AS Level Drama Supporting Notes Section 1 The chosen practitioners for our AS Level drama performance of ‘Stolen Secrets’ by Finn Kennedy is the Kneehigh Theatre Company. We read books about Kneehigh, watched video clips of their performances and discussed their methods. The key aspect of Kneehigh that inspired was their unique way of storytelling that is woven into each of their plays. Kneehigh has been called ‘the company that has put the soul back into storytelling’. Kneehigh use physical theatre and eccentric characterisations to add to the quirkiness of their storytelling which was appealing to our group as we wanted to push ourselves to find new strengths enabling us to create challenging, innovative, emotionally-charged work as Kneehigh
Although this musical rarely breaks the fourth wall we will incorporate this into our version to add more non naturalistic features and make our performance unique. The other elements of kneehigh such as song, dance and the asides do engage the audience in a sense that they will be clinging onto the characters dialogue and song. Another feature of kneehigh used would be multi rolling as all of the members of the group will be taking on more than one role e.g. the person playing the tin man is also playing Aunt Em and the person playing the Wicked Witch is playing the Great and Powerful
BRIAR ROSE-JANE YOLEN Yolen has created an ingenious story of great significance in Briar Rose. Aside from the novel itself being a fictional text, the book stresses the intrinsic importance of fairy tales to the responder. The resilience and power of these tales are emphasised as is the significance of true stories form the past. It is through the examination of the allegorical story told by Gemma and the characterisation used by Yolen that the concept of the hero and heroine is explored. Yolen has enabled her readers to understand the value of the past for the present and to witness both the true horrors as well as the acts of courage in her novel Briar Rose.
As the plot nears a resolution however, the theatre is highlighted by its overwhelming vibrancy and symbolically juxtaposes its counterpart. This is metaphoric for the positive aspects that have transpired from directing the opera and their impact on [Relate to Qs]. Humour is also widely employed within the play in an attempt to present everyday situations in an entertaining way. At the same time it enables Nowra to differentiate the degree of significance key moments hold throughout the process of developing Lewis’s character. This is reflected through the use of slapstick in the line: “Roy trips Henry, who sprawls on the floor.” as opposed to purposeful dialogue that aims at furthering the characterisation of Lewis where he says, “They need me” referring to the mental patients.
Evaluation of Wicked The performance I chose to evaluate is the musical Wicked. This was a spectacular performance done by 321 Theatrical Management Company. Anne Brummel and Natalie Daradich play the two main characters, Elphaba and Glinda. The Conductor of the wonderful show was Adam Souza. This musical performance of Wicked was fantastic.
The director Robert Kronk was successful in his manipulation of the elements of drama and dramatic conventions associated with realism such as tension, roles and relationships, space, place and mood to create a strong sense of dramatic meaning with the audience. This essay aims to analyse the 2009 deBase production of snagged and comment upon the elements of drama used, acting skills and directorial decisions. In the play ‘Snagged’ the tension used plays an integral part in the performance and script. Dramatic tension is the tension which
Copland’s analytical review of how we listen to music is a very interesting one. I believe that his review is pretty accurate. I do agree with him regarding the three musical planes of music. If you take a look at this matter in its simplistic form, people listen to music for a number of reasons. I listen to music to enjoy the way it sounds.
Australian theatre practitioners have included symbols to effectively communicate meaning. According to the website, ‘the drama teacher’, “A symbol implies a greater meaning than the literal suggestion and is usually used to represent something other than what it is at face value. Symbolism in the theatre can be achieved through the use of characters, colour, movement, costume and props”. I have experienced this through my experiences of rehearsing scene and reading over the plays, ‘Ruby Moon’ and ‘A Beautiful Life’. I believe the statement “Australian playwrights often include important symbols in their plays” is true as I have experienced and seen the use of symbolism in the plays Ruby Moon and A beautiful life help put the point of the story across as it represents the emotions, mood and meaning of the plays.
It also develops along the lines of mutual understanding, or empathy, for the audience and the performer, as she recounts her seven stages, as they are able to understand the common pathos shared in each stage. The use of dramatic symbols in Indigenous Australian theatre conveys a sense of metaphoric comparison between that of the Aboriginal world and that of the “white” culture. The Seven Stages of Grieving incorporates imagery into the main subtext of its performance, in order to create a “faction” surrounding the main themes of loss and grieving. The Seven Stages of Grieving focuses on the perspective of an Indigenous Australian, rather than a wholistic approach using both traditional Aboriginal symbolism and abstract metaphoric symbolism. Each of these types of symbolism allows the audience to understand the significance of Indigenous culture from both a modern and a traditional aspect, as well as the historical concepts behind it, that stemmed from “white” culture.
Mark Brozel's Shakespeare Retold version of Macbeth takes the original tragedy and makes it relevant to today using a range of cinematic techniques in order to engage viewers of TV drama and reignite interest in Shakespearean tragedy. This process involves the use of sound track, camera angles, and dialogue but most importantly a clever appropriation of ideas embedded in the original text. 'Macbeth Retold’ uses themes, an altered plot to be more accessible to a modern audience and exaggerated characters to have an effect on viewers. Brozel also utilises setting to create an emotive atmosphere. Just as the play opens with the witches, so does the film.