Year 10 Drama

Subject Overview

Term 1
Term 1 is focussed on a short performance, taken from the play Alice in Wonderland adapted by Simon Reade. After spending the first part of the term developing drama techniques of voice, body, movement and space; and creating a deeper understanding of staged theatre, students work together in small groups to recreate a scene from this play. Students consider what the writer tells us, and how to find clues in the text.

From the costume room, the students are responsible for finding props and costumes that appropriately represent and accentuate their roles. They become comfortable around their peers and build working relationships that will help them become more confident when they later perform in front of an audience, improving their acting, directing and stage skills.

Assessment: Alice in Wonderland scenes

Term 2
At the end of Term 1 through to the end of Term 2 students focus their attention on their Y10 Production. They read through the script and are encouraged in open discussion regarding the intention of the playwright; and then go through an audition process to decide their role. Students have the opportunity to help both on stage and backstage.

The term is spent learning lines, working on characterisation, blocking, and rehearsing. This culminates in a one night performance in front of an invited audience – using set, our recently refurbished lighting, props and costumes.

The Y10 production encourages students to see the role performance has in creating a dialogue between the actors and the audience and enhances planning skills as students research their character and collate props and costumes; along with considering lighting and set design.

Assessment: Y10 Production

Term 3
At the end of Term 2 and beginning of Term 3 the students begin their Melodrama study.

The students are introduced to different techniques used in melodrama and conduct their own study into the theatre form. They learn the historic significance of Melodrama including how it developed with different social movements and how it links to theatre, and even pop culture, today. They share their findings with the class, and help each other to understand the form, guided by the teacher. They are given a script they are unfamiliar with and in small groups work to perform a role from this. They solidify their past introduction into script interpretation, understanding dialogue cues and stage cues and how they affect their characters performance.

They perform their roles in front of the class and are encouraged to observe with the intention of noting what techniques were effective in each performance to encourage them to continue to amplify their own technique.

Assessment: Perform a Melodrama

Term 4
Students begin the term by delving into our Shakespeare unit. We read one of Shakespeare’s renowned plays, working on interpretation and the explication of characters, as well as the impact of Shakespearean theatre in other countries and the relationship to modern theatre. The students choose a scene, and work in groups to re-enact this.

Finally, we end the term with our screen acting unit, where we consider the difference between screen acting and stage acting. This will encourage the students to improve their interpersonal communication as they grow awareness of physical, verbal, or behavioural cues. The students create a short film of their own devising, introducing them to the creative side of script writing, and allowing them to see their ideas come to life, and to take a turn directing scenes and performances of their peers.

Assessment: Shakespeare scene performance