1 GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies

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GCSE DRAMA

Rehearsal Strategies

GCSE DRAMA

Rehearsal Strategies

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Introduction

Cross-Cutting

Flashback

Forum Theatre

Hot-Seating

Marking The Moment

Role-play

Soundscaping

Split-screen

GCSE DRAMA

REHEARSAL STRATEGIES

GCSE DRAMA

REHEARSAL STRATEGIES

Narrating

Still Image

Tableau

Thought-TrackingConclusion

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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 By using different rehearsal strategies and rehearsal strategies and

techniques, you will techniques, you will follow in the steps of follow in the steps of

professional actors and professional actors and directors.directors.

Rehearsal strategies

GCSE DRAMA GCSE DRAMA

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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.



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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.



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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.



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You will also spend time discussing:

Vocal effects

Breathing

Movement

Understanding a character

Exploring the meaning of the drama in groups



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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!



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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By using flashback, you present a scene to your audience that is out of sync with time.

You literally ‘flash’ back to the past.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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Hot-seating is a technique to deepen the actor’s

understanding of a character and the role of that character.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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The action might be ‘frozen’ at that moment

so every one stands completely still on the

stage.



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A spotlight might be used on one character

to highlight them.



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By marking this moment, the actors send a

clear message to the audience that this is a particularly important moment.



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Inner thoughts might be spoken out loud.

This is known as self-narrating.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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Narrating can provide background information that it would be difficult to act out or to bring into the

plot in any other way.



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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.



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Role-play is another strategy which allows an actor to deepen his/her understanding of the character.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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Split-screen is effective when one

scene freezes



and the action moves back to the other

scene.

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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.



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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.



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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.



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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.



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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’.



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Thought-tracking is the process whereby a character is

stopped during a role and is asked to reveal their thoughts

at that moment.

The character then speaks out loud his/her thoughts.

Other characters do not hear this.



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This technique allows the audience to understand the character in more

depth.

Knowing someone’s thoughts reveals a great

deal about them.



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The audience becomes better informed during thought-

tracking.

Their understanding of the character is deepened because they are, in a sense, reading the

character’s mind.



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This technique can be used in Forum Theatre, when a member

of the group might ask the character what they are thinking

at a precise moment.



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Conclusion


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Conclusion


To conclude, we have considered some of the main explorative strategies of drama.

Each one is as important as the other to produce an overall effect on the audience.

Together, they communicate the playwright’s text.

The production produces the reaction in the audience.

That reaction will be influenced by each technique that is used.

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When you come to create characters, you will find these strategies useful to begin to

explore the character’s role.

By beginning to think and feel the character, you will deepen your

understanding of the playwright’s text and communicate the drama more effectively

to your audience.

Conclusion

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Just as an audience needs to believe in

the production, so do you.

By using the most

appropriate rehearsal strategies

for the production,

you will work with your

fellow drama students to create the

best possible production.

Conclusion

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Each cannot work alone and produce a successful production.

By communicating with each other and experimenting with different strategies, the

production will make the most of the playwright’s text by incorporating the most successful elements

into the play.

Conclusion

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1 GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies GCSE DRAMA Rehearsal Strategies