WJEC/Eduqas GCSE Drama: Revision Guide

Narrating the action Two people are to be ‘narrators’ and two the ‘characters’. The narrators must talk to the audience, and the characters perform the action being described by the narration. Narrators can use reported speech to tell the characters what to say, as well as the characters’ actions. Characters can work in mime at first. But, as the scene develops, you might want to use sound-effects or dialogue too. What does this teach me about Brecht? Narration such as mime can convey information and emotion in a very visually interesting way. EXERCISE 3.6 Gestus 1 Imagine a character receiving a message. Choose an action that could be sustained onstage to sum up their situation, which you might choose to be good or bad, for the following messages: • Exam results – passed or failed? • Result of a job interview – accepted or rejected? • A response from someone they have asked out – said yes or no? What does this teach me about Brecht? It is a great way of exploring ‘gestus’, where the action of the play represents not only the character’s situation but also a wider situation. See if you can spot certain actions that every pair associates with the same theme. That clear image will work for the audience too. 2 As a group, explore the physical difference between: • clapping at the end of an amazing play and clapping at the end of a boring play • handing in a test paper on which you knew the answers to all the questions and handing in a test paper on which you didn’t know the answers to any of the questions. What does this teach me about Brecht? A gesture can sum up not only the situation of the character performing it but also a wider social issue. EXERCISE 3.7 AO 2 AO 1 54 part 1 DEVISING THEATRE