie. Just contact us before you come to make sure we’ll be here. While we can’t lend out books, you are free to browse. There’s a map showing where we are, on our web site and you can download written directions from there too.
Examination Regulations In the Irish Board we try to keep the rules and bureaucracy to a minimum. Some rules are necessary to enable us to be as flexible as we are in relation to dates and other matters. Our Examination Regulations are on p11 of the Syllabus. Please read them carefully.
IDAC IDAC (the Institute of Drama and Communication) is the association of speech, drama and communication teachers in Ireland. IDAC holds about 4 workshops a year, a festival of Speech & Drama, and numerous other events all aimed at keeping teachers up to date with happenings in the field of Speech, Drama and Communication. If you work in the field of Speech, Drama and Communication, IDAC is a useful organisation to join. IDAC members benefit from discount insurance, workshops with personalised notes aimed at class room environments and, best of all, general help and advice for teachers. Previous workshops have been facilitated by James Dodding, Tom Doherty, Siobhan Parkinson, Eric Weitz, Jonathan Neelands and Betty Ann Norton, with recitals by Paula Meehan and a host of others. For further information visit www.idac.ie.
Diploma Examination Dates The November 2010 Diploma session will take place on Sunday 28 November 2010 in the Stillorgan Park Hotel and the June 2011 session on Sunday 12 June 2011.
Diploma Examinations In our 2010-13 Syllabus we provide a lot more information and guidance to candidates and their teachers in relation to what they are required to study and know for their exams, especially the written ones. The full range of our Diploma Exams can be found from p36 of the Syllabus. They are: • • • • •
Diploma of Associate in Acting Performance (formerly Acting Diploma) Diploma of Associate ion Musical Theatre Performance Diploma of Associate (Teaching) Diploma of Licentiate (Teaching Diploma) Fellowship
Visit www.irishboard.ie On www.irishboard.ie, you’ll find the Syllabus, Entry Forms, Fees, free Theory Books, Lyric poem suggestions, Diploma past papers, and links to other resources. We will shortly be amalgamating our popular resources blog with our main site so keep in touch.
Talk to Us If you have any questions at all or are looking for advice on any of our exams, please don’t hesitate to contact us by phone or email (see below).
Find Us Online The Irish Board of Speech and Drama is also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Follow the links from www.irishboard.ie
Sample exam papers from previous years’ Associate and Licentiate exams are available from www.irishboard.ie
Irish Board of Speech and Drama, D11 Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 Tel: 01 216 4270 E-mail: mail@irishboard.ie