Y9 GCSE Drama Home learning task - read and learn an extract from one of a selection of contemporary plays

1. Week
commencing
20th April Y9
Drama
• Welcome back Y9, hope that
you are in good health and
feeling motivated for a new
challenge!
• For this half term we will
attempt to learn an extract
from a play, from a choice of
several plays all included
here.
• This presentation includes
what you need this week.
• After reading the extracts I
would like you to make your
selection and read it at least
once a day – that will add up
to two hours of Drama this
week.
• Further tasks will be set each
week which relate to how
we move from page to stage.

2. PERFORMANCE FROM TEXT
Component 2
20% OF THE GCSE

3. PERFORMANCE FROM TEXT
Component 2
20% OF THE GCSE
In component 2 students read
and select two extracts from a
play which they then prepare and
present to a visiting examiner.
Students can undertake the
component as a performer, or as
a designer. Across the two
extracts they can even fulfil both
roles if they wish.
Your teacher will be best placed
to advise you on which role you
are best to take for this
component.
The performances are examined
in March of your Y11
They are worth 20% of your
overall mark.

4. April 2020 Y9
task overview:
• Each of you will select an
extract from one of the plays
listed in this presentation to
study.
• The overall aim is to learn the
extract so that you could
perform it without the script
to the class on our return to
school.
• Regardless of when we do get
back together, this task is
about performance practice
and gaining a head start on
work we will do later in the
course. It is practical and
doesn’t require a great deal
of sitting at a laptop, you can
do your study anywhere in
the house or garden in fact,
wherever suits you best.
• Each extract is of similar
length and will be a
monologue.
• Each extract when
performed should last 2-3
minutes in length.
• Each week over this five
week half term there will be
sub-tasks linked to the main
task such as
• Researching the context of
the play
• Watching the play if
possible,
• Writing in role
• and so on.

5. Things I Know
to be True
by Andrew Bovell
‘A complex and intense
portrait of the
mechanics of a family –
and a marriage –
through the eyes of
four siblings struggling
to define themselves
beyond their parents’
love and expectations’

6. Extract 1 – Rosie

7. Every Brilliant Thing
by Duncan
Macmillan
‘Heart wrenching,
hilarious…one of
the funniest plays
you’ll ever see
about
depression…and
possibly one of the
funniest plays you’ll
ever see, full stop’

8. Extract 2 – Narrator. Start where the arrow
indicates. The extract continues over the
page.

10. Girls Like That
by Evan Placey
Designed for any
number of
actors, easily
adapted to be a
monologue, this
play deals with
how girls treat
each other both
in person and on
social media

11. Extract 3 – Girls Like That
The characters are un-named.
In performance this could be
split between more than a
single performer, decided by
the Director.
For this task it will be a
monologue.

12. The Long Road
by Shelagh Stephenson
• Another popular choice of
Y11, this play has both great
monologues and duologues –
I’d love to produce it at
school in fact and still might
do.
• There are several monologues
offered here, all from family
members who have suddenly
and tragically lost a member
of their family to a random
stabbing incident.

13. Part 1 of 2
Continues over the
page.
These are the
opening lines of
the play.

14. Part two
We have to redact
(remove) swearing
from texts and
either do without
it, or replace it with
something more
acceptable. That is
the case
throughout the
GCSE.

15. Play 5
Extract 2 from The Long Road – Mary’s monologue

16. The Curious
Incident
of the Dog
in the Night-Time
By Simon Stephens
Christopher has never
ventured beyond the end of
his road but his detective
work, forbidden by his
father, takes him on a
frightening journey that
turns his world upside
down.
I have selected two
monologues here, one from
Christopher and one from
Judy.

17. Play 6
In the play Christopher’s tutor Siobhan
(pronounced shiv-awn) says these lines, but for
the purposes of this task we can change that.

18. Again – all these lines can be said by
Christopher to keep it as a monologue.
In Component 2, changes like this are allowed
so long as the changes are ‘consistent with the
artistic intention of the author’ which is a rather
open phrase and means there is scope for
interpretation, like much in Drama!

19. Judy’s monologue
Spoiler – Judy is Christopher’s Mother, who he
believes died, when in fact she left his Father, Ed
when he was very young.