Curriculum Portal

neurologyYou need to know

• Hot seating is a drama technique that supports actors in rehearsal by allowing them to explore a character's thoughts, feelings, and motivations through spontaneous questioning.
• Atmosphere refers to the mood or feeling created in a performance through elements such as sound, lighting, movement, and vocal tone.
• Tension is the feeling of suspense or anticipation that keeps an audience engaged and interested in what happens next.
• Climax is the most intense or dramatic point in a story, often where the conflict reaches its peak.
• Vocal skills like pace, pitch, volume, and tone are important to develop mood, character, and dramatic effect.
• Target audience is the specific group of people a performance or story is aimed at, whose interests and responses influence how the drama is created and presented.
• Vocal collage is a performance technique where a group uses overlapping voices, sounds, and words to express a character's inner emotions or thoughts collectively.
• Thought tracking is a drama strategy that reveals a character's thoughts aloud at a chosen moment.
• A thought tunnel is a drama strategy where a character walks between two facing lines of people who voice thoughts, pressures, or advice as the character passes between them.
• Levels and proxemics in performance show status and relationships between characters, such as who stands higher or closer.
• Characterisation skills help actors communicate characters' personalities, emotions, and relationships clearly to an audience.

• Explore and present a character through hot seating and spontaneous improvisation.
• Create and perform still-images to convey story moments, character emotions, and mood without words.
• Use voice and physicality, including movement, facial expressions, and body language, to create atmosphere and build tension in drama.
• Devise and perform dramatic scenes that develop a climax, using repetition, sound effects, and vocal variations to increase suspense.
• Work collaboratively to develop ideas for story endings and present these through performance.
• Use levels and proxemics effectively to show character status and relationships on stage.
• Incorporate storytelling strategies such as narration, thought tracking, thought tunnels, vocal collage, physical theatre, and soundscape into performances.
• Reflect on and evaluate their own and peers' performances, justifying observations about strengths and areas for improvement.
• Use facial expressions, gesture, and body language to show character traits and story clues non-verbally.
• Transition smoothly between different performance techniques, such as from vocal collage to physical theatre, during a scene.