drama l2 internal assessment resource - te kete...

Internal assessment resource reference number: Drama/2/2_B5PAGE FOR TEACHER USE

2011

Internal Assessment Resource

Subject Reference: Drama 2.2

Internal assessment resource reference number:Drama/2/2_B5

We did it our way

Supports internal assessment for:

Achievement Standard: 90300 v2Apply drama techniques in a group within a scripted context

Credits 3

Date version published: January 2011

Ministry of Education For use in internal assessmentquality assurance status: from 2011

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Teacher Guidelines:The following guidelines are supplied to enable teachers to carry out valid and consistent assessment procedures using this internal assessment resource.

Context/Setting:This exercise requires students to work in pairs, or groups of three, to apply and combine voice, body, movement and use of space to interpret and present a script.

Students should be introduced to the concepts of voice, body, movement and use of space and provided with opportunities for exploration. See Appendix B.

Conditions:It is anticipated that the pre-teaching and assessment activity would take place over four weeks.

Students will be expected to complete some of their work out of class. They will present their work to the class. Each student should complete their portfolio satisfactorily, stating a clear interpretation of script and justifying how selected techniques combine to communicate this interpretation. This documentation may be in the form of an annotated script or through other means of presentation, such as charts or oral presentation.

For assessment, students need to “develop their own interpretation and independently select appropriate techniques” (Explanatory Note 10). This means that teachers or other student directors are not permitted to direct the students in this work. Teachers may act in a mentor role, facilitating student awareness of choices made.

Resource Requirements:It is suggested that set, costume and props be kept to a minimum because it is the students’ use of drama techniques to interpret and present interactive scripted script that is being assessed. They will also need a suitable preparation and performance space.

Additional information:The script should be supplied by the teacher and allow adequate opportunity for each student to achieve the standard.

See Appendix A for a sample script. These are scripts from Theatre of the Absurd, but they could be from one act plays, or full length plays. Note: Explanatory notes 7 and 8 for Achievement Standard 90300, 2.2.

It may be that the teacher will provide open scripts, which will enable the students to provide their own interpretation of the script by deciding the answers to who, what, where, when and why.

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Internal assessment resource reference number: Drama/2/2_B5PAGE FOR STUDENT USE

2011

Internal Assessment Resource

Subject Reference: Drama 2.2

Internal assessment resource reference number: Drama/2/2_B5

We did it our way

Supports internal assessment for:Achievement Standard: 90300 v2Apply drama techniques in a group within a scripted contextCredits: 3

Student Instructions Sheet

Introduction

Your teacher will have explained the drama techniques of voice, movement, body and use of space, and provided you with opportunities to explore them. Your teacher will supply you with script extracts. These could either be open scripts or scripts from plays. In your group, you will develop a presentation of the chosen script, using drama techniques of voice, body, movement and use of space in combination. You will be assessed on your application of these combined techniques to give meaning to the text and your effective communication with the other members of the group.

To support your interpretation, you will keep a record of your decisions by annotating the given script with sketches and/or notes for movement, voice, body and use of space. Examples of appropriate techniques could include the following: Body - using gesture, body language, eye contact, facial expression,

recognising and maintaining focus

Movement - showing energy, ensemble awareness, controlling movementand stillness

Space - choosing levels and grouping, positioning the actors Voice - using pace, pausing, projection, tone, listening, responding to

cues

You will have approximately two weeks for preparation and rehearsal. You will work in a pair or trio and it is expected that your preparation and rehearsal will involve some out of class time. You will present your rehearsed script to the class. Date and time for performance presentation will be given to you by the teacher.

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Task One: Understanding the context

In your pair/trio, read the script that you have been given, or have chosen, to gain understanding of the context. Consider the characters, the time, place and situation. Reflect on how the scene fits into the play as a whole. Ask yourself what new information the audience has about the character in this scene. What happened before this? What happens after this? Why is this moment important for your character? What does the audience need to know about your character in this scene (think about personality, mood, motivation, conflicts, relationships with others). Your teacher can provide you with information on the whole play if you need this but you must interpret the actual scene for performance as a group. Record your interpretation.

If it is an open script, consider a likely context and decide on characters, time, place and what is happening. Each character should have a clear reason or motive for his/her participation in the scene. In order to make decisions about this you need to understand the character and the context clearly. If you are using an open script, ensure that your choices for role and situation allow for the same depth of interpretation as an existing script. Use the same questions above to help you explore possibilities for your role within the script. Be prepared to trial various scenarios so that you give yourself plenty of opportunity with the final choice.

Task Two: Finding the Clues

Once you have an understanding of the context and role, read through the text in role in your group, highlighting clues in the text that will help you use voice, body and movement techniques effectively. Decide how you might interact (communicate) with the other characters, and at what points you will be able to show interaction clearly and effectively. Consider how the techniques you have discussed can help convey the meaning of your text. For example, what could eye contact convey? Could a sudden energetic movement indicate a change in mood? Could a change in the pace of the dialogue create a change in emotions? Other ideas? Suggestions for performance? Record these ideas.

Task Three: Taking the Space

Working in the allocated space, read through your annotated script, using techniques as discussed in Task 2 and using the space to explore and clarify your interpretation of text and role and your interaction with each other. For example, how close to each other should you be? Can you use different levels? How does a large space between characters affect how they speak to each other? Do the characters deliberately use space to show status? Other ideas? Record decisions.

Task Four: Making it Happen

Rehearse your scene thoroughly. Perform it for another group to gain feedback on your use of techniques and interaction. You may wish to change some of your decisions at this stage. Record these. If you are using an open script, you may wish to add or change some lines to further illuminate the meaning of your text.

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Task Five: Almost There

Complete your annotated script for assessment. This will be considered by your teacher when the allocation of grades is given. This written work will provide clarification and reinforcement for the decisions you have made in the choice of techniques and your interaction with the other characters.

Task Six: Made It!

You will perform your script for the class. Give your annotated script to the teacher after the performance.

You will be assessed on your ability to interpret a script and to apply a combination of all four drama techniques to present this script in a group context. Your effective interaction with the other characters in the scene will also be part of the assessment. That means, as a group, you will be working together in performance to create meaning for the audience.

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Assessment schedule for Drama/2/2_B5

Achievement

The student has demonstrated an appropriate combination of voice, body, movement and use of space to present an interpretation of interactive scripted drama.

For example, the student plays a clear and straightforward role using some pausing, eye contact and controlled movement to relate to another actor in the space and convey a simple meaning from the script.

Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” shows he is not a natural or trained actor when he plays the role of Pyramus. He looks at the audience constantly, has large, flourishing gestures and speaks in a monotonous high pitched voice. He makes sure he stays in the centre of the acting space.

The supporting evidence clarifies the dramatic intention and justifies the combined use of techniques in meeting this intention in performance.

Achievement with Merit

The student has demonstrated an appropriate and sustained combination of voice, body, movement and use of space to present an interpretation of interactive scripted drama, maintaining character and situation for the full duration of the performed text.

For example, the student plays a clear and sustained role using a range of drama techniques to relate to another actor in the space and convey a coherent meaning from the script.

Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” shows he is not a natural or trained actor when he plays the role of Pyramus. He looks at the audience constantly, has large, flourishing gestures and speaks in a monotonous high pitched voice. He makes sure he stays in the centre of the acting space. When the student plays Bottom the workman of Athens, he/she is able to retain the natural, good-hearted aspect of his character.


Achievement with Excellence

The student has demonstrated an appropriate, sustained and effective combination of voice, body, movement and use of space to present a clear interpretation of interactive scripted drama in an original way, maintaining character and situation for the full duration of the performed text. The performance has belief because of the depth of conviction and truth conveyed to the audience.

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For example, the student plays a sustained and convincing role using a range of drama techniques to relate effectively to another actor in the space. The student is able to convey an imaginative and coherent meaning from the script.

Bottom in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” shows he is not a natural or trained actor when he plays the role of Pyramus. He looks at the audience constantly, has large, flourishing gestures and speaks in a monotonous high pitched voice. He makes sure he stays in the centre of the acting space. When the student plays Bottom the workman of Athens, he/she is able to solicit sympathy for his desire to be liked and is able to retain the natural, good-hearted aspect of his character.


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Appendix A i from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

What’s wrong with you?Nothing.I’m going.So am I.Was I long asleep?I don’t know.Where shall we go?Not far.Oh yes, let’s go far away from here.We can’t.Why not?We have to come back tomorrow.What for?To wait for Godot.Ah! He didn’t come?No.And now it’s too late.Yes, now it’s night.And if we dropped him? If we dropped him?He’d punish us. Everything’s dead but the tree.What is it?It’s the tree.Yes, but what kind?I don’t know. W willow.Why don’t we hang ourselves?With what?You haven’t got a bit of rope?No.Then we can’t.Let’s go.Wait, there’s my belt.It’s too short.You could hang on to my legs.And who’d hang on to mine?True.That’s what you think.If we parted? That might be better for us.We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless Godot comes.And if he comes?We’ll be saved.Well? Shall we go?Pull on your trousers.What?Pull on your trousers.You want me to pull off my trousers?Pull ON your trousers.TrueWell? Shall we go?Yes, let’s go.

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Appendix A ii from Endgame by Samuel Beckett

What is it, my pet? Time for love?Were you asleep?Oh no!Kiss me.We can’t.Try.Why this farce, day after day?I’ve lost me tooth.When?I had it yesterday.Ah yesterday!Can you see me?Hardly. And you?What?Can you see me?Hardly.So much the better, so much the better.Don’t say that. Our sight has failed.Yes.Can you hear me?Yes, And you?Yes. Our hearing hasn’t failed.Our what?Our hearing.No. Have you anything else to say to me?Do you remember – No.When we crashed on our tandem and lost our shanks.It was in the Ardennes.On the road to Sedan.Are you cold?Yes, perished. And you?I’m freezing. Do you want to go in?Yes.Then go in. Why don’t you go in?I don’t knowHe has changed your sawdust?It isn’t sawdust. Can you not be a little accurate, Nagg?Your sand then. It’s not important.It is important.It was sawdust once.Once!And now it’s sand. From the shore.Now it’s sand he fetches from the shore.Now it’s sand.Has he changed yours?No.Nor mine. I won’t have it!

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Do you want a bit?Of what?Biscuit. I’ve kept you half.Three quarters. For you. Here.No? Do you not feel well?Quiet, quiet, you’re keeping me awake. Talk softer. If I could sleep I might make love. I’d go into the woods. My eyes would see… the sky, the earth. I’d run, run they wouldn’t catch me. Nature! There’s something dripping in my head. A heart, a heart in my head.Do you hear him? A heart in his head!One mustn’t laugh at those things, Nagg. Why must you always laugh at them? Not so loud!Nothing is funnier that unhappiness, I grant you that. But – Oh!Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny but we don’t laugh any more. Have you anything else to say to me?NoAre you quite sure? Then I’ll leave you.Do you not want your biscuit? I’ll keep it for you.

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Appendix A iii from Rough for Theatre by Samuel Beckett

Make a sound.Have you no sense of smell either?It’s the same stink everywhere.Am I within reach of your hand?Wait, you’re not going to do me a service for nothing? I mean unconditionally? Good God! Your foot.What?You said your foot.Had I but known! Yes, my foot, tuck it in. On your knees, on your knees, you’ll be more at your ease. There.Let go my hand! You want me to help you and you hold my hand! Have you only one leg?Just the one.And the other?It went bad and was removed.Will that do?A little tighter. What hands you have!Is all the rest there?You may stand up now and ask me a favour.Is all the rest there?Nothing else has been removed, if that is what you mean.Is that your face?I confess it is. What else could it be? That? My wen.Red?Purple. What hands you have!Is it still day?Day? If you like. There is no other word for it.Will it not soon be evening?Come, Billy, get up, you’re beginning to incommode me.Will it not soon be night?Day…night… It seems to me sometimes the earth must have got stuck, one sunless day, in the heart of winter, in the grey of evening. Come on, Billy, up, you’re beginning to embarrass me.Is there grass anywhere?I see none.Is there no green anywhere>There’s a little moss. Good God! Don’t tell me you’re going to pray?No.Or weep?No. I could stay like that for ever, with my head on an old man’s knees.Knee. Get up, can’y you!What peace! Dora used to say, the days I hadn’t earned enough, You and your harp! You’d do better crawling on all fours, with your father’s medals pinned to your arse and a money box round your neck. You and your harp! Who do you think you are? And she made me sleep on the floor. Who I thought I was. Ah that…I never could… Never could… If I listened long enough I’d hear it, a string would give.Your harp? What’s all this about a harp?

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I once had a little harp. Be still and let me listen.How long are you going to stay like that?I can stay for hours listening to all the sounds.What sounds?I don’t know what they are.I can see it. I can-Will you not be still?No! I can see it clearly, over there on the stool. What if I took it, Billy, and made off with it? Eh Billy, what would you say to that? There might be another old man, some day, would come out of his hole and find you playing the mouth-organ. And you’d tell him of the little fiddle you once had. Eh Billy? Or singing. Eh Billy, what would you say to that? There croaking to the winter wind, having lost his little mouth organ. Eh Billy?

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Appendix A iv from The Old Tune by Samuel Beckett

Mrs Cream must be a proud woman too to be a grandmother.Mrs Cream is in her coffin these twenty years Mr Gorman.Oh God forgive me what am I talking about, I’m getting you wouldn’t know what I’d be talking about, that’s right you were saying you were with Miss Daisy.With my daughter Bertha, Mr Gorman, my daughter Bertha, Mrs Rupert Moody.Your daughter Bertha that’s right so she married Moody, gallous garage they have there near the slaughter-house.Not him, his brother the nursery-man.Grand match, more power to you, have they children?Eh?Children.Two dotey little boys, little Johnny I mean Hubert and the other, the other.But tell me your daughter poor soul she was taken then was she. That cigarette while we’re at it might try this gentleman. Beg your pardon Sir trouble you for a light. Ah the young are very wrapped up Mr Cream.Little Hubert and the other, the other, what’s this his name is. And Mrs Gorman.Still in it.Ah you’re the lucky Jim Gorman, you’re the lucky jim, Mrs Gorman by gad, fine figure of a woman Mrs Gorman, fine handsome woman.Handsome, all right, but you know, age. We have our health thanks be to God touch wood. You know what it is Mr Cream, that’d be the way to pop off chatting away like this of a sunny morning.None of that now Gorman, who’s talking of popping off with the health you have as strong as an ox and a comfortable wife, ah I’d give ten years of mine to have her back do you hear me, living with strangers isn’t the same.Miss Bertha’s so sweet and good you’re on the pig’s back for God’s sake, on the pig’s back.It’s not the same you can take it from me, can’t call your soul your own, look at the cigarettes, the lighter.Miss Bertha so sweet and good.Sweet and good, all right, but dammit if she doesn’t take me for a doddering old drivelling dotard.What did I do with those cigarettes?

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Appendix A v from What Where by Samuel Beckett

Well?Nothing.He didn’t say anything?No.You gave him the works?Yes.And he didn’t say anything?No.He wept?Yes.Screamed?Yes.Begged for Mercy?Yes.But didn’t say anything?No.Not good.I start again.Well?Nothing.He didn’t say it?Good.No.You gave him the works?Yes.And he didn’t say it?No.He wept?Yes.Screamed?Yes.Begged for mercy?Yes.But didn’t say it.No.Then why stop?He passed out.And you didn’t revive him?I tried.Well?I couldn’t.It’s a lie. He said it to you. Confess he said it to you. You’ll be given the works until you confess.Good.In the end Bim appears.Are you free?Yes.Take him away and give him the works until he confesses.What must he confess?

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That he said it to him.Is that all?Yes.Not good.I start again.Take him away and give him the works until he confesses.What must he confess?That he said it to him.Is that all?And what.Good.Is that all?Yes.Then stop?Yes.Good. Come.Good.I am alone.It is summer.Time passes.In the end Bim appears.Reappears.Well?Nothing.He didn’t say it?No.You gave him the works?Yes.And he didn’t say it?No.Not good.I start again.

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Appendix BExamples of voice, body, movement and use of space techniques

Voice

pitch - the highness or lowness of a sound

pace - the rate at which words are spoken

pause - where sound stops, how often and for how long

projection - enables audience to hear the voice

tone - the feeling/emotion in the voice

listening - responding to cues

Body

posture - stance

gesture - movement of any part of the body

body-awareness - ability to select appropriate use of body

body language – expressing meaning through bodily movements

eye contact - establishing eye contact with another actor or the audience

facial expression – use of the face to communicate feeling

recognising and maintaining focus – maintaining concentration

Movement

timing - when you move

direction - where you are going

energy - how you move

ensemble awareness – moving as part of a group

controlling movement & stillness – using movement and stillness to be

expressive

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Space

levels - low, medium, high

grouping - the shape of a grouping of people

personal - own space

general - all the other space

positioning the actors - the arrangement of actors to convey meaning

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