Interpreting a Set Text as Actor, Designer and Director

One moment, three jobs

In the written exam you answer on one set text as an actor, a designer and a director. It is tempting to treat these as three separate lists of vocabulary to unload. They are not three topics. They are three different sizes of decision about the same moment on stage. The actor decides what one body does. The designer decides what surrounds that body and stays in view. The director decides what the whole moment is for. Because all three shape the same moment, the decisions push against one another, and the strongest answers show exactly how. Throughout this module you will use one invented practice extract, so no real set text is quoted. The five Eduqas set texts are The Tempest, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hard to Swallow, War Horse and DNA. Only The Tempest is out of copyright, so of the five it is the one whose lines may be quoted directly.

Who decides what

Three people shape how a set text reaches an audience. Learn what each one actually decides before you use the words.

Which choices belong to the director

A director settles the big questions about a moment. Select the TWO choices below that are decisions the director makes.

• What the whole moment is for, so the scene has a point
• Which readings are ruled out, so the other two pull the same way
• The exact gesture one performer makes with one hand
• The fabric a single costume is sewn from

What lasts and what does not

One useful way to sort the choices in a moment is by how long each one stays in view.

Match the choice to what it leaves the others

What one design choice does

Before either character speaks, a packed bag sits by the door. What does this design choice do for the actor playing Mara?

• It shows the audience she is leaving, so the actor does not need to signal it through movement
• Nothing, because only what the actor does can carry meaning
• It forces the actor to explain out loud that she is leaving
• It makes the set look more realistic and means nothing more

The one-line test

Here is a test that works for any moment in a set text. First ask whose decision a choice is. Then ask what that decision leaves the other two people to do. A strong answer never sets down three separate piles of choices, because in a real production the choices lean on one another. When one person settles a reading, that reading opens some doors and closes others for the two who work around it. The weak answer describes three jobs that never meet. The strong answer shows one job making room for, or shutting out, another.

Complete the interpretation facts

The role that decides what one body does is the _____. The role that decides what the audience sees and hears around that body is the _____. The role that decides what the whole moment is for is the _____. A settled reading can rule out a design or staging choice that would _____ it.

Build the interpretation

Put the steps of interpreting a moment in the order that keeps the three roles pulling together.

• Read the moment and decide what it is really about
• Settle the directorial reading, so the moment has a clear point
• Choose what the actor does with voice and body to serve that point
• Choose the design around the actor so it supports the same point
• Check that nothing on stage pulls against the reading

One moment, worked three ways

Here is a short invented extract, written for practice and not taken from any set text. A kitchen, late at night. Mara stands by the door with a packed bag. Tomas sits at the table. Tomas says: You are really going, then. Mara says: The bus leaves at six. Tomas says: Stay for breakfast. Mara says: I have said goodbye to everyone but you. Now watch the three jobs meet on this one moment. The director settles the reading first, that this goodbye is about pride and not tears. That reading rules out a sobbing Mara, so the actor plays the voice level and the body still, letting the held stillness carry the weight. The designer meanwhile places the packed bag in view before a word is spoken, which means the actor does not have to prove that she is leaving. A cold, thin light holds over the table, so the room itself feels ready to let her go. Nothing on stage pulls against the reading, and that is what makes the interpretation land.

Spot the true interpretation facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

• The actor, designer and director make decisions of different sizes about the same moment
• A settled reading can rule out a staging choice that would work against it
• The three roles work best when their choices never affect one another
• The director is the person who decides the exact movement of one performer body

Build the interpretation rule

Assemble the sentence that explains how the three roles relate.

Interpretation quick-fire

Answer each one. You have three lives.

Shape the moment

Work the invented kitchen extract as director, then actor, then designer. There is more than one valid reading of the goodbye; here you choose a reading and then make the other choices cohere with it.

• You direct the goodbye. Which move gives the actor and designer the clearest shared job?
• Given a proud reading, what should the actor playing Mara do with voice and body?
• What design choice supports the proud reading and helps the actor at the same time?

Interpret a set-text moment

Choose one moment from a set text you are studying, or use the invented kitchen extract from this module. Explain how you would interpret it as actor, designer and director so the three choices support one reading. There is no single correct reading; a well justified one earns the marks.

• State the reading you have chosen for the moment, in one sentence
• Explain one choice the director makes to set that reading
• Explain what the actor does with voice or body to serve it
• Explain one design choice that supports the same reading
• Show how one of these choices makes room for, or rules out, another