How to answer a 14 mark design question for Section A GCSE Drama (Pearson) The Crucible

2. SECTION A SKILLS
DESIGNER QUESTION
QUESTION (C)

3. Question (c) Set
• Question C asks you about specific choices in the extract as a
designer.
• You need to discuss how you would use a particular design element
to make the production more appealing to an audience.
• You will be given a choice of three of these design elements:
• Costume, lighting, staging, props/stage furniture, set or sound.
• Here, the focus in on set.

4. Answering the question
Question (c) is worth 14 marks, so spend around 20 minutes
on this question
Discuss your ideas in detail and
consider different ideas and
opinions.
Show how your ideas enhance
the extract, such as using
costume to signify status.
Make your audience central –
how will your ideas affect the
audience?
Make links to other design
elements and to the play as a
whole.
Justify your ideas and support
them with evidence from the
extract and the wider play.
Show how your ideas represent
or symbolise the play’s themes
or ideas
Keep your ideas practical for the
performer

5. Example question
• Discuss how you would use one
design element to enhance the
production of this extract for the
audience.
• Choose one of the following:
• Set
• Lighting
• Sound
• (14 marks)
• How long should you spend on
this question?
• The extract we will use is P44
‘When the devil comes…’(Hale)
to the end of Act One on P46
• Read through the extract first to
remind yourself of the action of
the extract.

6. Example question
• Discuss how you would use one
design element to enhance the
production of this extract for the
audience.
• Choose one of the following:
• Set
• Lighting
• Sound
• (14 marks)
• Key questions
• What is happening in this
extract? How can my chosen
design element help the
audience understand what is
happening?
• What are the main themes in
the extract?
• What is the mood of the
scene, and how can my
design element enhance
that?

7. A worked example
• In this example, identify:
1. Clear reference to the
audience
2. Decisions being justified
3. Accurate technical vocabulary
4. Consideration for practical and
safe use of the set by
performers
5. Reference the play’s specific
location
6. Show a performers status
7. Indicate the style, such as
realism
• As a designer I would want to enhance for the audience the
intense pressure put upon Tituba by Hale and the other men. I
would use in the round staging so the audience feel they are
all witness to the events and involved in the persecution of
the innocent.
• There would be Betty’s bed centre stage which Tituba could
try to use as refuge, clinging to the metal frame but will be
dragged away from by Parris, so she is isolated on the bare
wooden floor. Hale could then stand over her to show his
power and control at this point.
• To contrast the safety and security of a bedroom I would have
bedsheets made filthy from Betty’s dancing in the woods, and
only a bare mattress on the bed itself.
• The walls of the room would be abstractly indicated by
wooden posts and would lean in towards the space, giving a
symbolic meaning of pressure and observation, as if everyone
is looking in and judging the performers.
• Above a frame would be suspended, suggesting we are in the
upstairs room. The room itself would be circular and
performers could emerge from the shadows if the central bed
was lit as if by moonlight.