Evaluating Live Theatre: Analyse and Evaluate

Two questions, not one

Section B is worth 15 marks and asks two questions about the live production you saw: a shorter analyse question, and a longer evaluate one. That matters more than it sounds. Other boards let you choose one. Here you need both registers ready, and the commonest way to lose marks is writing essentially the same paragraph twice. This module is about making them genuinely different.

Analyse, then evaluate

Both are about what happened on stage. They ask different things about it, and the verbs in your sentences give you away.

Match each command word to what it demands

Which sentence evaluates?

All four sentences are about the same production. Which one is evaluating?

• The slow cross held the audience in the silence longer than felt comfortable, which made the news land harder when it came
• The performer crossed downstage in three slow steps and stopped short of the front edge
• The set showed a kitchen with a table and two chairs
• I really enjoyed the production and would recommend it

One framework, both questions

Every paragraph in this section is built from the same parts. The analyse question uses the first four; the evaluate question uses all six. 1. The moment - name it precisely, not "in the second half". 2. What was done - the specific choice you actually saw. 3. The technique - name it, using the vocabulary you already have. 4. The effect on the audience - what it did to the people watching. 5. The judgement - how successfully it achieved that. 6. The qualification - where it worked less well, if it did. And write about the production, not the play. What happened on that stage, on the night you were there, is the evidence. What the play means is a different paper.

Which sentence analyses?

Below is a paragraph about "The Weather House", an invented production used here so the method shows clearly. Tap the sentence that ANALYSES: what was done, and how.

• At the moment the letter arrives, the actor playing Nan crossed downstage in three slow steps and stopped just short of the front edge, her hands still at her sides.
• This worked because the stillness of her hands against the movement of her feet let the audience read her calm as effort rather than acceptance, though a lighting change arriving a beat early weakened it.
• The set was a kitchen with a table and two chairs.

Which sentence evaluates?

Same invented paragraph. Tap the sentence that EVALUATES: how well it worked, and why.

• At the moment the letter arrives, the actor playing Nan crossed downstage in three slow steps and stopped just short of the front edge, her hands still at her sides.
• This worked because the stillness of her hands against the movement of her feet let the audience read her calm as effort rather than acceptance, though a lighting change arriving a beat early weakened it.
• The set was a kitchen with a table and two chairs.

What belongs in the evaluate answer?

Select the TWO things that belong in a strong response to the evaluate question.

• A judgement about how successfully a choice achieved its effect on the audience
• An honest note of a moment where it worked less well
• A summary of what happens in the play
• Whether you enjoyed the evening

What "effect on the audience" actually means

"It was effective" is the emptiest sentence in this section. Effective at what? These are the kinds of effect worth naming:

Build one paragraph

Put the parts of a single evaluate paragraph into a workable order.

• Name the exact moment in the production
• Say what was actually done: the specific choice you saw
• Name the technique, using the correct subject terminology
• Say what effect it had on the audience
• Judge how successfully it achieved that effect
• Note where it worked less well, if it did

In the exam

Three decisions in Section B. Choose what you would do.

• The shorter question asks you to analyse the use of movement at a key moment. What do you do?
• The longer question asks you to evaluate a design element. Your paragraph describes the set in careful detail. What is missing?
• You want to write about a moment, but you cannot remember it clearly enough to say what was actually done.

Section B asks two questions

Section B asks _____ questions, not one: a shorter analyse question and a longer _____ question, so both registers have to be ready. To analyse is to break down _____ something was done; to evaluate is to judge how _____ it worked, with reasons. And every point is anchored to a named _____ in the production you actually saw.

Write it about the production you saw

Use the live production YOU saw, not the invented one from this module. Write two paragraphs about the same moment: one that analyses, and one that evaluates.

• Name the production and the exact moment you are writing about
• Write the analyse paragraph: what was done, how, and what it was for, using correct terminology
• Write the evaluate paragraph: what it did to the audience, how successfully, and why
• Include one honest point about where it worked less well, and say how you know