Drama: Putting it all together

Performance analysis and evaluation

In Drama, students must analyse and evaluate live performances. These may include a performance in a theatre, a touring production that has visited the school, or a school production.

The following approach supports students to develop their analytical and evaluative writing, and supports the Respond and Interpret content descriptions from the Victorian Curriculum: Drama (VCADRR038, VCADRR039, VCADRR045, VCADRR046).

Before attending the performance

1. Prior to attending the performance, the teacher presents to the students the following verbs (without definitions) associated with writing in Drama:
   • identify (locate, determine)
   • describe (give an account of)
   • discuss (provide arguments (both ‘for’ and ‘against’) using evidence to arrive at a conclusion)
   • analyse (examine closely and critically and discuss the impact using evidence)
   • evaluate (provide an informed opinion of value or worth or significance drawing on evidence).
2. The teacher introduces ‘think – ink – pair – share.’ This encourages participation of all students as they have time to consider responses prior to sharing with one other peer.
   • Each student uses their existing knowledge to think of a definition for each verb.
   • Each student writes (inks) their definition.
     
   • The students form pairs and share their definitions.

   An alternative is for the teacher to provide the verbs and the definitions in jumbled order for students to match. 

3. The students share their definitions with the whole class.
4. The students and the teacher discuss distinctions between the verbs.
5. The teacher explains that in Drama, the verbs ‘analyse’ and ‘evaluate’ are often linked in oral and written responses:
   • When we analyse a performance, we examine it closely to explain and interpret.
   • When we evaluate a performance, we assess its value, worth and significance.
     
6. The teacher and the students view a scene of a play on video or performed by students in class.
7. The teacher and the students discuss specific aspects of the scene using the following prompts focusing on the meaning of the performance.
   • What happened in the scene? (literal)
   • What were the main themes/issues explored in the performance? (inferential) 
   • What were three key moments in the production that highlighted these main themes/issues? (inferential, analytical)
   • How effective was the creation of these moments? Use evidence/examples from the performance to support your opinion. (evaluative)

Teachers may wish to review the use of literal, inferential, and evaluative questions to analyse a visual artwork.

8. The teacher and students discuss evidence from the scene to support responses to the above prompts.

   After attending the performance
   

9. The teacher asks the students to reiterate definitions of ‘analyse’ and ‘evaluate.’ The teacher and the students discuss how analysis and evaluation are interrelated (Bird & Sallis, 2019).
   • When we analyse a performance, we examine it closely to explain and interpret. 
   • When we evaluate a performance, we assess its value, worth and significance. 
   • To evaluate a performance, we need to analyse it (or examine it closely) and determine its impact on the audience and its value, worth and significance. 
10. The teacher introduces the focus of the writing task, that is, the aspects/s of the performance to be analysed and evaluated, for example, analysis of the staging, evaluation of the acting performances.
11. To support the students’ development of the writing task, the teacher and the students brainstorm three key moments of the play that they have attended (step 7 above may be repeated). For example, in a performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ three key moments may be:
    • the secret marriage of Romeo and Juliet
    • the battle between the Montagues and the Capulets that results in Romeo killing Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt
    • the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.
12. The students form pairs. Referring to the three key moments the students complete the table below in relation to the production. This step supports the students to identify, describe, analyse and evaluate ‘evidence’ from the performance. The students are encouraged to refer to Drama glossaries and use their knowledge of the language of Drama-specific language, elements, and conventions.

    

    (Bird & Sallis, 2019, p. 104)
    

13. Responses recorded in the table are shared. The completed table serves as a resource for the planning of the writing task.
14. The teacher presents/distributes an example of a paragraph from a student’s writing task such as the following. For this task, the student was asked to write a paragraph evaluating how effectively the actors used their physical theatre skills and the stage area in the opening scene of the play (set in the marketplace in Verona) to enhance the actor-audience relationship in the performance.)

When performing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the actors used the space in front of the curtain of a proscenium arch theatre* very effectively. Considering this travelling production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ has moved from venue to venue, the performance spaces have been slightly different in each town. On this particular stage, the actors played in front of the curtain instead of using the big stage. In some scenes, they sat on the edge of the stage swinging their legs playfully over into the space near the audience. This production choice was most effective in the first scene in the play as it engaged the audience immediately. The staging made the production seem friendly and informal. Even though the acting space was not large, the actors used it in inventive ways so that they could develop and showcase their physical comedy. For example, when sword-fighting they jumped in and out of the break in the curtain rapidly and they spread out across the width of the stage with large gestures to support the physical comedy style of the play. Also, the actors interacted with the audience through physical gestures and verbal asides. This engaging audience interaction would not have worked as well if the whole proscenium arch theatre space had been used. 

*A proscenium arch is an arched structure in the front of the stage that usually frames the action of the play. 

(Adapted from, Bird, Sallis & Bailey, 2017, pp. 171-172)


15. Working in pairs, the students deconstruct the paragraph using the following prompts:
    • What aspects of the performance are discussed in the paragraph? 
    • Underline or list Drama-specific vocabulary (for example, in green).
    • Highlight words, phrases or sentences that are examples of analysis (for example, in blue).
    • In a different colour, highlight words, phrases or sentences that are examples of evaluation (for example, in pink). 
    • List the evidence/examples from the performance that the writer has included to support their analysis and evaluation. 
    • Has the student addressed the task? (In this task, the students were asked to evaluate how the actors used their physical theatre skills and the stage area in the opening scene of the play to enhance the actor-audience relationship in the performance.)
16. The students share their responses with the whole class. 
17. The teacher asks students to return to the paragraph and discuss the following in pairs
    • the topic sentences
    • the use of tense 
    • the use of nouns and noun groups (for example, ‘physical gestures,’ ‘verbal asides,’ ‘proscenium arch theatre’)
    • the use of verbs (for example, ‘interacted’)
    • the use of adjectives (for example, ‘inventive’)
    • the use of adverbs (for example, ‘playfully’)
18. The teacher leads a discussion about the grammatical and linguistic features the students have found and explains the purpose of each.

    For example, the teacher might explain that a topic sentence should present an argument or opinion about the effectiveness of the selected moment. The topic sentence from the sample paragraph used above is:

    When performing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the actors used the space in front of the curtain of a proscenium arch theatre* very effectively.

19. The teacher asks the students to choose a scene or ‘moment’ from their completed table. The teacher explains that students will draw on these tables to write a paragraph that analyses and evaluates the scene or moment they have selected. The teacher and students reiterate the general structure of paragraphs. (Access ‘Writing interpretation responses’.)
20. The students draft their topic sentences and continue with their paragraphs.
21. The students, either individually or in pairs, use the prompts from steps 7 and 9 above as checklists for the paragraphs.
    

Learning sequence

The learning sequence for Levels 9 and 10 in Drama, demonstrates how literacy teaching strategies can be used in a sequence.

A learning sequence tool is also available to assist in the planning of Drama and Literacy across a series of lessons.