The Exam

The Exam - One step at a time

Component Three

Lesson One - Know your enemy Exam Paper Familiarity: Under pressure our brains do funny things, knowing exactly where you are going and what you are doing will prevent those slip ups!

Which Questions?

Question 7 - The Government Inspector

45 marks

(1 hour 7 minutes 30 seconds)

Question 9 - Live theatre 15 marks

(22 minutes 30 seconds)

Question 7 - In detail Question 7 is divided into several parts, but they are all based on ‘The Government Inspector’ The parts are: 7a (i) 4 marks 7a (ii) 6 marks 7b (i) 9 marks 7b (ii) 12 marks 7c 14 marks

Common Questions

- from students

Do I have to go looking for it?

Can I take the play text (my book) into the exam?

Do I have to answer all the parts of the question?

Is it about the whole play?

What is the extract?

Where will I find the extract?

Where do I write my answers?

How long is the paper?

How did you work out the timings?

Lesson Two - 7a (i) & (ii) Question 7a asks you to answer as a performer.

Both parts ask you to refer to the extract.

The questions expect you to be able to confidently describe how you would apply performance skills to deliver meaning and character in a given part of the play.

7A - Knowledge Needs To succeed you need: • Secure knowledge of the whole play.

• A detailed understanding of ALL the characters.

• An awareness of the plot and key moments.

• A clear idea on how to play the roles.

• FULL awareness of what the performance skills are and how to use them.

• A writing structure for your answers.

• Experience at answering these questions quickly, accurately and effectively.

7a (i)&(ii) - Writing Structures HOW?

HOW

WHAT?

Moving to step two, you must give a detailed description of how you will use your chosen technique in the extract.

This is probably the smallest and simplest section.

Simply introduce your chosen technique.

WHAT

WHY

WHY?

This part must link to the audience response to the character. It is your time to prove that your choice will work.

What-How-Why? In practice

WHAT?

HOW?

WHY?

I would use proxemics to communicate my character in this extract.

I would ensure that my character always placed himself inappropriately close to the other characters. This would be done behind their backs in the first instance and then held even when they realise and start to show their discomfort. I would aim to have one point of contact with the characters I engage with.

The character is very socially awkward throughout the play, but this extract is where we first meet them and it is important to establish their peculiarity from the outset. The close proxemics create a strong visual impact for the audience straight away and create a sense of a very odd and unnerving character.

The What & How are worth 1 mark One complete WHW is worth 2 marks.

WHW - Simple Mathematics If 1x WHW is worth 2 marks ( 1WHW=2 ), then:

2WHW = 4 7a (i)

& &

3WHW = 6 7a (ii)

So, in total, you need to write five What, How, Why? Responses to complete section 7a!

Key words and phrases...

WHAT?

Performance Skills!, I would use/apply/employ‌. In this extract

HOW?

Ensure, block, set, locate, move, upstage, downstage, immediately next to, eyes wide, mouth open, eyebrows up/down, frantic, frenetic, slow, languid, lackadaisical,

WHY?

In order to‌. Audience, understanding, identify, character, extract, engage, present, create a sense of, communicate

Common Mistakes

-

Where did they go wrong?

“I will use proxemics this uses distance to show the audience relationships.”

“I will use facial expressions in the extract, I will have a happy face to show my character is happy.”

“I will shout a lot to show the audience I am an angry character.”

7a (i) - Your Turn!

You have been given an extract from the end of the play, in which the Mayor realises that Hlestakov was not the real Inspector.

You are playing the Mayor. Explain two ways you would use vocal skills to play this character in this extract.

4 marks (6 minutes)

Peer Assessed Learning One of the greatest ways to improve is to mark the work of someone else.

Exchange your response with someone else and read through to see how you would score it.

4/4 - Perfect, detailed - a joy to read.

3/4 - A very good response which gives two good choices, but lacks completeness in detail or justification.

2/4 - A response which may simply state examples with little detail or development.

1/4 - A basic response which misses the point.

Question Time At this point, before we continue, take a moment to actually ask those questions you have.

If we can’t answer them straight away, we will come back to you with the answer - but if we don’t know you have questions - we can’t help…

Now prepare for 7a (ii).....

7a (ii) - Your Turn!

You have been given an extract in which the Mayor meets Hlestakov for the first time.

You are playing Hlestakov, he slowly understands the situation and opportunity. Explain three ways you would use non-verbal skills to play this character in this extract.

6 marks (9 minutes)

Self Assessed Learning Time to try something challenging… imagine you are a total stranger somewhere miles away from Penrith.

Good… now imagine you’ve had a really bad day…

Now imagine how much worse it has been made by marking exams….

Now look at your work… ….and mark yourself out of 6….

Can we leave 7a?

Hopefully you feel comfortable with the demands of the question and have learned how to answer quickly and effectively.

Now is your chance to make sure that any gaps in your knowledge or understanding are known.

Lesson Three - 7b (i) & (ii) Question 7b asks you to answer as a director.

Both parts ask you to refer to the extract with clear reference to the context of the play and the whole play!

The questions expect you to be able to confidently describe how you would apply performance & production skills to bring the play to life on stage.

7B - Knowledge Needs To succeed you need: • A concept for the whole play.

• A detailed understanding of ALL the characters.

• An awareness of the plot and key moments.

• A clear idea on how to play the roles.

• FULL awareness of what the production & performance skills are and how to use them.

• A writing structure for your answers.

• Experience at answering these questions quickly, accurately and effectively.

The Concept and Visioning Visioning is the process by which we imagine a story in our head (normally as we read it). In theatre this involves a longer process as we refine that idea to ensure it works for the whole play (for example that a stage set can adapt to different scenes and locations).

You need to have a complete visioned version of the play in your head! This is known as your concept.

Why do I need a concept?

7b) asks for you to be a director - this means you have to answer about the look of the whole stage, not just the acting.

If you imagine a desk, you also then need to imagine it being used, imagine it being moved on and off to show different locations and so on.

If you imagine it - you also have to know how characters work with it.

Give me an example… Sets

Lighting

Applying your concept to score points From the images you have just seen you can understand how the production elements add to the communication of a story.

To score marks, you need to be able to talk about your ideas intelligently, adding value by considering areas such as symbolism, connotation and intentions for the audience.

Let’s take another look at Kevin Treacy’s design...

Spot the symbolism...

What can you see in this image?

7b (i) & (ii) - Writing Structures Having a better understanding of what might be involved in answering these questions it’s time to look at the structure.

M ethod D escription I ntention/impact C ontext

MDIC Structure explained.

1

Description Give a detailed account of exactly how you will use and apply the chosen element on stage.

2

Impact/Intention 3

Context Finally, conclude your MDIC by justifying your choices in terms of the context of the play and its performance both past and present.

Method Introduce the specific element that you will be covering.

4

Describe what it is that you intend for the chosen element to do to the audience. How will it support their understanding?

MDIC - In practice To explore this in practice, we will work on props/stage furniture and refer to an existing design.

MDIC - Focus - ‘filing cabinets’ Method Description Intention/ Impact

Context

I would use two large filing cabinets like pillars centre stage to support audience understanding in this extract.

The two large pillars would have some of the drawers slightly ajar with papers spilling out. They would tower over the actors on stage, being several feet taller and made of a plain wood finish. The papers spilling out would be disorganised, some crumpled and far from organised.

The two filing cabinets would symbolise the bureaucracy of the Mayor’s existence and its disorganised and dishevelled appearance would suggest his lack of care for his duties. Their size would communicate a sense of how large a burden the work is and the wood finish would show how the town is not wealthy.

It is important to do this as, whilst props and scenery would have been limited in the original performance in 1837, they provide support for the contextual setting of the play. .

Lesson Three - 7c The final question is one in which we need to take what we learnt from 7a & 7b and combine them.

The structure for response is essentially that of 7a (What, How, Why). BUT.. we need to show the same level of awareness as in 7b.

The question always comes from the perspective of the designer - you need to get comfortable with at least two forms of design.

Designing The question will probably have three foci for designers and we would expect those to include: • Lighting • Set • Costume Choosing two removes the potential crisis of having one removed.

Design Preparation You will remember earlier that we considered the need for a concept. The creation of an imagined treatment for how you would put the play on.

This is another area where this is essential.

You must have some good ideas in place so that you can read the section and instantly have a visualised version of it in your head.

Question Focus Remember - the question asks us to discuss the extract so that must be our first focus. It will of course be true that some design aspects are important to the whole play and identifying this will possibly score points - BUT - don’t spend all your time on the whole play, remember the extract!

Answering the Question Having identified the extract and ‘visualised’ the action in our heads we can start writing the response.

Be logical - work from the top down or the beginning to the end. What this means is, if there is something really significant or important - deal with that first (e.g. the letter). This is top down.

If there is nothing overly significant work your way through as quickly as possible, but try to discuss aspects that also travel through the scene.

I’m sorry… what do you mean?!

Let’s take an example: Suppose you were considering costume.

The costume will be there all the way through the extract.

Can you use it all the way through?

For example, can a character slowly take off more and more as they get more stressed?

Could their tie get progressively tighter or looser? Their shirt more or less untucked? How can it show their mental state or journey through the extract?

Is that it?

Frankly, yes. Use the same structure as 7a:

WHAT - HOW - WHY? Work Top Down OR Beginning to End. Refer to the extract and audience response.

Try to make examples apply to the whole extract rather than isolated moments.

Alright - but how many?

This is a simple matter of time. You have 21 minutes for this question. Write about as many as you can in that time.

If there is time at the end - come back.

If you have overrun at this point - leave it and try to come back.

Lesson Five - Question 9 Question 9 focusses on your ability to watch theatre and understand how it works.

You then need to demonstrate this knowledge by writing analytically about the performance you went to see.

For this, you will need extensive notes from the production.