Topic outline
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Component 3 - Theatre-making and performingIndividual performance -
Part 2 Individual performance (20 marks)The video recording quality of these performances are poor. It is important to create good quality video evidence of performances for every candidate in the sample you send to Cambridge. We have created a guide to filming better videos and teachers are advised to watch this guide before filming evidence for Cambridge.
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Example 1
Commentary on Individual performance
The piece lasts for approximately 6 minutes.
The three texts chosen are Byron's Lines Inscribed Upon a Skull, Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire, and a Hamlet soliloquy. None are identified in the performance by author or title, with just one of the three likely to be recognisable to most audiences without being named. The recording has some imperfections in sound and vision and is somewhat distant from the performer. These issues do not impact on marking but show the need for recording checks prior to final performance, and for a stable camera and lighting. The recording starts abruptly at a distance with the face blurred and the opening words ("Start not") are not entirely clear. The candidate's theme is 'Insanity'. Although it is not clear that all three extracts clearly relate to the theme, leaving the audience to infer relevance to the first and third texts, which are not given individual introductions. The candidate's one linking statement made between the first and second extract discusses the range of interpretations of the term, linking it to the second extract. The skull on the pedestal does not have any direct relation to any of the extracts (the Byron poem is about a cup formed from a skull, and the Hamlet soliloquy is not the one which relates to a skull) and the candidate does not include it in her performance or direct her attention towards it. Staging is not marked in this component, but there is an expectation that items chosen to enhance the presentation 'will not distract from the primary focus of the task on performance skills' (syllabus page 33). The candidate places herself centre stage and performs to the front purposefully throughout.
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Example 2
Commentary on Individual performance
The piece lasts for approximately 7' 16".
The three texts chosen are from plays, i.e. Cartwright - Two, Duncan Macmillan - Lungs, and Zia Ahmed - I Wanna Be Yours. The texts are not identified in the transitions although the characters are all mentioned by name and with some comparative comment in the one linking statement made between extracts 2 and 3, commenting on all three. The chosen theme is identified as 'relationship problems' (the Individual Candidate Marksheet states 'Conflict within relationships'). The recording is a little distant with some odd lighting changes but is reasonably viewable on a good-sized screen. There is some camera motor noise and occasional other audible mechanical interference in the recording. The candidate is purposeful and busy on stage throughout the three extracts, using the props relevantly to occupy the characters. The way the candidate uses floor for the first extract and the end lines allow her to move up to the stage for the next extract while still in role ('All right, all right, I'm coming') and while removing the Landlady's apron is inventive in managing the transition and gives fluency to the presentation. The addition of the leather jacket as an added costume item in the last extract while making the linking statement also shows fluency in managing the transition. It is both an easy costume change and a good signifier of a change of role. There is a short concluding comment, which as the syllabus states, is not needed (page 33).
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Example 3
Commentary on Individual performance
The piece lasts approximately for 6' 47".
The three texts chosen are from Matthew Walker's non-fiction book Why We Sleep, Aeschylus The Persians, and Chelsea Terris Like We Wasn't People. The texts are not identified in the transitions. The recording is a little distant with some odd lighting changes but is good quality. There is some occasional background sound. It appears the candidate has chosen a separate area of the stage for each of the three extracts, beginning in the centre and returning to that point to make links in the persona of the first extract character. She adopts the persona of the first extract character to introduce the second and third, denoted by a large pink scarf, as a professor who is giving a lecture about the theme of dreams. This is imaginative in attempting to unify the process of linking the texts together. However, it blurs the distinction between the first extract and the links and is potentially confusing, such that the essential communication of the point of transition from first text to the linking comment is entirely lost. The discussion of the theme, in role, between the second and third extract is well over a minute, which is excessive in discussing and commenting on the texts chosen. In the third extract it is not entirely clear why some of the candidate's focus is given to the desktop behind which she is standing. Wherever a lectern, table or a desk is used, it is essential that candidates do not direct attention to it in a way that could suggest a script placed there.
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