Supporting Notes – Unit 2The examiner reads your supporting notes before seeing your practical work – so your notes are an excellent way of guiding him/her to look for the production aspects you want to emphasise.

The supporting notes MUST be divided into three separate sections. Each section should be between 500 and 700 words in length, so that the document, in total, should be approximately 1500-2000 words.

The descriptions below tell you exactly what you MUST include in each section. Missing anything out will result in you losing marks.

SECTION 1Evidence of exploration of the work of the chosen practitioner; identifying the keyfeatures of that work and justification of the choice of extract in the light of thatexploration. To be supported by a bibliography/webliography/performance history/listof sources and resources (as appropriate).

SECTION 2Outline of dramatic intentions for the audience, in relation to the group’s interpretationof the chosen extract and the influence of the chosen practitioner.

SECTION 3Assessment of the rehearsal process and of the potential effectiveness of the piecefor an audience. Evaluation of the development of the nominated skill in relation bothto the chosen text and to the influential practitioner’s ideas; awareness of health andsafety factors.

Keeping a journal throughout the rehearsal process is the best way of ensuring you have all the information you need for your supporting notes. The journal is the way you practise explaining your ideas so that you can express them as clearly and as concisely as possible in the final version.

On the next two pages you’ll find the mark scheme, first for the overall preparation (page 2) and then for the supporting notes (page 3).

On pages 4-7 you’ll see an example of Supporting Notes – this earned top band marks.

3.6 Assessment Criteria for Unit 2Part (a) – Preparation and development – Unit 2A mark out of five is to be awarded for each of thefollowing three sections:Section 14–5 marks Candidates will demonstrate secureunderstanding of the work of thechosen practitioner and purposefulapplication of key features of his/her/their ideas to a suitable text to realisevery clear dramatic intentions for theaudience.2–3 marks Candidates will demonstrate someunderstanding of the work of thechosen practitioner and an attempt toapply a number of features of his/her/their ideas to a suitable text to realisegeneralised dramatic intentions for theaudience.1 mark Candidates will demonstrate partialunderstanding of the work of thechosen practitioner and occasionalapplication of a restricted range offeatures of his/her/their ideas to theselected text. Dramatic intentions forthe audience may be underdeveloped.Section 24–5 marks Candidates will demonstrate a highdegree of creative co-operation anda commitment to experiment with thechosen play throughout the rehearsalprocess. They will maintain a high levelof self-discipline and exhibit carefulattention to detail in preparing theextract for performance, promising asuccessful outcome.2–3 marks Candidates will demonstrate someattempt at creative co-operation anda willingness to experiment with thechosen play throughout the rehearsalprocess. A reasonable level of selfdiscipline,and some attention todetail in preparing the extract forperformance, promises an acceptableoutcome.1 mark Candidates’ creative co-operationand willingness to experiment with

the chosen play in rehearsal maybe sporadic. The self-discipline andattention to detail applied in preparingthe extract for performance may not besufficient to ensure a positive outcome.Section 34–5 marks Candidates will demonstrate significantdevelopment of their nominated skill inrelation to the production/performancerequirements of the play/extract. Thesewill be precisely attuned to the needs ofthe play and reflect the influence of thechosen practitioner.2–3 marks Candidates will demonstrate somedevelopment of their nominated skill inrelation to the production/performancerequirements of the play/extract. Thesewill be generally appropriate to theneeds of the play and suggest someinfluence of the chosen practitioner.1 mark Candidates will demonstrate basicdevelopment of their nominated skill inrelation to the production/performancerequirements of the play/extract. Thesemay not be appropriate to the needsof the play but will suggest a slightinfluence of the chosen practitioner.

Part (b) – Supporting notes – Unit 2A mark out of five is to be awarded for each of thefollowing three sections:Section 14–5 marks Candidates will provide clear andconcise evidence of detailed explorationof the work of their chosen practitionerand a good level of understanding ofhis/her/their theatrical purpose. Theywill justify their selection of a suitableplay/extract in relation to the keyfeatures of the practitioner’s work thatthey have decided to apply.2–3 marks Candidates will provide some evidenceof their exploration of the work of theirchosen practitioner and an acceptablelevel of understanding of his/her/theirtheatrical purpose. They will offer somejustification for their selection of play/extract in relation to the key features ofthe practitioner’s work that they havedecided to apply.1 mark Candidates will provide a little evidenceof their exploration of the work of theirchosen practitioner although theirunderstanding of his/her/their theatricalpurpose may appear insecure. Theywill make some attempt to justify theirselection of play/extract in relationto the chosen practitioner and mayidentify a few of the key features of thepractitioner’s work.Section 24–5 marks The dramatic intentions of the group willbe clearly stated. The notes will offera detailed interpretation of the chosenplay/extract and will explain preciselyhow the influence of the chosenpractitioner has helped the candidatesto interpret the extract for an audiencein practical terms.2–3 marks The dramatic intentions of the group

will be stated in general terms. Thenotes will offer some attempt at aninterpretation of the chosen play/extractand will make some links between theinfluence of the chosen practitioner andthe practical interpretation of the extractfor an audience.1 mark The dramatic intentions of the group willbe noted, albeit not expressed entirelycoherently. The notes will attemptan interpretation of the chosen play/extract but may not establish entirelyconvincing links between the influenceof the chosen practitioner and thepractical interpretation of the extract foran audience.Section 34–5 marks There will be detailed and purposefulassessment of the interpretative/rehearsal process and of the potentialeffectiveness of the play/extract,including clear evaluation of thedevelopment of the nominated skill.Health and safety factors will receivecareful attention. Specialist terminologywill be used confidently.2–3 marks There is some meaningful assessmentof the interpretative/rehearsal processand of the potential effectiveness ofthe play/extract, including an attemptat evaluation of the development ofthe nominated skill. Health and safetyfactors will receive fairly perfunctoryattention. Specialist terminology may beused occasionally.1 mark There is an attempt at an assessmentof the interpretative/rehearsal processand of the potential effectiveness ofthe play/extract. Candidates offer alittle evaluation of the development ofthe nominated skill. Health and safetyfactors will receive insufficient attention.Specialist terminology may not be usedaccurately.

EXAMPLE OF UNIT 2 (DRAM2) SUPPORTING NOTES (Top Band)

Play selected: Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt BrechtPractitioner selected: Bertolt BrechtCandidate: EmilySkill: Acting – a petitioner; GrushaSECTION 1Evidence of exploration of the work of the chosen practitioner; identifying the keyfeatures of that work and justification of the choice of extract in the light of thatexploration. To be supported by a bibliography/webliography/performance history/listof sources and resources (as appropriate).

Choice of play and extractsWe have chosen to apply the ideas of practitioner, Bertolt Brecht to our presentationof extracts from his own play, Caucasian Chalk Circle. We feel this practitioner will bemost helpful to us in interpreting the play.Brecht developed an ‘Epic Theatre’ style and, although his theatrical ideas werenever static we have identified several key areas of his theory to guide us during ourpreparation.1Brecht’s aims/our aimsLike all Brecht’s plays, ‘Chalk Circle’ is political in intention. It aims to convey themessage that “what there is shall go to those who are good for it”. This socialistprinciple is reflected in the play by presenting the wealthy aristocrats as morallycorrupt while celebrating the innate goodness of the peasant, Grusha and the soldier,Simon and those, like them, with simple hearts and generous natures.We have selected scenes that emphasise the contrast between the rich and the poorto reflect Brecht’s intentions.2Brecht was adamant that his audience should not ‘hang up their brains with their hatsin the cloakroom’ but retain a ‘critical detachment’ from events and characters on thestage; to think about and judge the unfolding action.Brecht formulated the verfremdungseffekt – a theory about the use of bothperformance and production elements - which aimed at distancing the audience fromthe characters.ActingBrecht wanted his actors to demonstrate, not embody, characters. To: Act in quotation marks1 See Bibliography for full list of what I read2 We have chosen continuous extracts from The Noble Child, The Flight into the Mountains, a briefsection from In the Northern Mountains and the section from the final scene with the chalk circle.

Show not be Act in a spirit of criticism.Brecht advocated ‘gestic acting’ – a form of acting that placed emphasis on therevelation of a character’s social attitudes, through gesture, stance and demeanour.We use gestic acting when Natella - the Governor’s wife - is preparing to flee. She isstanding tall, looking down her nose and moving only to point at dresses, shoes andcoats that she wants packed.Her dismissive attitude to her servants is emphasised by the fur-trimmed sleeve on

her gorgeous gown which swishes as she moves her arm to gesticulate what shewants and where it should go. In contrast, her servants - shabbily dressed andhunched over - frantically rush across the stage carrying out her wishes and pilingheaps of gorgeous clothes into various trunks. Natella’s contempt for her servantsand their fear of their mistress is clearly demonstrated.Brecht also used narrator figures and multi-roling in his plays to emphasise the factthat actors are merely demonstrating their roles and conveying a message.We are a group of eight actors but between us we play twenty different characters aswell as peasants, servants and soldiers. The part of the Singer, played by Tom, iscrucial in interacting with the audience, guiding them through the story and nudgingthem to reach appropriate conclusions.I play the part of Grusha, the moral centre of the play. It is quite difficult to distancethe audience from Grusha as she is a good character who makes personal sacrificesto protect the child abandoned by Natella in her flight.I am using Brechtian techniques to retain a distance between myself and the role.3Production elementsOther elements in Brecht’s Epic Theatre that we are adopting:- A set that looked ‘as if it were built to last two hours’ Authentic props within a representational setting A setting built to accommodate the actors in their action/movement Bright light to keep the audience alert On-stage musiciansOur design comprises four adaptable ramps standing 4 metres high. Initially two ofthese, stood vertically, form the palace gates but when placed flat, become, amongstother settings, the mountain pass. This simple yet functional arrangement is backedby a white screen on which we project a palace, a fire, a countryside setting and amountain range, as well as various legends that punctuate the action (Brechtianmontage) and prompt the audience to think; e.g. “Money does not make you kind” “Poverty does not make you bad.”

Bibliography/WebliographyBrecht: A Choice of Evils by M. Esslin (1959)Brecht: The Man and His Work by M. Esslin (1959)Bertold Brecht by R. Gray (1961)The Art of Bertold Brecht by W. Weideli (1963)Bertold Brecht by F. Ewen (1967)Understanding Brecht by W. Benjamin (1973)Brecht by R. Hayman (1983)Bertold Brecht by J.Speirs (1987)Brecht & Co. by John Fuegi (1997)http://www.freetheatre.org.nz/history/ccc.shtmlhttp://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/bertolt_brecht_001.htmlhttp://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ger341/brechtet.htmhttp://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/chalkcircle/links.html

SECTION 2Outline of dramatic intentions for the audience, in relation to the group’s interpretationof the chosen extract and the influence of the chosen practitioner.Chalk Circle is a parable play and our intentions are to teach the audience about thesociety that Brecht depicts and to reflect upon our own.

Brecht’s ideas have influenced our set and use of projections but also our rehearsalmethods. Like Brecht, we wish to make the audience think about a ruler’s duties aswell as his privileges, the underlying reasons for war, and the hypocrisy of the pious(Lavrenti’s wife and the drunken Monk).We have experimented with methods to distance us from our roles and hopefullydistance our audience. In rehearsal we adopted some of Brecht’s ideas, e.g.speaking in the third person and we have created gestic actions for each of ourcharacters.The scene with the miserable petitioners was a useful starting point and we all hadan opportunity to play both aristocratic roles - the Governor, his wife, the Fat Princeor the rich Ladies - as well as peasant roles. This helped us to differentiate betweenthe easy movements of the rich: Expansive gestures Broad shoulders High heads Direct eye contactAnd the more restricted movements of the poor: Bowed heads Hunched backs Lowered eyes Small stepsVocally, too, we have worked to create a contrast between rich and poor with thearistocrats adopting an exaggerated form of R.P. while Simon, Grusha, the variouspeasants speak in a variety of provincial accents. Lavrenti’s wife, Aniko attempts‘posh’ but keeps slipping into a Yorkshire accent.Our interpretation of Grusha is central to our intentions. Brecht did not intend Grushato be a ‘rounded’ role, or a ‘heroine’, even though she is the most ‘likeable’ characterin the play. Like many of Brecht’s characters, Grusha reacts to changingcircumstances and her nature is not fixed. Brecht believed that character is alterableand in the course of the play I show how events shape Grusha as she develops fromsimplicity to resourcefulness.Like Brecht, we wanted the play to look authentic and the costumes that we havechosen clearly distinguish between the rich in colourful, rich materials and thepeasants in a more neutral palette of earthy colours in cream, ochre and browns,comprising rough materials that we have distressed.

SECTION 3Assessment of the rehearsal process and of the potential effectiveness of the piecefor an audience. Evaluation of the development of the nominated skill in relation bothto the chosen text and to the influential practitioner’s ideas; awareness of health andsafety factors.RehearsalsAt first we struggled with gestic actions but we had a break-through when we ran allour scenes in front of an audience of Yr 13 using no words but only gesture, propsand movement. They understood almost all we were trying to do! Much heartened wecontinued to refine our actions.A significant early rehearsal involved identifying the political impulse of each sectionwithin our chosen scenes and then looking for ways to present them. In our first

scene we went through the individual speeches and wrote down Singer – ironically portrays the Governor’s ‘possession’ of many beggars as apositive asset Raggedy Petitioners and Beggars visually contrast with the opulentaristocrats Soldiers lash the peasants (although they are part of the same class) The doctors live in fear of their ‘patients’Understanding Brecht’s message helped enormously in dictating the performancestyle here.The development of my skill - acting. Brecht’s influenceCharacterDespite her ‘romance’ with Simon we decided that Grusha should not be portrayedas ‘romantic’ in any way; I play the role as one of Brecht’s potato-faced women inrough clothes and a none too clean face and I have tried to demonstrate Grusha’sstory from moment to moment.The Ironshirt’s crude attempt to grope Grusha comes as a total surprise to her, whichI express with open mouthed horror. My character also reacts in disbelief when theold peasant won’t give her milk for a hungry baby. In each case my face and physicalreactions reveal my social attitude - fear of the soldier who has power over me; asense of betrayal that a fellow-peasant should try to exploit me.Like most poor people Grusha initially reacts to events rather than initiating them. Forexample she takes the abandoned baby almost by accident and she accepts herbrother’s suggestion that she should marry the dreadful Yussup to give her baby aname. In each of these cases I have used Brecht’s technique of ‘fixing the not but’.While the Singer narrates Grusha’s ‘temptation to do good’ I act out the preciseactions that he describes.Grusha’s success at the end of the play in ‘winning’ Michael and in being reunitedwith Simon comes as a complete shock to her and I try to capture this surprise athaving ‘beaten’ one of the ruling class by adopting an almost trance-like reaction toAzdak’s ruling.Multi-rolingI get an opportunity to play an aristocratic character only in the scene with the fineladies, where I am pretending to be like them. I ape their gestures and shrill voicesand swish my clothes as Natella had done in the opening scene - until I am finallyfound out by my ability to make a bed!Potential effectivenessThe audiences who have seen our latest rehearsals of the play seem to feel that theymust sympathise with Grusha, since, at the bottom of everything she does, is herlove for a child that is not her own.Perhaps I have failed in my interpretation but I actually believe that the fault is theplaywright’s and that the application of Brecht’s theories cannot always succeed in‘alienating’ an audience which is always moved by acts of selflessness.Our audience did not always feel with the character however. They laughed atGrusha’s terrible encounter with the Ironshirts (while Grusha was tearful) and theywept when Azdak divorced the wrong couple when Grusha was glad. This then wassomething that Brecht did intend and we seemed to have achieved it.Health and SafetyOur greatest challenge was in manipulating the heavy ‘gates’ when they weretransformed into ramps for the ‘mountain’ scene and the Peasant’s house. We madesure that each one was moved by four actors.Yussup’s bath water also posed a hazard as it splashed onto the floor so we solvedthis by placing the tub on a large towel which was rolled up and removed when wechanged this scene leaving the floor dry.

Word Count: 1,700 words