Characteristics of Performance Texts
A play script is more than its lines. Learn to analyse any performance text: its genre and structure, its characters and language, and the sub-text hidden beneath the words.
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Reading a play 🎭
A play script is far more than a list of lines. To understand a **performance text**, you read for its **characteristics**: its genre and structure, its characters and language, and the meaning hidden beneath the words. This module gives you the tools to analyse any dramatic text.
Words to know 📖
Four ideas run through this module:
Words or instructions ⚖️
A script has two kinds of writing on the page.
Match each characteristic 🔗
- Genre
- Structure
- Character
- Language
- The type of play, such as comedy or tragedy
- How the play is organised into acts and scenes
- A person in the play, with their own motives
- The words and style of the dialogue
What is hidden? 🎯
A character says everything is fine, but the audience can tell they are upset. What is this hidden meaning called?
- Sub-text
- Genre
- Structure
- A stage direction
Beneath the surface 🕵️
The best analysis looks BENEATH the surface. **Sub-text** is what a character really means, even when the words say something else. **Character motivation** is why a character acts as they do, and it drives how they **interact** with others. Reading motivation and sub-text is what separates a strong response from a weak one.
Match each term 🔀
- Mood
- Pace
- Climax
- Motivation
- The feeling or atmosphere a scene creates
- The speed and rhythm at which the action moves
- The moment of highest tension in the play
- The reason why a character behaves as they do
Inside a performance text ✅
Select the TWO things you would find written in a performance text.
- Dialogue, the lines the characters speak
- Stage directions telling actors how to move
- A live audience clapping
- A newspaper review of the play
The shape of a play 🪜
An interactive activity.
Analysis in words 🧩
The type of a play, such as comedy or tragedy, is its _____. How it is organised into acts and scenes is its _____. The meaning hidden beneath the words is called _____. Instructions from the writer for movement and set are _____ directions. The moment of highest tension is the dramatic _____.
Spot the true statements 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Analyse the moment 🧭
An interactive activity.
Use a characteristic ✍️
An interactive activity.