Drama

Learning Journey & Sequencing Rationale

In term one, students study in depth the role of physical theatre - understanding the use of facial expressions, gesture and movement as tools to portray a character and story.

In the second term students study a third text from the National Theatre Collections. Students utilize skills from Year 7 (form and character), Year 8 (vocal techniques) and term one of Year 9 (physical skills) to bring creativity to the stories and characters.

In the third term students study the developing area of verbatim theatre. Students will explore the work of LUNG Theatre, and using verbatim techniques of interviews and existing text based stimuli, they will then create their own verbatim inspired performances.

In the fourth term, students return to the role of technical theatre. They watch a production from the National Theatre, and study the role of lighting and sound. Students will design lighting states for a key scene, and work as a collective to create a soundscape for a scene.

In the fifth term students will study the Shakespearean play of Romeo and Juliet, exploring the role of tragedy through their monologue performances.

In the sixth term students will gather a range of stories from around the world, and create a short story aimed at young audiences.

Home learning is supported through the use of workbooklets, with tasks stemming from in class tasks.

Extracurricular opportunities include a range of activities including both stage and screen, including pantomimes and filming as well as tuition towards LAMDA examinations.

unit overview – autumn term 1

Subject: Drama ‘The Tell Tale Heart’
Skills	Explore how to adapt a novella for the stage Apply the specific style of Steven Berkoff to an adaptation Use Multi-Role acting as modelled by Steven Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan White’s ‘The Woman In Black’ Develop the skills required for acting in Physical Theatre
Knowledge	Performance skills. Physical Theatre Create a devised performance which captures the style of a specific genre of acting. Rapid adaptation of physical expression to capture, maintain and switch between identifiable character ‘types’ Use of ensemble acting in the style of Lecoq Participation in an assessed performance combing stylisation, Character-narration, split staging Successfully juxtaposing elements and medium to create deliberate impact Key skills: Proxemics are used to create relationships between characters on stage. Staging and the use of space is considered and justified (in lessons and in written evaluation Rapid character changes and working as part of an ensemble Evaluation of performance elements and their impact Justified choices of diegetic/non-diegetic effects to support teh meaning Extended Writing: A portfolio consisting of initial ideas; a record of the Implementation of taught skills and justification of style choices i s required PLUS Evaluation of performance; analysing the skills and design applied to the piece; including how successful the performance has been in creating impact.
Rationale	The Tell Tale Heart is a short Novella which is easily digested. It has the central theme of a person in denial of their brutality towards another, whilst having excellent passages which can be adapted into character narration. At GCSE level, learners need to have experience of different writing genres AND of various theatrical styles of communicating authorial and directorial intention. Using The Woman In Black as Partner text is ideal in demonstrating how multi-role and narration can be used successfully. The Learners will have previously studied Berkoff in Year 8 and will be able to integrate this prior learning, recognising the need to stylise, choreograph and create visual impact with the material for maximum effect. This topic is an engaging start to the new year for Year 9 and culminates in cross class performance opportunities which can be linked to the study of Gothic Horror in English

unit overview - autumn 2

Subject: Drama ‘Blood Brothers’
Skills	Explore how to characterise different social classes sympathetically Apply the specific use of the liverpudlian accent to the spoken dialogue Use the text as a platform to discuss social inequality Develop fully thought through characteristics for at least two characters in writing and in performance Accurately apply physical and vocal interpretations from the point of view of director and performer
Knowledge	Performance skills. Dialect of liverpool How to perform as characters of varying ages and abilities from (7- 42) Directing the action for maximum impact Stage positioning and the use of cross-cutting for impact Application of the use of Naturalistic acting (Stanislavski’s ‘system’) Participation in an assessed performance as a group, individual or pair Key skills: Proxemics are used to create relationships between characters on stage. Staging and the use of space is considered and justified (in lessons and in written evaluation Evaluation of performance elements and their impact Devising role play from theme and character Justified choices of staging for a section of text Extended Writing: A portfolio consisting of extended thought tracks in role as two characters (or the same character at two points in the play) A 10 mark question justifying how to stage a section of text as an actor A 10 mark question on Design or directing Evaluation of performance; analysing the skills and design applied to the piece; including how successful the performance has been in creating impact.
Rationale	The Tell Tale Heart is a short Novella which is easily digested. It has the central theme of a person in denial of their brutality towards another, whilst having excellent passages which can be adapted into character narration. At GCSE level, learners need to have experience of different writing genres AND of various theatrical styles of communicating authorial and directorial intention. Using The Woman In Black as a Partner text is ideal in demonstrating how multi-role and narration can be used successfully. The Learners will have previously studied Berkoff in Year 8 and will be able to integrate this prior learning, recognising the need to stylise, choreograph and create visual impact with the material for maximum effect. This topic is an engaging start to the new year for Year 9 and culminates in cross class performance opportunities which can be linked to the study of Gothic Horror in English

unit overview - spring 2

Subject: ‘Let Him Have It’ A Guided Devised piece in the style of Drama GCSE Edexcel Component 1
Skills	Collaboration with others to create response scenes Development of characters and scenes based on historic events Use of Drama methodology to explore bias and prejudice Application of various styles to affect audience perspective
Knowledge	Exploring different styles to deliberately affect an audience’s perspective Consider the application of Verbatim Theatre Develop multi-role acting capability Create a sense of empathy through careful use of language Devise a performance using at least 6 dramatic conventions in a combination of styles Key Skills: Mime, Slow motion, Abstract/ensemble movement, Freeze, Flashback, Split staging, Monologue, Absent-focus, Narration, Stylisation, Naturalism, Verbatim, scripting, Multi-role
Rationale	Critical reasoning to develop deliberate bias Learners will work in various combinations to explore the staging possibilities based on the true story of the hanging of Derek Bentley. They will develop editorial skills and the art of ‘deselecting’ material in favour of creating a clearly reasoned message for an audience. Taking the initiative for their own work, learners will increasingly be asked to justify their stylistic and staging choices in relation to their chosen intention. The topic explored the British Legal system and educates learners regarding the roles of Barristers, Police officers and solicitors. Learners will assume the mantle of each of these during the explorations - considering the appropriate use of language to reveal nuances of bias and/or corrupted systems. Structuring and editing work to a specific brief is a fundamental skill of any modern job role. This scheme particularly encourages the application of prior learning alongside some critical reasoning based on the available evidence.

co-curricular programme

Click on the link to view the range of co-curricular activities being run by the Drama Department

/school-life/extra-curricular

knowledge Organiser

A knowledge organiser is an important document that lists the important facts that learners should know by the end of a unit of work. It is important that learners can recall these facts easily, so that when they are answering challenging questions in their assessments and GCSE and A-Level exams, they are not wasting precious time in exams focusing on remembering simple facts, but making complex arguments, and calculations.

We encourage all pupils to use them by doing the following:

Quiz themselves at home, using the read, write, cover, check method.
Practise spelling key vocabulary
Further researching people, events and processes most relevant to the unit.

Drama KO Year 9 Term 1