Unit 1 – Area of Study 2: Interpreting scripts

Outcome 2

Work creatively and imaginatively in production roles to interpret scripts from the pre-modern era.

Examples of lear​ning activities

• Identify and extract scenes from a selected text from the pre-modern era focusing on the characteristic performance style, e.g. Euripides’ Medea or a Restoration play such as Aphra Behn’s The Rover; apply a different pre-modern era acting style and theatrical convention to each extract; compare the results.
• Design and pitch a costume for a character within a scene of a play from the pre-modern era and highlight your emphasis, e.g. Helena from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a class, discuss which pitch was most successful using the language from the elements of theatrical composition.
• Describe the elements of theatre composition used in two indigenous rituals, using the appropriate language as described in the study design. Research how production areas were applied to these performances to facilitate the elements, e.g. a Kulin Nation Tanderrum or a first nation’s corroboree.
• Improvise a non-scripted scenario from a style from the pre-modern era, focusing on performance style and the interrelationship between the actor and audience, in particular the impact of rhythm and motion, e.g. a scenario from Commedia dell’Arte or the enactment of the narratives of various styles of Asian theatre.
• 
  Choose extracts from plays from different periods in the pre-modern era; for each extract apply appropriate acting styles and conventions from a different pre-modern era; consider the theatrical effect of choices, e.g. apply conventions of an indigenous theatre form to an extract from an Elizabethan drama.
• Choose an extract from a play from the pre-modern era and use presentation software to show possible applications of production areas appropriate to two different contextual interpretations, e.g. an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar set in Egypt and Rome in the stipulated time period and another one set in Australia and New Zealand in contemporary time.
• Design a stage setting for plays from different periods from the pre-modern era; consider the appropriate stage configuration and audience interrelationship, and how these impacted on cohesion, e.g. creating or capturing the impression of an authentic Roman amphitheatre using a contemporary situation and contemporary materials.
• Direct an extract from a play from the pre-modern era in two distinct styles – one authentic and one with a contemporary interpretation; justify your contemporary interpretation. Explore how two elements of theatrical composition were impacted.
• Select a script or script extracts and explore (by taking on different production roles) how the script could be unpacked and interpreted. Using the elements of theatrical composition as the shared language, analyse how these can be achieved from the perspective of the different roles. Run the discussions as a production meeting.
• Apply some of the techniques of non-Western make-up to characters from a pre-modern Western play, e.g. using Kabuki make-up (and perhaps even Kabuki acting style) in a performance of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
• Use multimedia to present a scene from the pre-modern era entirely via visuals and sound generated through a computer, e.g. using slide presentation software to present stills (scanned, drawn, painted, digitally photographed and enhanced through image manipulation software and/or sourced through other means) and/or video/animations (sourced and/or created) and appropriate music/sounds/sound FX to recreate a Commedia dell’Arte scenario.
• Draw up a list of properties from plays from three periods in the pre-modern era, ensuring historical accuracy or reference; describe how each will be sourced or created; provide designs where appropriate, e.g. the properties required for Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado.
• Use images, music, sound and sound FX to capture the mood and some of the narrative flow from a play from the pre-modern era, e.g. the opening scenes of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with aural references to storms, shipwrecks and the resultant calm.

 

​​Detailed example

Applying style

Using the internet and a word-processing program, students identify and extract all the scenes featuring the mechanicals from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each scene is allocated to a different group. In groups, students:

• apply different pre-modern era acting styles and production conventions to each extract
• compare how styles and conventions influence audience response, meaning and theatrical effect
• use the elements of theatrical composition to support the comparisons.