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.
Justify the choices, the way you are assessed
Free interactive practice on the decisions the assessment actually asks you to justify.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
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.
Genre and sub-text words
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
Put the parts of a typical play structure in the order they usually happen.
- Exposition: the situation and characters are set up
- Rising action: tension and conflict build
- Climax: the moment of highest tension
- Falling action: events start to resolve
- Resolution: the story is brought to an end
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 _____.
Reading a performance text
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- Sub-text is the meaning beneath what a character actually says.
- Stage directions are instructions from the writer, not lines to speak.
- The genre of a play means its acts and scenes.
- The climax is the calm ending of a play.
- Dialogue is a newspaper review of a play.
Analyse the moment
Analyse each moment in a play. Choose each time.
- A stage direction reads: the lights dim and slow music plays. What is this mainly creating?
- A character laughs and says they are delighted, but grips a glass tightly. What are they showing?
- In the tensest scene, two enemies finally confront each other face to face. This is the play at its...
Use a characteristic
Choose one characteristic of a performance text, such as sub-text, stage directions or structure, and explain how it helps you understand or perform a play.
- Name one characteristic of a performance text
- Explain what that characteristic is
- Explain how it helps an actor or a director
- Give a general example of it in action