NCEA Level 3 Drama (90610) 2011 — page 1 of 4
Assessment Schedule – 2011
Drama: Demonstrate knowledge of theatre form or period by analysing and interpreting
two scripted texts (90610)
Evidence Statement
Question
Evidence
ONE
Analyse the FIRST SELECTED TEXT by identifying and explaining a key feature.
(a) (b)
For EACH of the two key features:
Code
Identifies an important key feature of the text
AND
(i)
Explains how the key feature is used in the text, and why it is important to the form or
period (general ideas are acceptable), giving examples
An
AND
Uses appropriate quotations from the text.
Reference could be made to aspects of:
• points of view and / or theories
• themes
• language
• performance style
• staging.
(ii)
Explains at least ONE point the playwright is making about life in their time, showing
depth through connections to wider and / or deeper knowledge
Dp
AND
Relates the use of the key feature to our lives today.
Reference could be made to:
• theory / ideology / history
• social / economic / historical issues
• audience relationship.
• detail and specificity of points.
TWO
(a)
(b)
Interpret the SECOND SELECTED TEXT through the presentation of a set design.
Describes a set design for the text.
In
Justifies choices with reference to a director’s vision.
Dp
Explains how the set design concept uses aspects of the director’s vision, features of the
theatre form or period, and desired effect on the audience.
In
Shows depth through connections to wider and / or deeper knowledge.
Dp
Reference could be made to:
• theory / ideology / history
• social / economic / historical issues
• audience relationship
• detail and specificity of points.
(c)
Illustrates set design ideas with detailed, annotated sketches.
Dp
NCEA Level 3 Drama (90610) 2011 — page 2 of 4
Judgement Statement
Achievement
Achievement with Merit
Achievement with Excellence
1 An + 1 In + 1 other An / In / Dp
2 An + 2 In +3 Dp
2 An + 2 In + 5 Dp
Codes
An
=
Analyses
In
=
Interprets
Dp
=
Shows depth
NCEA Level 3 Drama (90610) 2011 — page 3 of 4
Appendix A
Sample responses to Question One, “Analyse key features”
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Key feature: Poetic form of text – blank verse
(i) Explains how the key feature is used in the text, and why it is important to the form or period (general ideas are
acceptable), giving examples AND uses appropriate quotations from the text (An).
This iambic pentameter form of writing is the main vehicle for dialogue in the play. It is more especially used by
the high-born or respectable characters such as Duke Orsino and Olivia but also as a heightened form of
language to convey the theme of love in the play. The play opens with
“If music be the food of love play on
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting …”
Although the iambic pentameter form is usually unrhymed (blank verse), in moments of increased formality
Shakespeare reflects the mood by moving to rhyming couplets, as when Viola and the Duke are discovering
their attraction for each other.
“For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.”
This poetic form is contrasted by the often bawdy prose used by the lower-status characters such as Belch,
Aguecheek, and Maria in their scenes.
The structural form of writing in the play is important if for no greater reason than it was the common form for
playwriting (at least in London) during the period, and used not only by Shakespeare but also his
contemporaries such as Jonson, Dekker, and Marlowe.
(ii) Explains at least ONE point the playwright is making about life in their time, showing depth through
connections to wider and / or deeper knowledge AND relates the use of the key feature to our lives today (Dp).
Apart from being the conventional style for playwriting in the time, the feature is a heightened form of the
language of the Elizabethan populace and suitable for an art form that structures and gives shape to the
themes of life. It also reflects the relative importance of language in Elizabethan drama where lack of realistic
scenery and stage technologies such as lighting meant that the language had to carry more of the meaning of
the story than it may in contemporary times. There is often a tendency today to shorten text and convey more
meaning through our modern stage technologies.
Key feature: Disguise
(i) Explains how the key feature is used in the text, and why it is important to the form or period (general ideas are
acceptable), giving examples AND uses appropriate quotations from the text (An).
Disguise is central to the working of the main plot in Twelfth Night. Viola, disguised as the young courtier
Cesario, woos Olivia on Duke Orsino’s part causing confusions that are not merely comedic – Olivia falling for
a man who is really a woman – but also more thought-provoking – Duke Orsino struggling with his deep
attraction to his young courtier, apparently another male: “Diana’s lip / Is not more smooth and rubious: thy
small pipe / Is as the maiden’s organ …”. The feature is a useful one in comedy of the period because boys
played female roles until puberty and incorporating such disguise into the plays added another layer to the idea
of gender differences.
(ii) Explains at least ONE point the playwright is making about life in their time, showing depth through
connections to wider and / or deeper knowledge AND relates the use of the key feature to our lives today (Dp).
In this particular play, Shakespeare is maybe hinting at more than just the comic potential of using boy actors
in disguise to cause romantic confusion. The relationship between the Duke and Cesario seems to be verging
on making some statement about homosexual attraction or at least the possibility of sexual ambiguity.
Today we still respond readily to the humour of the cross-gender disguise, and the theme of sexual ambiguity
is still very relevant.
NCEA Level 3 Drama (90610) 2011 — page 4 of 4
Appendix B
Sample responses to Question Two, “Interpret text as a designer”
The Pōhutukawa Tree (Bruce Mason)
(a) Describes a set design for the text (In). Justifies choices with reference to a director’s vision (Dp).
The set will comprise a large platform around 500mm high almost completely across the upstage area
representing the porch of the Mataira house. Behind this is an unpainted weatherboard wall running the full
width of the platform. Its only decoration is Aroha’s two iconic pictures – Whetumarama and Hunt’s Light of the
World – looking out like eyes. There is no door in the wall – entrances and exits are made around the sides of
it. The corners of the porch (DS) have supports topped with a Māori design (suggesting pou). Two old chairs
flank the sides of the porch. The colours are muted, of nature – greens and browns. Across the top of the
scene are pōhutukawa branches framing the porch.
The scene follows the director’s vision of a natural, rural, simple but tasteful setting blending with the spirituality
of the pictures. It speaks of Māoridom and naturalness. As the play progresses the tree branches will become
progressively lower and the setting less idyllic.
(b) Explains how the set design concept uses aspects of the director’s vision, features of the theatre form or
period, and desired effect on the audience (In). Shows depth through connections to wider and / or deeper
knowledge (Dp).
(i) I wish to emphasise the director’s vision of an aesthetically pleasing, uncluttered, simple but tidy and inviting
scene at the beginning of the play. As the play progresses and Aroha’s vision and power are challenged so the
attractive aspects of the scene will suffer and there will be discord in the harmony of the vision. Mrs Atkinson
struggles to help but all she can do is “clean the place out and stick a few flowers in vases”.
(ii) I will use the presence of things Māori as a feature of New Zealand theatre. By this I do not only mean the
porch supports representing pou, and the flax kite Queenie is getting the shellfish from but the whole unity of
the structures with things natural and with the land. Aroha says “The land is sacred to my people”. This feature
is tightly interwoven with the feature of foregrounding nature and the natural in New Zealand theatre.
(iii) I want to create the effect of disillusionment in the audience as they see the realities of the modern society
gradually destroy the idyllic (if very unreal) scene they see at the beginning of the play. The tree across the top
of the arch gradually lowers till it hides Aroha’s pictures on the back wall symbolising the destruction of her
world.
(c) Illustrates set design ideas with detailed, annotated sketches (Dp).