Advanced Higher Drama at Our Lady's High School, Motherwell, Scotland

ADVANCED HIGHER DRAMA

Entry Level
Negotiable, but generally a good pass in the following: Higher Drama and Higher English.

Course Description

There are three units at this level: Devised Drama, Twentieth Century Theatre: Theories of Performance and Special Study.

Devised Drama: Requires the student to develop a dramatic presentation on the chosen theme given by SQA and to demonstrate practical skills in the realisation of the dramatic presentation.

Twentieth Century Theatre: Requires the student to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theories of acting and directing of two leading 20th Century Theatre Practitioners (Stanislavski and Brecht or Boal) and to explore their influence on current theatre practice.

Special Study: Requires the student to use skills of research and investigation to arrive at performance concepts for a given play and to demonstrate performance concepts of the chosen play to an audience.

Homestudy

A considerable amount of independent home study and a wide range of personal reading and research will be required for this course. This will include written commentaries and essays as well as practice for internal and external course assessments. The investigative element of the course will be guided but will require a high degree of self-organisation and motivation.

Home study will also include appropriate theatre visits. Usually this includes students attending the theatre at least once a month.

Scottish Qualifications Authority Assessment

Internal assessment of the units will require extended essays covering all the learning outcomes and will be subject to SQA verification.

The investigation and experimentation process for Devised Drama will be recorded in a workbooklet.

Special Study
Special Study will be assessed by teacher observation and a detailed log of the individual's contribution. This will be submitted to SQA for verification purposes. There will be an extended essay evaluating the finished production.

External Assessment
External assessment will be by practical examination of their Special Study which is worth 45% of the final course award and the written examination assessing 20th Century Theatre Practitioners which is worth 55% of the final course award.