A Guide to Expressive Arts

Mind-map your plan in detail. Don’t just include what you’re going to do, include what you could do as well and other possible ideas. Start making props months before your exam; they’ll be much better quality and nothing will be left until last minute

Learn your lines! Whether they’re written down as a script or not, know you’re lines. Once you have, you’ll be able to get on with other things and on the day of your exam, you’ll be ready and professional. Practice as much as you can. Practice makes perfect. Soon, you’ll know what you’re doing like you know your own name and you won’t have to worry about anything.

Choose your art forms early. If you know exactly what you’re doing, you’ll be able to plan ahead and start making your art forms. Get a small audience to watch it near to the exam. Only four or five people should watch and give you feedback on what they liked, what you can improve and prepare you for performing it for real in front of a bigger audience.

Your portfolio is just as important as your drama. Your portfolio for A691 and A692 is worth 75% of your marks and for A693, a third of your marks. You can get good marks by doing the following. Include practitioners. Mention how they influenced you, what their style is and what techniques you used. Writing lesson logs (this will help you especially for your exam by reminding you of techniques and things you learnt) Annotate pictures to show your understanding and influences Include rough ideas. Even if you don’t use them, it shows the examiner you know what you’re talking about and that you have more than one idea Drafts. If you’ve written a monologue, letter or piece of writing, draft it several times. This means you can improve it and change it. Brainstorms Research. This is a clear example of the GASSMANC’s ‘context’ part. It shows you thought about the facts and that your drama is accurate.

Audience Also, think about the structure of your play, for example, if it’s long it wouldn’t be for primary school because they wouldn’t being able to sit down for a long time. The message or moral you’re delivering is also important. You wouldn’t perform a play to nursery kids about drink driving or a fairy- tale to adults because it wouldn’t be appropriate. Finding the correct audience for your drama piece is quite difficult. Being specific is key; show who exactly it’s for. Instead of ‘teenagers, try ’14 years olds in primary school’.

In the exam… Facial Expressions- make sure to get across your emotion using your face. Body Language- Exaggerate if you need to! You may feel silly but you’ll get a much higher marks Voice Dynamics- Raise your voice or lower you voice to make the drama more effective. Space- Use your whole stage, don’t crowd in one part and don’t have your back to the audience. Lighting- This doesn’t get as much marks as the others but if it helps set the atmosphere and tone and you use it correctly, it could get you a couple of marks which is the difference between a D and a C! Techniques- Soundscapes, Unison, Choral speaking are just some of the techniques which can all make your piece ten times better!

Finally.. If something goes wrong: O Carry on O Don’t laugh O Stay in character O Don’t make it obvious to the examiner After the exam: O Get advice from the examiner or your teacher on how to improve on your next exam