Performance Power

A collection of extracts from plays, designed for use in the short performance assessment in the GCSE Drama specifications. The plays have been selected from established, published plays to last approximately 20 minutes and aim to develop the performance skills of students from a wide ability range. A separate section of very short extracts are included to try to refine students' key dramatic skills (such as use of gesture and voice). This should boost students' "performance power" and give them the best chance to make a success of their short performance assessment.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Section A: Elements of Drama; A1: Moving; (Physicalisation and Transformation); Gum and Goo by Howard Brenton (1969); Bouncers by John Godber (1983); A2: Breathing; Richard II by William Shakespeare (c. 1595); A3: Speaking; Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954); A4: Connecting; (Empathy); King John by William Shakespeare (c. 1595); Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1946); A5: Communicating; (Intentions); Kiss Me Like You Mean It by Chris Chibnall (2001); A6: Interacting; (Status and Distillation); Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (c. 1600); Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward (1941); My Sister In This House by Wendy Kesselman (1980); Ooh Ah Showab Khan by Clifford Oliver (1997); A7: Beginnings by Ben Jonson (1610); Macbeth by William Shakespeare (c. 1605); And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1944); Fool for Love by Sam Shepard (1983); Scapin the Schemer by Moliere (1671); A8: Narrating and Commentating; The Oresteia by Aeschylus (456 BC); Nana by Olwen Wymark (1987) (based on the novel by Emile Zola, 1880); A9: Revealing; (Soliliquy, Aside and Sub-text); The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley (1622); Far Away by Caryl Churchill (1999); A10: Building; (Dramatic tension, Dramatic irony, Linear structure, Flashback and Reversal); Rope by Patrick Hamilton (1929); Landscape of the Body by John Guare (1977); The Country Wife by William Wycherley (1676); Softcops by Caryl Churchill (1984); A11: Emoting; (Intensifying/Magnifying); The Colleen Bawn by Dion Boucicault (1860); Execution of Justice by Emily mann (1984); Section B: Performance; B1: An Overview of the Rehearsal Process; B2: Scenes from The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1775)