Year 9

Students study 3 new genres this half term: firstly Theatre of Cruelty. This style of theatre is very unusual, yet very popular. Students are introduced to Theatre of Cruelty and Theatre and its Double. Students practically explore the actor/audience relationship that Artaud made so famous. Students will understand where Artaud took his inspiration from in order to create his theatrical style and then create a performance piece based on his techniques. Students explore the genre 'Absurdism' and focus on key extracts for this. They concentrate on extracts from Waiting for Godot by Beckett. They look at the similarities to, and differences from, previous texts and understand the features of the script that make it Absurdism. Students then look at the 'Gothic' and focus on extracts from Frankenstein and Woman in Black. Students are then given an extract to bring to life based on one of the above genres. They will perform it and explain justifications for how they would stage/set it.

In the second part of this half term, we will learn about a new practitioner Paper Birds; this company creates work which is verbatim based but includes the ideas of physical theatre as part of their developmental process.

Students study a variety of scripts based on duologues. During this unit they analyse the selection of scripts and start to practically break down why they were written. They focus on what has happened before the scene, what has happened after the scene, the sub-text behind the character's lines and the motivation for each scene. Students use techniques such as hot seating to gain a deeper understanding of the character's role and motivation. The students present a duologue to the class and demonstrate which style/practitioner they will be using.

Pupil’s are introduced to the work of the British playwright John Godber and his recognisable style. He is well known for plays such as ‘Teechers,’ ‘Shakers’ and ‘Bouncers’ which the students will read, study and perform. They will learn about features of his work such as setting in one location, the use of multi-role, stereotyped characters, comedy moments as well as an underlying serious message.

Students watch and discuss different types of theatre. They focus on how plots are presented in the times in which the play was written and how it is adapted for a modern audience.  Students focus on: how actors use voice and body language to create characters and understand how they can sustain them on a stage. They acknowledge how actors respond to others on stage and focus on how proxemics are used to help create tension on stage. Students also look in more detail at design and the symbolism used to highlight the differences in character using colour, make up and style of costume.  Additionally, students look closely at how plays can be presented in different styles and the impact this has on an audience.  They then use this knowledge to create their own performance work. 

Theatre creation involves the students learning about Platform Theatre and the work of Box House. At the end of the unit, students devise and perform their own adaptation of either a movie or a medley of fairy tales employing the features attributed to Box House.