Kindertransport: Characters and Working with Quoted Extracts

An emotion is not yet an answer

Section A gives you material and asks you to perform it. A line is printed on the paper, and you are asked things like how a character would say it, what their face would do, how they would move, and what each of those choices communicates. So students revise the characters. Who is anxious, who is guarded, who is angry. That is worth doing and it is the easy half. ⚠️⚠️ AND IT IS NOT WHAT IS BEING MARKED, BECAUSE AN EMOTION IS NOT YET AN ANSWER. A BODY DOING SOMETHING IS. ⭐ THERE IS GOOD EVIDENCE FOR THIS RATHER THAN JUST AN OPINION. ONE PUBLISHED OCR MARK SCHEME FOR A MOVEMENT AND GESTURE QUESTION ON THIS PLAY SETS OUT WHAT A STRONG ANSWER MIGHT CONTAIN, AND IT DOES NOT STOP AT A FEELING. It gives the reading first, in the examiner's own words: a weariness, a wariness, a sense of fear, threat and nervousness. Four words for a state of mind. ⭐⭐ AND THEN IT GIVES A BODY. SITTING AGITATED RATHER THAN STILL. LEANING BACK RATHER THAN TOWARDS. HANDS BUSY WITH A SMALL PROP. ⚠️ NOW THE DETAIL WORTH STEALING, BECAUSE IT IS THE CLEVEREST THING IN THE WHOLE EXAMPLE. THE MARK SCHEME NOTES THAT THE PROP HANDLING STANDS IN FOR PHYSICAL CONTACT. Read that again. The object is carrying the feeling PRECISELY BECAUSE the contact is not happening. Hands that are busy are hands that are not reaching out, and an audience reads that without being told. ⭐ THAT IS THE CONVERSION THIS QUESTION IS TESTING. A READING, TURNED INTO SOMETHING VISIBLE, PLUS A STATEMENT OF WHAT THE VISIBLE THING COMMUNICATES. And here is why the conversion is what you should rehearse rather than any particular answer. ⚠️⚠️ THE PAPER SUPPLIES THE LINE, AND A DIFFERENT EXAM SERIES SUPPLIES A DIFFERENT ONE. YOU CANNOT REVISE THE QUOTATION. YOU CAN ONLY REVISE WHAT TO DO WITH ONE. So a memorised answer about a memorised moment is worth very little, and a method that converts any reading into staged choices is worth a great deal, because it still works on a line you have never looked at closely before. ⭐ ONE TEST TO CARRY THROUGH EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS: COULD SOMEBODY IN THE BACK ROW SEE THIS CHOICE, AND WHAT WOULD THEY UNDERSTAND FROM IT? One practical note. This module teaches the method, and it does not retell the play. The characters you will meet in the questions are Helga, Eva, Evelyn, Lil and Faith, and the play itself you should know from your prescribed edition, which is the Nick Hern Books text.

Three ways a reading becomes visible

A performer has three broad sets of tools for turning an interpretation into something an audience can perceive. Strong answers usually reach for more than one.

Tap the two that could be seen

Tap the TWO statements that describe something an audience could actually perceive, rather than something only the actor knows.

• The performer leans back slightly as the other character steps towards them
• The performer keeps their hands busy with a small object throughout the exchange
• The character is feeling anxious about what is going to happen next
• The character is remembering something they have never spoken about

Named, but not staged

Asked how a character would deliver a line printed on the paper, a student writes that the character is nervous and would say it nervously. The reading is reasonable. Why does it score poorly?

• Because nothing in it could be seen or heard from the audience. The marks are for specific vocal and physical choices and for what each one communicates, not for the label
• Because the character is not actually nervous at that point
• Because the answer is too short for the marks available
• Because the student has not quoted enough of the play from memory

Five words for this question

Five terms, each defined by what it is. The last one describes what a mark scheme is actually giving you, and is worth understanding precisely.

Match each choice to what it communicates

Two that follow from staging a reading

Select the TWO statements that follow from the marks being for visible and audible choices.

• What is worth rehearsing is the conversion from a reading into staged choices, because it works on a line you have never studied closely
• Something a performer deliberately does NOT do can be as tellable as something they do
• The best preparation is memorising a full answer about one important moment in the play
• Identifying the character's emotion accurately is the main thing the question rewards

Turning a reading into something visible

You may already have met the idea that this exam asks what the playwright did to the AUDIENCE rather than what happens in your play. ⚠️ THIS IS THE PERFORMER'S HALF OF THAT: HOW SOMEBODY ON STAGE ACTUALLY DOES IT. A shape that works on any quoted line a paper gives you. ⭐ READ THE LINE AND DECIDE WHAT IS GOING ON UNDERNEATH IT. One sentence, in your own words. This is the reading, and you need it before anything else. ⭐⭐ THEN MAKE IT VISIBLE, AND BE SPECIFIC ENOUGH THAT SOMEBODY COULD FOLLOW YOUR INSTRUCTION. Not a vague 'looks worried' but what the face does, where the eyes go, what the hands are doing, whether the body is still or restless. THEN MAKE IT AUDIBLE. Volume, pace, where the emphasis lands, and where the pauses go. ⭐ A PAUSE IS A CHOICE, AND IT IS ONE OF THE CHEAPEST THINGS TO WRITE ABOUT WELL. THEN PLACE IT IN THE SPACE, if the question allows: distance, level, facing or turning away. ⭐⭐ THEN SAY WHAT EACH CHOICE COMMUNICATES, AND THIS IS THE CLAUSE MOST ANSWERS LEAVE OUT. THE CHOICE IS HALF A MARK; THE EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCE IS THE OTHER HALF. "SO THAT THE AUDIENCE SEES" IS A USEFUL PHRASE TO KEEP IN YOUR POCKET. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS HERE. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS THE ADVERB. Sadly, angrily, nervously. It names a feeling and stages nothing, and it is the single commonest way to write a whole paragraph that cannot be performed. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS RETELLING THE PLOT. The question gave you the material. Explaining what happens around it spends your time proving you read the play, which is not what is being asked. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS THE UNJUSTIFIED CHOICE. ⭐ A STAGING DECISION WITH NO REASON ATTACHED IS A PREFERENCE. ONE SENTENCE OF WHY, TIED TO WHAT THE AUDIENCE WOULD UNDERSTAND, TURNS IT INTO AN ANSWER. One more thing that is genuinely reassuring. There is rarely a single correct interpretation of a line. A defensible reading, staged precisely and justified clearly, is what the mark scheme is set up to reward, which is why its examples are called indicative rather than required.

What one mark scheme actually rewarded

This is worth looking at closely, because it is not a teacher's opinion about what examiners want. It is published OCR indicative content for a movement and gesture question on this play, from the June 2022 series. The question concerned Helga. The mark scheme sets out what a strong response might contain, and it moves in two clear stages. ⭐ STAGE ONE, THE READING. The examiner's own words are a weariness, a wariness, a sense of fear, threat and nervousness. Notice how much work those four nouns are doing, and notice that weariness and wariness are not the same thing at all. One is tiredness. The other is watchfulness. A performer who confuses them plays a quite different person. ⚠️ NOW NOTICE WHAT THE MARK SCHEME DOES NOT DO. IT DOES NOT STOP THERE, AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU. ⭐⭐ STAGE TWO, THE BODY. SITTING IN AN AGITATED WAY RATHER THAN SETTLED. LEANING BACK RATHER THAN FORWARD. FIDGETING WITH SOMETHING SMALL, A NEEDLE AND THREAD, A COAT, A BUTTON. Every one of those is something an audience can see from any seat in the house. That is the whole point of them. ⚠️⚠️ AND NOW THE BEST DETAIL IN IT, WHICH IS EASY TO READ PAST. THE MARK SCHEME SAYS THE PROP HANDLING ACTS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL CONTACT. ⭐ SO THE OBJECT IS NOT A NERVOUS HABIT. IT IS OCCUPYING THE HANDS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE REACH TOWARDS ANOTHER PERSON, AND THE AUDIENCE UNDERSTANDS THE DISTANCE WITHOUT ANYBODY MENTIONING IT. That is a genuinely sophisticated idea and it is available to you, because it is a craft technique rather than a fact about one scene. Hands given a job are hands withheld from something else, and a small object can carry a great deal of what is not being said. ⚠️ TWO WARNINGS ABOUT USING ANY OF THIS. ⚠️ IT IS INDICATIVE, NOT REQUIRED. It is one set of defensible choices, not the answer. A different reading, staged as precisely and justified as clearly, is worth the same. ⚠️⚠️ AND IT BELONGS TO ONE SERIES AND ONE QUESTION. A DIFFERENT PAPER WILL QUOTE A DIFFERENT LINE, POSSIBLY ABOUT A DIFFERENT CHARACTER, AND ASK SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT IT. ⭐ WHAT TRANSFERS IS THE TWO-STAGE SHAPE: READING FIRST, THEN A BODY DOING SOMETHING SPECIFIC, THEN WHAT THAT COMMUNICATES.

Order how to answer a quoted-line question

Put these six moves into the order that turns a printed line into an answer that can be performed.

• Decide in one sentence what is going on underneath the line
• Choose what the body does, precisely enough that somebody could follow the instruction
• Choose what the voice does, including where the emphasis and the pauses fall
• Place the choice in the space, if the question allows it: distance, level, facing or turning away
• Say what each choice communicates to an audience watching it
• Tie the whole thing back to the line you were given, so the choices are justified rather than preferred

Build the staging sentence

This is the sentence shape the question is asking for. Assemble it.

The quoted material run

Five questions on turning a reading into something an audience can perceive. Three lives.

Complete the performance facts

An instruction in the playscript about how something is performed or staged is a _____. A movement of part of the body that carries meaning is a _____. The planned positions and movements of performers on the stage are the _____. The use of physical distance between performers to create meaning is _____.

Why you cannot revise the quotation

A student prepares by learning a detailed answer about one line they were taught in class. The exam prints a different line, about a different character. What should they fall back on?

• The two-stage method: a reading of what is going on underneath the line, then specific visible and audible choices with what each communicates
• The prepared answer, adapted as closely as possible to the new line
• A summary of what happens in the play around the printed line
• Another question, since this one cannot now be answered well

Three answers to stage properly

Three students answer a question on a quoted line. Each has a defensible reading, and each stops before the part that earns the marks.

• A student writes that the character is upset and would deliver the line sadly, with a sad expression. What would you tell them to change?
• A student lists five precise physical choices, all of them specific and performable, and stops there. What is missing?
• A student gives a reading of the line that differs from the one their teacher offered in class, but stages it precisely and explains the effect of each choice. How should that be judged?

Explain how to work with a line you have not seen

Imagine the exam prints a line you have never studied closely, spoken by one of the characters in your set text. Explain the method you would use to answer a question asking how it should be performed, and why that method works whatever line appears.

• Start by saying what you would establish first, before choosing any staging at all
• Explain why naming the emotion is only the beginning, and what an answer needs on top of it
• Describe the kinds of visible choice you would consider, covering the body and the use of space
• Describe the audible choices you would consider, including where pauses and emphasis fall
• Explain the clause most answers leave out, and give an example of how you would phrase it
• Say why a defensible reading of your own is acceptable, using what indicative content in a mark scheme actually means
• Finish by explaining why this method survives a change of question, when a memorised answer does not