AQA GCSE Drama Student Book: Revised Edition

SET PLAY 3: Things I Know to be True by Andrew Bovell 3 LOCATION: Interior of the Prices’ home REQUIREMENTS: It Begins Like This. Home. As Autumn Turns. Winter. Spring. Home That Night. And It Ends Like This DESIGN CHOICES: 1 What colours and materials would capture a suburban working-class home? 2 What props or set dressings could help to establish the setting and characters in ‘Home’? 3 How could you use the stage space to indicate where characters may enter and exit? 4 What props and set dressings would you use to create the kitchen? 5 How would you handle transitions such as ‘Spring’, which moves from the house to ‘the local pub or a dinner/dance at a local Surf Life Saving Club’? LOCATION: The Garden REQUIREMENTS: Home. Autumn. As Autumn Turns. Winter. Summer. Life Goes On. And It Ends Like This DESIGN CHOICES: 1 Could particular design features indicate features of the garden and how it changes with the seasons? 2 Would there be any large items in the garden, such as a shed, wheelbarrow, planting beds, tables, chairs, benches or barbeque? Where would they be positioned onstage? 3 Where would Pip be for the beginning of ‘Autumn’? What set dressings would you use in this scene? 4 Where would Mark be at the beginning of ‘Winter’? Will you use different levels? What set dressings will contribute to this monologue? LOCATION: Berlin REQUIREMENTS: Berlin DESIGN CHOICES: 1 How will you suggest that Rosie is in Berlin? 2 Will you use projections, backdrops or set furnishings? 3 Where will Rosie be on the stage at the end of the scene? LOCATION: Mark’s home / Journey to Airport REQUIREMENTS: As Winter Turns DESIGN CHOICES: 1 What props and stage furnishings could establish Mark’s flat? 2 Where will this scene take place on the stage? 3 Will the staging change when he moves to the car? Will the car be presented onstage? 4 Will there be a change when the characters arrive at the airport? CHALLENGE Research contemporary Australian photographers such as William Broadhurst and Warren Kirk, whose work focuses on suburban settings. Make a list of how their photographs could inspire your design. TASK 6 Choose a scene set in the garden. Describe the set and how it ts the play’s context. You could include how your set: is appropriate for the chosen scene re ects the working-class suburban Australian setting functions practically in terms of the action and other key moments. Sound and lighting design inspired by context Sound and lighting design can be used to suggest the various locations and the contemporary period in a number of ways, including: use of contemporary music sound effects of cars or aeroplanes lighting to suggest different geographical areas, times of day or seasons lighting to create moods or to act metaphorically for the play’s themes. Sound The original production used music by Nils Frahm, a German composer and pianist, throughout the play. His compositions in the play use both traditional and electronic keyboards to create an urgent soundtrack. Music could be used in many other ways, however, such as pop songs to support certain scenes or a musical motif or instrument associated with each character. The seasons could be introduced with appropriate musical excerpts. A sound designer might research the music that the older Prices like and decide what tunes they might dance to. 79 SECTION B STUDY OF A SET PLAY KEY TERM: Motif: a repeated image, idea or phrase of music.