Students at HL and SL independently choose a published play text, read the text and record their personal responses. They then: research and record the cultural and/or theoretical context of the play and identify ideas the • playwright may be addressing explore the play and record their own ideas regarding how this play may be staged for an • audience explain their directorial intention(s) and explain how this will inform their staging of two • particular moments of the play; these can be moments of atmosphere, emotion or tension or which communicate the meaning(s) of the play; they must demonstrate an understanding of how performance and production elements function together to create these moments reference live performances they have experienced and how these have • influenced, inspired or informed their directing of these moments. The live theatre performances must not be productions of the same play text selected for study in this assessment task. This process is recorded and presented in the form of a notebook (20pages director’s maximum) which is made up of visuals and words. This is a theoretical exercise. The play text is not actually staged as part of the assessment task though a student may choose to work practically as part of the process of exploring the play or examining particular moments. Students are not permitted to edit, make additions or alterations to the play text selected for study. All sources must be acknowledged following the protocol of the referencing style chosen by the school. Perspective—candidates should approach this task from the perspective of director. Assessing the task Students then undertake the following process for assessment. This task is concerned with the textual exploration a director might carry out before they go into the rehearsal room to work with actors, defining what they want to bring out of the text and how it might look when finally staged. The process of how this might be achieved through rehearsals is not the focus of this task. It is unlikely that a director would be responsible for the full scenic or technical design of the final theatre production; however their vision for the staging of the play text would certainly involve a clear understanding of how individual production elements might be employed to fulfil their directorial intentions and how these would potentially impact on the audience. Task details Selecting the play text Students choose a published play text that they have not previously studied, which they are interested in practically exploring as a director and which would allow them to successfully fulfil the assessment requirements and criteria of the task. Students should have little or no previous experience of researching or practically engaging with the published play text they select for study.
Students at HL and SL independently choose a published play text, read the text and record their personal responses. They then: • research and record the cultural and/or theoretical context of the play and identify ideas the playwright may be addressing • explore the play and record their own ideas regarding how this play may be staged for an audience • explain their directorial intention(s) and explain how this will inform their staging of two particular moments of the play; these can be moments of atmosphere, emotion or tension or which communicate the meaning(s) of the play; they must demonstrate an understanding of how performance and production elements function together to create these moments • reference live performances they have experienced and how these have influenced, inspired or informed their directing of these moments. The live theatre performances must not be productions of the same play text selected for study in this assessment task. This process is recorded and presented in the form of a director’s notebook (20pages maximum) which is made up of visuals and words. This is a theoretical exercise. The play text is not actually staged as part of the assessment task though a student may choose to work practically as part of the process of exploring the play or examining particular moments. Students are not permitted to edit, make additions or alterations to the play text selected for study. All sources must be acknowledged following the protocol of the referencing style chosen by the school. Perspective—candidates should approach this task from the perspective of director. Assessing the task Students then undertake the following process for assessment. This task is concerned with the textual exploration a director might carry out before they go into the rehearsal room to work with actors, defining what they want to bring out of the text and how it might look when finally staged. The process of how this might be achieved through rehearsals is not the focus of this task. It is unlikely that a director would be responsible for the full scenic or technical design of the final theatre production; however their vision for the staging of the play text would certainly involve a clear understanding of how individual production elements might be employed to fulfil their directorial intentions and how these would potentially impact on the audience. Task details Selecting the play text Students choose a published play text that they have not previously studied, which they are interested in practically exploring as a director and which would allow them to successfully fulfil the assessment requirements and criteria of the task. Students should have little or no previous experience of researching or practically engaging with the published play text they select for study.