[Centre stage spotlight on SUDODDS]
Hey hey!
With your Trial exams coming up, I've decided to write up a quick little guide on how to approach writing a killer HSC Drama Essay - because guess what, the theory component of drama DOES actually exist! (unfortunately)
[Cue applause SFX - lights dim for dramatic affect]
Okay! So - Drama essays. They're weird, no doubt about that. They're not like any other essay that you will have to write for the HSC - a good drama essay can sometimes look borderline like a creative writing piece! In many ways, a drama essay should be just as theatrically engaging as your prac work. You want to put the marker in the space - you want them to be able to visualise your performance, feel the emotions, the tension, the suspense, as if they were in the theatre, watching your performance. But then, at the same time, you need to be analytical - it is still an essay after all! Finding the balance between the two is hard and takes practice (I know - practicing drama THEORY?!?! Who even does that?!). But hopefully this guide and structure will be able to help you out! This is how I structured my drama essays, my marks ranging from 17-20/20 throughout year 11 and 12 :) Throughout this guide I shall integrate examples from one of my responses which received full marks to this question:
How is the audience experience of a play affected by the space in which it is performed?
Introduction!
A drama introduction looks very much like an English introduction! You'll need to start with your thesis, which should be directly linked to the question. A thesis may look something like this: "An audience's experience and engagement with a play, is greatly affected by space, through stage type, arrangement and proxemics." Here I have clearly addressed the question, and presented the marker with a strong judgement.
Next I need to explain my thesis, and justify why I have come to that conclusion. I want to be linking the concept of 'space' to a wider theatrical issue, and demonstrate it's indispensability as one of the elements of drama: "As one of the elements of drama, the manipulation of space and proxemics - both of set, props and actors - plays a crucial role in displaying the dramatic meaning of a piece. It can be used to represent various issues and ideas that a play attempts to convey, in order to challenge the audience's perception, and often their own experiences, with said issue." As you can see here, I have linked the concept of 'space' to conveying dramatic meaning - my wider theatrical issue! As dramatic meaning is one of the most important aspects of drama and theatre, I have therefore asserted space as a critical component :) Dramatic meaning is one of the easiest concepts to link with, so if you're ever stuck I'd give this one a go!
Then you're going to want to bring in your texts, and how they relate back to this idea of space. You want to provide a brief description of them - BUT NOT a brief description of plot. Let your marker know that you understand the themes and issues - the dramatic meaning - of the plays in question: "This is evident through my performances and imagined response to Jane Harrison's Aboriginal theatre play Stolen, and Daniel Keene's absurdist pieceLife Without Me, both of which utilise space to ask audiences to consider and reflect upon the key themes of isolation and loneliness, in Stolen in reference to the Stolen Generations, and in Life Without Me through the absurdist notion of the meaningless and cyclical nature of life." Notice how I said "my"? That is because in a drama essay that is totally okay! "I", "me", "they", "we" are all totally fine! As you need to analyse your own role in the performance, using these words are unavoidable :)
Finally you want to restate your thesis - tie your introduction back to the question. This is super simple: "Thus, it is apparent that space plays an indespensable role in the cultivation of dramatic meaning, and in providing audiences with a point of reflection and introspection."
So pretty simple huh! Not that much different from an English introduction structurally. But don't get too comfortable. Now we're going to start discussing paragraphs :o
[Close curtain]
Paragraphs!
[Curtains open to reveal a single student centre stage. crying.]
Paragraphs are where is all starts to go topsy turvy, and the creative writing starts to slip in. This is the area where most students struggle. How do you balance theatricality with analysis? At what point does theatricality become "colloquial"? Too narrative? How much background do I need to include on the plays? etc. etc. All of these are common questions - so hopefully this clears them up!
I always broke my essay into two sections - one section to deal with my first text, then another section for my second :) For both texts I would (try to - sometimes time limit did not permit) write three paragraphs. A small one of context, one on my group performance, and then one on my imagined response (this last one sometimes couldn't be included)!
Paragraph 1.1 CONTEXT
Again, you don't want to just narrate to us the plot, but you do want to provide just a small paragraph on the specifics of the themes and issues, and why the playwright is focusing on them - what are their intention for the piece? What are they trying to convey? This should be quite a short paragraph - around 100 words.
Stolen, written by Indigenous playwright Jane Harrison, focuses upon the impact of Australia’s protectionist and assimilatory policies towards Aboriginal Australians, particularly the forceful removal of Indigenous children, The Stolen Generations. Commissioned by the Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Theatre Co-operative to create a production showing the varied impact of the Stolen Generations on the lives of Indigenous Australians, Harrison portrays the issue through the five main characters; Sandy, Jimmy, Ruby, Shirley and Anne. Each character and their journey represents a key consequence of the Stolen Generations, such as mental health, suicide, incarceration, homelessness, loneliness, assimilation, torn identity and generational suffering.
At the end, you want to provide a smooth transition into your next paragraph, by linking the above to your own performance: "We used the idea of varied experiences of dispossession within both my group performance and imagined response, with an emphasis on the stage space and proxemics in order to present the issue of home and identity."
Paragraph 1.2 GROUP PERFORMANCE
Here is where you are going to attempt to put the marker in the space, as you both theatrically depict, and analytically dissect your performance. Now hint, hint - your marker didn't actually see your performance. That means feel free to embellish or add things that you think could have made the performance better, or better connect to the chosen question! For example, if I felt as though my performance didn't actually utilise space in a noteworthy way, I can make it up instead! This isn't cheating don't worry haha, it just means that you can truely reflect upon the question, and demonstrate a holistic understanding of how it can be applied in theatre.
Start off your paragraph with a quick outline of your intention in terms of what themes and issues you will be focusing on, and what scenes you chose for your performance (as I doubt any of you performed the WHOLE play): For our group performance of Stolen, we chose to focus on the theme of loss and family, through five scenes which depicted the children being taken from their family, home and culture – Ruby Comforts her Baby, It Rained The Day (Shirley), Finding Sandy, It Rained The Day (Jimmy) and The Chosen – integrated within the scene Sandy’s Story of the Mungee. The ways in which we manipulated the space was crucial to our telling of the story . Notice how I link back to the question at the end? ;) This is important, as it reminds the marker that you know what you're meant to be discussing, and that you are answering the question.
Then you need to start analysing. Now you analysis needs to be integrated throughout your response - this is what makes it tricky! I don't want you to provide a theatrical narrative and then underneath dissect it - you need to do it at the same time. In my opinion the best way to do this is to go through your performance, and analyse each moment in regards to the question, rather than just analysing the whole performance. Only look at what is relevant (this is especially important as you have a time limit!)
On the stage there were 6 boxes, each with one of the children sitting on them. These boxes were close together to create the allusion of campfire storytelling – a key component of Indigenous theatre and culture – but were also distinctly separated to show the children’s isolation. By taking away these children’s family and culture, they separate them from their identity, and therefore their way of relating to one another, leading them to feel isolated and alone.
Notice how I set the stage? I let the markers visualise the stage set up, then analysed that moment of our performance, by linking it back to not only the question and my chosen theme, but also the conventions of Indigenous Theatre. Integration of conventions is really important, as they often have a critical impact upon the way in which the elements of drama and theatre are used (the question is often derived from these~), and also the themes and issues which they chose to discuss/challenge.
Throughout the performance, each child moves downstage and addresses the audience, telling them their own, personal story of being stolen. As they tell their story, the child is put under a spotlight, shrinking the visible stage space and therefore further emphasizing their isolation. The only times in which any of the children would come together was during the Mungee scenes, as those were the scenes in which their Aboriginal culture is explored and celebrated, therefore providing each child with a link to their heritage, thus revealing to the audience the intrinsic value of culture in establishing and maintaining a sense of identity and belonging, imploring them to reassess the significance of the Stolen Generations, and the general racist treatment of Aboriginal Australians present even today.
Just another example of the concept above :) After you have analysed throughly you want to sum up you point, and assess whether or not your piece was effective in conveying the themes and issues through the specified concept in the question!
Therefore, it is evident that within our group performance, the space was highly critical to the piece, as it enabled us to create the appropriate atmosphere to represent our issues of loss and family as brought about by the Stolen Generations. The manipulation of space is also critical within my Imagined response.
Nice segue there Susie ;)
Paragraph 1.3 IMAGINED RESPONSE
Okay so the imagined response! Some of you may be looking around right now going 'what?' - that is because not all schools do this - some will just focus on performances. Thus if you're running out of time this the paragraph that you cut - however it does serve a purpose! It allows you to further demonstrate your understanding of the text :) It is written in the exact same way as the paragraph above in terms of integration of theatricality and analysis, however what is cool about the imagined response is that you can be wayyyyy more dramatic and theatrical in terms of what you actually presented on stage because well, it's imagined! If you want to have a massive glass wall that shatters in the middle of the stage, or you want to set it on an outdoor stage, or to have crazy lighting and special effects the you can! Also, just to quick note, the best way to start of these paragraphs is by saying "If I were to direct ___________ scene I would..." and then just follow the above structure :)
And hey presto! You've finished your first text :D Now you need to repeat what you just did for the second text :( It's okay though - you'll structure it in the exact same way so should be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly!
Conclusions!
My go to trick when writing conclusions was to just write my introduction backwards ;) However this time you also want to be summing up what you said in your paragraphs, to it is going to be a tad more detailed :)
Through my group performances and imagined responses to Daniel Keene’s absurdist play Life Without Me and Jane Harrison’s Indigenous theatrical production Stolen, it is evident that the space in which a production is performed is very important. Within Stolen, space was used to represent the isolation and loss of identity that the children suffered as members of the Stolen Generations. This was done within my group performance through the campfire staging, spotlights and the lack of contact between the characters, and within my imagined response through the stage type (thrust), lighting (used to shrink the space) and proxemics. Similarly, within Life Without Me, isolation and identity (particularly in relation to marriage) are key themes represented through space. Within my group performance, we used the stage space and its “balconies”, along with the changing proxemics between the characters to show their relationship. This was also done within my imagined response to show the relationship between Ray and Alice, and to represent the feelings of loss, and the hope of finding more. Therefore, through stage arrangement and proxemics, space is highly critical in portraying issues to an audience, and greatly affects an audience’s engagement and connection to the piece.
And there you have it! A drama essay! Well done you ;) I truely hope this was helpful, and that this makes you feel more confident going into those exams!
Good luck with Trials everyone :) I'm sure you'll all smash it! Try not to neglect drama too much (though drama students know all too well that this subject is not the "bludge" that it is made out to be ;) ). If you have any questions feel free to let me know and I'll endeavour to get back to ya ASAP! While I'm on uni holiday I'm going to try and write up some more stuff for drama peeps so if there is anything in particular you need help with give me a nudge ;)
Susie
[Exit, pursued by a bear]