Unit 4 – Area of Study 3: Analysing and evaluating a performance

Outcome 3

Analyse and evaluate acting, direction and design in a production.

Examples of lear​ning activities

• Draw up a list of acting skills used in the production and for each key character; attempt to identify how each actor crafted their character(s) through each of the acting skills of voice, movement and gesture, stillness and silence and body language.
• Discuss how the elements of composition were used to create meaning for the audience and provide examples used in the production areas of lighting and sound, costume and make-up, set and props, and acting and direction; describe how these facilitated meaning.
• Research sources such as media, print, television, the radio and the Internet for analysis of actors in the performance of a play from the prescribed playlist; examine the similarities and differences in their analyses.
• ​Describe how the director used conventions of the theatrical style to interpret the script, list the conventions and correlate these to the directorial decisions made in the production.
• Describe how specific actors used the elements of theatrical composition to convey meaning.
• 
  Analyse the status, motivation and characteristics of a character/s in the play and how the actors used their skills to demonstrate these.​

 

​​Detailed example

Analysing character status, motivation and characteristics

After attending a performance prescribed on the VCE Theatre Studies Unit 4 Playlist, describe:

• the wants or desires of a character/s, i.e. the character’s motivation
• the physical, emotional and intellectual characteristics of character/s
• how an actor used verbal and non-verbal language to convey intended meaning
• how an actor established and maintained the actor–audience relationship
• specific moments in the play when an actor used their costume, props or set items to help communicate their character
• how an actor created role through the use of different acting styles.​

Draw up a graphic representation of the relative changing status of selected character/s. Particularly note any intersecting lines where status is swapped between two characters. 

Draw a map of how character/s use the acting space. Try to identify any obvious patterns, especially those that might relate to intention or intended meaning.