# data[].attributes.body
As you begin your new exciting journey into the world of Drama it is always good to develop your understanding of what Drama is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Drama comes from Greek words meaning “to do” or “to act.” A drama, or play, is basically a story acted out. And every play—whether it is serious or humorous, ancient or…

# data[].attributes.body
In your drama lessons you will hear the term 'Theatre maker mentioned constantly. But what do we mean? in your lessons you will be considering the role of the actor, director, designer and gaining an insight who works in the world of theatre.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the first plays that you will study and bring to life is Placey's play 'Girls like that.' Gaining a further insight into any play can help to understand the context in which the playwright wrote this play.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
everal years ago, I was on the South Bank in London for New Year's Eve, watching the fireworks. When the clock struck midnight, my boyfriend and I kissed, like the other couples that surrounded us. And then a woman nearby with her two children calmly said to us: "There are kids around."

I said nothing. If she'd used a homophobic slur or been angry I would have had a retort. But what she said floored me so much that I didn't have a response. I've unpacked this moment many times since. I still don't know what I should have said to her, or her kids for that matter. But that woman is part of the reason I write plays for young people. Or more specifically, her kids are. I think about them a lot and hope that they're incidentally in the audience of one of my plays. Because the incident made me realise why we need theatre for young audiences.

Adults, for the most part, have made up their mind about the world around them. Young people are still questioning it and making up their own mind. But, and I say this as a parent myself, we can't always trust our parents to foster these questions, and encourage us to see the world in new ways. We need plays for young people in order to ask the questions that no one else is asking. To challenge the world as we think we know it. To help us make sense of the moment we see two blokes kissing by the river and our mum thinks she should shield our eyes.

When people say "Write what you know", I very much agree. But perhaps not in the conventional sense. Not in a write-about-a-world-or-story-you- literally- know way. For me it's about what you know emotionally, and in your heart. I know about feeling like I don't fit in; I know about heartbreak; I know about not living up to family's expectations, about losing friends, about not standing up to the group, about regret, and loss, and lust, and love.I know what it is to be the outsider.

'I have always felt like a stranger' ... Evan Placey

And I was a teenager once too. The world has changed, the clothes, the language, the technology, the social attitudes, but the fundamental shape of the teenage experience has remained the same for decades. It's the details that make each of our experiences unique during those formative years, but deep down at its roots, we've all lived the same experience, the one that teens will continue living until the end of time: a collection of moments and choices in which we begin forming the person we want to be. (And spoiler for young readers: it really is just the beginning. You never stop trying to figure out who you want to be. I'm certainly still trying.)

Whilst I was doing my MA, we had a guest workshop with Kate Leys, a film script editor. She talked about the story structure as "A stranger came to town". Those words stuck. That's the same play I've been writing and rewriting over and over one way or another. Perhaps because I have always felt like a stranger. As an immigrant, as a gay man, as a Jew. And I think that maybe we all feel like strangers when we're teenagers - to the parents and friends who don't understand us; to our changing bodies which aren't doing what we want them to; to ourselves as we try to understand why we do the things we do. To be a young person is to be a stranger to the wider world who never quite gets you.

I ignore the adults: the parents and the teachers. I'm not writing for the gatekeepers

When writing for young people I think a lot about the characters I wish I'd seen as a kid. And those characters and stories are still the ones I'm not seeing on stage. It's my desire to bring those people to life that inspired me to write plays for teenagers. No, it's the responsibility I feel to tell the stories that has pulled me to table and chair and forced me to write them. For the other strangers in the audience. Since becoming a dad, it's a responsibility I feel more acutely than ever. My son is a child of colour, with two dads, and the sad truth is there will come a day when he too feels like a stranger in the country he calls home. What plays do I want him to see? Because art has a responsibility to reflect the world of its audiences. But also it should go one step further. It should show them the world they don't know, tell them the stories they haven't heard, and ask them the questions they haven't thought of. I don't write just for the strangers in the audience, I write for the town.

My favourite films and plays as a kid were worlds and stories run by children, void of adults. And this has permeated not only the worlds of the plays I write for young audiences, but the way I approach writing them too. I ignore the adults: the parents and the teachers. I'm not writing for the gatekeepers, but for the young people in the audience, and the young people performing in the play.

The main characters in my plays are always young people, but beyond that there is no difference in how I approach writing a play for young people versus how I write plays for adults. Because unlike that woman on the South Bank eight years ago, I don't censor the world for young people. They encounter it in their daily lives, so why shouldn't they encounter it in the theatre?

There isn't a moral or message in my plays. There aren't any answers either. I don't have them. But maybe they can act as provocations for young people to find the answers. It's they who must find them. It's their future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Playwright Evan Placey: 'I don't censor the world for young people'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
everal years ago, I was on the South Bank in London for New Year's Eve, watching the fireworks. When the clock struck midnight, my boyfriend and I kissed, like the other couples that surrounded us. And then a woman nearby with her two children calmly said to us: "There are kids around."

# data[].attributes.body
Its always a good idea to know the specification requirements in detail. This is a great resource to help you to develop your awareness of key areas of the GCSE drama course.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Easy-to-understand homework and revision materials for your GCSE Drama OCR '9-1' studies and exams.

# data[].attributes.body
Having a clear understanding of the specification requirements is so important as you embark on the A level drama course

# data[].attributes.body
This is one of the two texts that you will study for the analysing performance unit. You will develop your own vision of how you would bring this text to life on stage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The House of Bernarda Alba | National Theatre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harriet Walter plays the formidable matriarch guarding her reputation against the rising tide of her family’s desires, directed by Rebecca Frecknall in her National Theatre debut.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the other of the set texts explored for analysing performance unit. The is a black comedy that looks at a family and their life with a disabled child. This is a review the 2019 performance and will give you an insight into how it was staged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg review – Peter Nichols’ classic has rare truth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are excellent performances from a cast including Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner, in a fine revival of Nichols’ humane play

# data[].attributes.headline
Practitioners for devising - The Paperbirds

# data[].attributes.subject
Practitioners for devising - The Paperbirds

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout the GCSE Drama course you will explore a range of theatre practitioners and their approach to devising.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Paper Birds is a devising theatre company, with a social and political agenda. We are recognised as UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre. We’re artists, investigators, entrepreneurs, educators. We pride ourselves on taking complex, multi-faceted subjects and making them accessible. We have an artistic programme and a creative learning programme and nurture both equally.

# data[].attributes.headline
Practitioners for devising - Frantic assembly 

# data[].attributes.subject
Practitioners for devising - Frantic assembly 

# data[].attributes.body
Frantic assembly are a contemporary devising theatre company. They use 'building blocks' to approach devising and use a unique style of physical exploration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Frantic Method: Building Blocks for Devising

# data[].attributes.body
This is your set text for Section A and you will answers 8 questions about decisions that you would make as a theatre maker to bring this to life on stage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Blood Brothers, UK Tour Review — Theatre & Tonic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Written in the 80s and with action starting in the sixties and taking place over 25 years, it’s a testament to Russell’s writing that Blood Brothers does not feel dated or tired. Read our review on Theatre & Tonic.

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout the year you will experiment with many different stage types and explore the impact of these.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stage layouts - Creating and staging a devised performance - GCSE Drama Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about planning, style, structure and rehearsal in the context of creating and staging a devised performance for GCSE Drama.

# data[].attributes.body
As your awareness of theatre develops you should begin to use the language of theatre and drama in your lessons. Reading this may help you to understand some of the key vocabulary further.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Drama - Semiotics, signs and symbols. What does it all mean?

# data[].attributes.body
Throughout the A level course you will explore a range of practitioners and their approach to creating theatre.

# data[].attributes.body
In Year 8 you will explore some key techniques in Greek Theatre. It is an exciting and new approach to working as a Greek chorus.

# data[].attributes.headline
Practitioners in Practice - The Paper birds

# data[].attributes.subject
Practitioners in Practice - The Paper birds

# data[].attributes.body
The Paper Birds are a contemporary devising company who create powerful political theatre. They are one of the practitioners that you will explore.

# data[].attributes.body
For section B of this exam you will be watching and analysing a live performance. We have recently explored Simon Stone's Yerma starring the incredible Billie Piper as 'Her'. Stone's use of a glass box and traverse staging is brave and powerful.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie) returns in her Olivier Award-winning role as a woman driven to the unthinkable. In select cinemas now.

# data[].attributes.body
'Find Me' is a play that you will explore during Year 9. You will explore how to present the collective Character of Verity Taylor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Find Me by Olwen Wymark at The Questors Theatre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Theatre exists to entertain and enlighten. Gallagher, his cast and creatives succeed in providing their audience with ample food for thought.

# data[].attributes.body
In the first term of Year 11 you will be completing the devising unit of this course. You will be responding to a stimulus and creating a portfolio that documents your journey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Devising Theatre is daunting and when I was a Drama student I found it one of the most difficult elements of the course. As an adult theatre practitioner, it is something I rarely do. I do a lot of script work, I've worked in professional and amateur theatres with scripts. With that we might devise short pieces to help explore characters or scenarios. But these are more improvisations. They don't carry that same weight as a true devised performance does.

A true and proper performance carries and communicates meaning, plot, themes, characters, issues. It does so in the same way that a script does. Except in devised theatre, the work comes from the students not from an experienced and mature author like a play does.

It seems a huge amount to ask of a young person, just 15 years old, to devise a deep and meaningful performance full of rich language, visual metaphors or complex plot lines. Especially when only two or three years before those same young people were probably devising theatre that involved lots of action, people fighting and no actual story. This is certainly what happens when I allow my Key Stage 3 students free rein to devise a performance!

This is the problem though. At Key Stage 3, regardless of the stimulus for devising, my students find it hard to create anything more than moments of action. Situations like someone robbing a shop, someone finding out they've got an terminal illness or someone failing an exam. They are all moments of action but none of them are stories. So my advice which I find myself repeating all time is; what happens before and after the event? Let's turn that event into a story. Let's find the central character and tell the story of how they got to this place in their life and what happens next in their life after this moment.

Having thought about this, I wanted to write my top five tips I give to students making that step up in maturity to help them devise more challenging, interesting and engaging devising theatre.
Top Tip 1: Don't look for events, look for the stories.
My first top tip is what I've just said. In what stimulus you receive you will be able to think up loads of events or moments of action that could relate to it. The events themselves will not create good drama, but exploring those events further to discover why they happened, how they happened or the motivation behind them will open up the drama into something much more engaging.
Top Tip 2: Make it personal
When you have a personal interest in the message that you want to communicate in your performance, you are far more invested in it. You are more likely to enjoy the process and be passionate about the performance. If you are telling a story that involves you, someone you know or something you are passionate about, then you are going to want to not only tell this story but you are going to want to tell it well.
Top Tip 3: Question your objectives
Once you have a theme, story or idea in mind, keep questioning every new thing that comes into the piece of theatre you are devising. Question it's relevance to the central idea of what you want to communicate. It is important to justify every decision you make in the devising process through making it link to your core objective for the piece you are creating.

That doesn't mean that once you set your core objective, or even your core idea, that it has to stay that way and cannot change. By questioning your everything new coming into it, you might decide it sheds a new light on your original idea and you want to change what you're doing in some way to reflect that.
Top Tip 4: Explore, explore and explore some more
It is hard not to simply create a plot between you as a group, then block it, rehearse it and perform it. That process of devising will create a performance and get results. However, what you will create will lack depth, reflection and challenge. My top tip here would be to explore the content was much as possible. Exploring the stimuli, the characters and the ideas is like planning an essay, and the best planned essays always get more marks. So explore everything and create as much material as possible, which you can then shift through and piece together to make a performance. Create improvisations, hotseat characters and develop physical images of ideas. It is all material that you can include in your performance.
Top Tip 5: Let the genre find you
This is a bit of a contentious one. There are two schools of thought here. You either devise a performance to the practitioner / genre. Or you create the work and see which practitioner / genre you think would be best to communicate your message. I think you need to let your work make the decisions. As you explore, create and devise this performance, there will be lots of different types of Drama you'll use to make it. As you progress through the process it will become more obvious to you how you want to tell the story.
Bonus Top Tip: Don't forget your audience
I've seen it done loads of time and each time no one means it to happen, but somewhere in the process of devising your performance you forget who it is for. Well, it isn't that you forget who it is for but you start making it for yourself. And of course, all theatre is made for ourselves, but we aren't the ones who are going to be buying it, watching it or assessing it! You need to remember that everything you do is for an audience. That whilst you may understand the piece of theatre, because it is yours, the audience must also understand the piece of theatre.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Devising Theatre is daunting and when I was a Drama student I found it one of the most difficult elements of the course. As an adult theatre practitioner, it is something I rarely do. I do a lot of script work, I've worked in professional and amateur theatres with scripts.

# data[].attributes.body
For section B of the written examination you will watch a live performance and then analyse the key decisions that are made by the director, designer and actors to communicate meaning to you as a member of the audience.

# data[].attributes.body
We will explore some key scenes of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Having a clear understanding of the plot will help you be able to make key creative decisions when you are bringing key moments to life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shakespeare in Seven Minutes: Macbeth Summary #macbeth #shakespeare #gcseenglish

# data[].attributes.body
This is the text that you will study at A Level for the Deconstructing Texts unit. You will have your own directors vision on how you would stage this play to highlight the key themes of Arthur Miller's The Crucible text.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Olivier Award-winner Lyndsey Turner directs this electrifying new production with set design by Es Devlin in a 'nigh-on perfect revival' ( Evening Standard) of Arthur Miller 's masterpiece, a gripping parable of power and its abuse.

A witch hunt is beginning in Salem...

Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women suddenly find their words have a terrible power. As a climate of fear spreads through the community, private vendettas fuel public accusations and soon the truth itself is on trial.

Featuring Milly Alcock ( House of the Dragon) as Abigail Williams, Caitlin FitzGerald ( Masters of Sex, Succession) as Elizabeth Proctor, and Brian Gleeson ( Bad Sisters) as John Proctor, our acclaimed production of The Crucible is now playing at the Gielgud Theatre for a strictly limited summer season.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The National Theatre's production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, directed by Lyndsey Turner, transfers to the West End's Gielgud Theatre.

# data[].attributes.body
You will study the genre of Pantomime, where it came from, and how stock characters are created. You will be theatre makers and create your very own Pantomime!

# data[].attributes.body
We will explore some key scenes from Romeo & Juliet to gain a deeper understanding of the plot, themes and characters. You will be able to make creative decisions when you bring key scenes to the stage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
TL;DR (may contain spoilers): The classic story of boy meets girl; girl's family hates boy's family; boy's family hates girl's family; boy kills girl's cousin; boy and girl kill themselves.
Romeo and Juliet Summary

An age-old vendetta between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues risk further conflict by gatecrashing a Capulet party. A young lovesick Romeo Montague falls instantly in love with Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry her father's choice, the County Paris. With the help of Juliet's nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo's attempt to halt a street fight leads to the death of Juliet's own cousin, Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar's plot and fakes her own death. The message fails to reach Romeo, and believing Juliet dead, he takes his life in her tomb. Juliet wakes to find Romeo's corpse beside her and kills herself. The grieving family agree to end their feud.

More detail: 2 minute read
Act I

Romeo and Juliet begins as the Chorus introduces two feuding families of Verona: the Capulets and the Montagues. On a hot summer's day, the young men of each faction fight until the Prince of Verona intercedes and threatens to banish them. Soon after, the head of the Capulet family plans a feast. His goal is to introduce his daughter Juliet to a Count named Paris who seeks to marry Juliet.

Montague's son Romeo and his friends (Benvolio and Mercutio) hear of the party and resolve to go in disguise. Romeo hopes to see his beloved Rosaline at the party. Instead, while there, he meets Juliet and falls instantly in love with her. Juliet's cousin Tybalt recognises the Montague boys and forces them to leave just as Romeo and Juliet discover one another.

Royal Shakespeare Company, 1986

Act II

Romeo lingers near the Capulet house to talk with Juliet when she appears in her window. The pair declare their love for one another and intend to marry the next day. With the help of Juliet's Nurse, the lovers arrange to marry when Juliet goes for confession at the cell of Friar Laurence. There, they are secretly married (talk about a short engagement).

Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow
- Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2

Act III

Following the secret marriage, Juliet's cousin Tybalt sends a challenge to Romeo. Romeo refuses to fight, which angers his friend Mercutio who then fights with Tybalt. Mercutio is accidentally killed as Romeo intervenes to stop the fight. In anger, Romeo pursues Tybalt, kills him, and is banished by the Prince.

Juliet is anxious when Romeo is late to meet her and learns of the brawl, Tybalt's death, and Romeo's banishment. Friar Laurence arranges for Romeo to spend the night with Juliet before he leaves for Mantua. Meanwhile, the Capulet family grieves for Tybalt, so Lord Capulet moves Juliet's marriage to Paris to the next day. Juliet's parents are angry when Juliet doesn't want to marry Paris, but they don't know about her secret marriage to Romeo.

Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence, Bunbury, 1984

A pair of star-crossed lovers
- Romeo and Juliet, Prologue

Act IV

Friar Laurence helps Juliet by providing a sleeping draught that will make her seem dead. When the wedding party arrives to greet Juliet the next day, they believe she is dead. The Friar sends a messenger to warn Romeo of Juliet's plan and bids him to come to the Capulet family monument to rescue his sleeping wife.

Ready to test your knowledge? Have a go at our multiple choice Romeo and Juliet Quiz

Act V

The vital message to Romeo doesn't arrive in time because the plague is in town (so the messenger cannot leave Verona). Hearing from his servant that Juliet is dead, Romeo buys poison from an Apothecary in Mantua. He returns to Verona and goes to the tomb where he surprises and kills the mourning Paris. Romeo takes his poison and dies, while Juliet awakens from her drugged coma. She learns what has happened from Friar Laurence, but she refuses to leave the tomb and stabs herself. The Friar returns with the Prince, the Capulets, and Romeo's lately widowed father. The deaths of their children lead the families to make peace, and they promise to erect a monument in Romeo and Juliet's memory.

Royal Shakespeare Company, 1958

Romeo and Juliet Animated Summary - 3-Minute Shakespeare

To watch more animated play summaries visit our 3-Minute Shakespeare pages

For additional reading, see our blogs on Romeo and Juliet
Discover more of Shakespeare's romantic lines: Shakespeare Quotes on Love

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Summary of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: The classic story of boy meets girl; girl's family hates boy's family; boy's family hates girl's family; boy kills girl's cousin; boy and girl kill themselves.

# data[].attributes.body
When you are bringing a script to life you must consider a range of techniques to help prepare. Watch this to see how many of these you can use successfully in your work.

# data[].attributes.body
Stanislavski developed his own system for preparing actors. This system is still used today by actors and directors.

# data[].attributes.body
A key section of the GCSE Drama course to to analyse a performance and the impact that it had on you as an audience member.

# data[].attributes.body
A key part of Drama is to explore the impact that a live performance has on you as a member of the audience. In Year 9 we watch this performance and will analyse key features that the actors, directors and designers use to communicate meaning to you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie - London & UK Tour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jamie New is sixteen. And he has a secret. He doesn’t quite fit in at school. His Dad’s left home. He’s about to sit his GCSEs. The future is terrifying.

# data[].attributes.body
A key part of the Drama curriculum is for you to analyse the impact that a live performance has on you as an audience member. But what should you do look for? Watch this and it may give you some ideas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Live theatre evaluation - Eduqas - GCSE Drama - Eduqas - Video - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about and revise live theatre evaluation with BBC Bitesize GCSE Drama - Eduqas.

# data[].attributes.body
A key area of the drama curriculum is for you to consider what decisions actors, directors and designers make to bring a show to life on stage. In Year 7 we will watch the recording of Shrek the musical and you will look carefully at costume, set. lighting and acting.

# data[].attributes.body
What job are out there in the Theatre industry?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Careers in performing arts - Careers - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Looking for job inspiration? Check out our job profiles for tips and advice from young people working in performing arts. Find out how much you could get paid for different roles and what qualifications you might need.

# data[].attributes.body
What career can you pursue in the Performing arts industry?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Careers in performing arts - Careers - BBC Bitesize

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Looking for job inspiration? Check out our job profiles for tips and advice from young people working in performing arts. Find out how much you could get paid for different roles and what qualifications you might need.