Very interesting discussion with a group of three. The teacher gave the students each a different article on women’s inequality. The girls then highlighted what was most interesting to them. The teacher then told each girl to take it in turn to create a small piece of drama based on one thing that they had highlighted. This is the start of the students research for their verbatim style play. I was able to offer some advice on what research roots they might like to take, as my dissertation was a verbatim piece. And the group, including the teacher and myself were able to have a productive discussion about sexual harassment which the teacher then prompted the girls to record in their note books for assessment means and to enable the girls to reflect on the lesson and progress their private research to bring to class next time. After class the teacher explained to me that though the girls are very productive workers, year 13 still need help to focus ideas and bring them together, it is also important to let the students come up with ideas for themselves though it is very tempting to suggest what they might want to do. There needs to be a balance in helping and letting the girls find their own feet.

Stanislavski
Stanislavski takes the approach that his actors should really inhabit their characters. The actor should not only know the lines he needs to say and the motivation for them but the characters offstage and onstage life. Therefore, we can conclude Stanislavski is a director and practitioner whose productions are naturalistic.
Stan was born into a very wealthy family who enjoyed the theatre. However, being a professional drama maker was not thought of highly and so Stan had to go by stage name Stanislavski.
Writings from Stan:
• My Life in Art
• An Actor Prepares
• Building a Character
• Creating a Role

When Stalin controlled Russia, Stanislavski was keen to appease him to ensure the survival of the theatre. During this time the company’s work reflected the political voice of the USSR, as represented by Socialist realism. Stanislavski was able to remain a follower of realism but the theatre company’s plays promoted socialist political beliefs. This remained the case until 1970 when there was a movement back towards the essence of Stanislavski’s method.

Although Stan’s productions are naturalistic he was very experimental in the theatre and explored conventions such as symbolism and realism – never try to pigeonhole a practitioner too narrowly.

Key Terms:
Emotional Memory – find a real emotion from your past and focus it into the character
Method of physical actions – think of an action you do everyday i.e. brushing teeth, now apply this to the character
The Magic ‘If’ – ask yourself what would I do if I were in this situation – this stimulates the actor into the motivation to play the role
Super Objective – overall outcome linked to the end of the play most likely
Minor Objective/Through Line – mini objectives to achieve the super objective
Circles of attention – First Circle, self, Second Circle, person interacting with, Third Circle, rest of production
Tempo – speed of an action
Rhythm – intensity or depth of experience
Physical action – a body should be like an instrument, tuned and trained, vocally, physically ready to do the playwright justice just like instruments to the musician justice
Improvisation – key to the role, the actor must reach far into himself and draw out as much truth as possible
There is no restriction to Stan’s work and actors should feel inspired to pull out their best performances
Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares:
Live your part – do your normal activities as your character i.e. brushing teeth, getting your grocery
Don’t work with mirrors because you will remember how your face looked but not the inside creation
To reproduce feelings, you must be able to identify them out of your own experiences
Mechanical acting might be something like putting your hand over your heart to express love but this is not naturalistic, there are certain givens for acting certain parts i.e spitting on the floor if you are playing the part of a peasant or mincing gestures and behaviours for playing 18th century characters but just because these approaches are ‘deformed and senseless’

LESSON PLAN:
Stans teacher exercise: (Lesson plan??) YOU NEED A PURPOSE TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING
STARTING ACTIVITY Get student to sit on stage and have the audience watch them, then get the actor to come off stage what were the audience interested in, what did they think the person on stage looked like. Repeat the exercise with the teacher, person sits in chair and teacher stands next to them looking for a place in his book, curtain drops. What were the audience interested in this time, how did the student look on stage this time…the student did not act either times but had a purpose and therefore was more interesting…there must always be a purpose to what you are doing and why you are doing it on stage.
PROJECT ON THE BOARD AND ASK QUESTION WHAT DO CLASS THINK OF THIS STATEMENT? ‘Frequently physical immobility is the direct result of inner intensity, and it is these inner activities that are far more important artistically’ THOUGHTS MAY BE: the actor must know why they are doing what they are doing on stage even if it is doing nothing, that there may be more going on that the apparent text says, WORK THE CLASS ONTO THE INNER MONOLOUGE…
ACTIVITY – in pairs give a piece of text with two characters but only one speaking role. Pair must work together to write an inner monologue for the non-speaking part. Get it up on its feet, stop to remind them that they must know why they are doing each movement in the piece.
SHOW AND TELL – pick two pieces to show to the rest of the class. ASK class what they think the person with the inner monologue is thinking and what motivated them to act in that certain way.

1. Zap Bang
2. Starboard, port (change to USR/DSR)
3. Sound and Movement Pass on game
4. Body Warm up (Head side to side, touch toes…)
5. Voice Warm up (Busy bee, breathing exercise…)
6. Meditation/Mindfulness

Understanding Drama – written exam
• Characteristics of performance texts and dramatic works
• Social, cultural and historical context
• How meaning is interpreted and communicated
• Drama and theatre terminology and how to use it appropriately
• The roles and responsibilities of theatre makers in contemporary professional practice
• STUDY ONE SET PLAY
1. The Crucible
2. Blood Brothers
3. The 39 Steps
4. Hansel and Gretle
5. Noughts and Crosses
6. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• STUDY A LIVE PERFORMANCE
1. Plays
2. Physical Theatre
3. Theatre in education
4. Musical Theatre
Devising Drama – assessed practically
• Assessed as:
1. Performer
2. lighting designer
3. sound designer
4. set designer
5. costume designer
6. puppet designer
• Students must develop their ability on:
1. carry out research
2. develop their own ideas
3. collaborate with others
4. rehearse, refine and amend their work in progress
5. analyse and evaluate their own process of creating devised drama
• In Performance Students must:
1. create and communicate meaning
2. realise artistic intention in devised drama.
Texts in Practise – assessed practically
• Assessed as:
1. performer
2. lighting designer
3. sound designer
4. set designer
5. costume designer
6. puppet designer
• Must develop their ability to:
1. interpret texts
2. create and communicate meaning
3. realise artistic intention in text-based drama
• N.B. (For assessment, students must perform or create realised designs for two extracts from one play which contrasts to the set play studied in Component 1.)

For in-depth specification (assessments, aims…) see:
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/drama/specifications/AQA-8261-SP-2016.PDF

The group nearest me are the most weary to put their hands up when Miss asks a question to the class. But as the other groups put their hands up in the air and get the answers a bit wrong or right, one of the girls in the group nearest me puts her hand up and answers a question correctly, Miss says ‘Well Done.’ This boosts the girls confidence and she puts her hand up to answer more questions.

Once Miss hands the task out to the groups, the same girl is quite in the beginning but as her group continues with the task she begins to direct her peers on what she thinks might be a better way of performing. The group perform their piece with the girls direction and she sits down afterwards and smiles to the others in her group as they are praised.

On the screen is a projection that states:
‘At the end of this lesson you will be able to correctly identify stage configurations’

The class is asked to go to centre stage, from here Miss goes to each four corners of the room and explains ‘up stage right’ ‘up stage left’ ‘down stage right’ ‘down stage left’. She then gets the class to run as she directs them where to go, the class are having fun and learning the correct terminology.

Miss then gets the class to sit and explains different stage configurations, i.e. traverse stage, thrust stage, in the round, end on… she explains where the audience will be sat for each of these stages. She ten calls out the different stages and the students rush into where the audience will be sitting. The class have successfully demonstrated that they have understood the different stages.

The class is split into groups and each given a hand out with what stage is to be used, speech and stage directions on it (i.e. down stage left) Each group successfully use their stages to enhance their performances, one group uses a split stage for an end on stage, while another group use three girls in a triangle for a thrust stage. The audience members are asked to comment on which areas of the stage the performers are standing, the students do this with no problem.

By the end of the session the girls have learnt the correct names of the stage configurations, the correct terminology for their placement on stage and how to use the stage effectively to create a piece of drama.

Activity:
Body Warm Up (finding a neutral position)
Voice Warm Up (Controlled breathing)
Game – move body to music with no inhibitions (embodying characters)

Stimuli:
Projected picture of two young boys sitting amongst rubble
Two articles regarding sexism

Activity:
Groups create a piece of drama based on stimuli – they will work on this over two weeks

Aim:
From this lesson, Miss S was able to learn how the new class work together and how the individual students work, i.e. who takes the lead in the group exercise, who needs to work on group discussion, who is least confident and how much subject knowledge the students have. The lesson also allows the group to bond as friends through being uninhibited, for example with the dance activity. The homework set is that each group needs to bring another stimuli to help their piece of drama progress – this allows the students to learn how to build on their research in devised pieces.

1. Make students wait behind chairs to be dismissed from classroom table by table
2. Get the students to line up in alphabetical order, check uniform and ask them to be quite, before leading them to assembly
3. Hands up if they want to ask a question or have a suggestion
4. Allow students to chatter for a minute to get it out of their system
5. Take as stance in the centre, front of classroom and exclaim ‘Right’ as clapping hands to get class attention and signal the start of the lesson
6. Count down from 10
7. Latch onto eye contact with students who are chatting carrying on teaching
8. Stand behind chatty student while carrying on teaching
9. Ask pupils to participate in the lesson properly because you want to have a productive fun lesson

10.Place books of students down in circle before they enter the class so students some in and immediately sit behind their books
11.Tell class that the other class did x, y or z really well and you want this class to beat them
12.Stop to ask questions to check that students are paying attention to the and understanding
13.Instead of asking for a single student to put hand up to read ask class to put hands up if they haven’t read yet
14.Remind students of the marking criteria
15.Teacher put hands up and wiggle fingers get class to copy the action to make sure they are all paying attention
16.Use a sound of a bell (through youtube maybe…) to get class attention

Year 12 a mixture of brand new students (externals) and students original Tiffin Girls, head to a class room and all sit down. There is chatter amongst them, Miss S joins in asking how the girls holiday’s were, as an external joins in she asks what the externals name is in a friendly tone and welcomes her to the group. I hand out two note books to each of the thirteen students.

Miss S stands in centre of class room in the middle, claps hands together and says ‘Right’ – the class has begun, the girls quieten down very quickly. There is a power point projected onto the board ‘What To Expect’ – Miss S explains the text which will be explored and how the year will run, she also briefly explains how AS might run into Alevel, if the girls carry on.

Miss S finishes her presentation and asks the class if they have questions – some do and these are addressed before moving onto a fun task, ‘Draw Your Spirit Animal’ Miss S hands out paper and colourful pens.

Each girl stands at the front of the class and explains their ‘spirit animal’ drawing. One girl has drawn a Cat, Miss S asks what characteristics the student has in common with her spirit animal. The student replies ‘inquisitive’ Miss S asks questions to why this is important in a Drama subject – because this is a characteristic you need for exploring play texts.

In this first lesson of the year the aim presumably was that the girls and Miss S got to know each other, why they are taking Drama and how the course will run throughout the year.

Year 9 rushed into the drama studio in an array of skirts and trousers, wild hair and loud noises, Miss S shouts over the rabble for them to form an alphabetical circle and sit down. The girls are excitable but do as they are told. Miss S jumps loudly says ‘shhh’ and the girls chatter semi stops, Miss S briefly explains what the class will focus on through the year but most of the girls are already aware of what they will be doing. Miss S asks every girl in the circle what they are most looking forward to working on in the year, the main answer is ‘musicals’ – this class really enjoy Drama, they are excited and bubbly even though it is the last period of the day.

Miss S then hands out the play that will be studied this term and explains they will be studying alongside practitioner Stanivlaski (naturalism) chooses people to read the characters while she reads the stage directions with an accent to encourage the girls to do the same. Miss S stops after every few lines to ask the girls questions about what they have just read, this makes sure the girls are paying attention to the text and also helps discuss adult concepts that the girls might be embarrassed by such as illusions to sex.

At the end of the lesson Miss S asks the girls what they learnt from this lesson, one girls answers that she realises they need to look deeper into the text to be aware of what each character is doing and feeling, another girl answers that detailed stage directions are necessary for a naturalistic style play and another girl answers that they need to do research into aspects of the play they might not be aware of, like how a laundry company works in the time period and what certain phrases mean.

In this first lesson the aim was to make sure the girls know what is expected of them this year, to let Miss S know the girls are most excited by and to jump straight into the play text and exploring it.

The main difference in the lessons was that the Year 12 class was a much more getting-to-know-each-other session, as there are new students joining the year, whereas, year 9’s lesson was about jumping straight into getting to grips with the text that is going to be explored this term.

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