Devising from an image: Narrative approaches

Waiting: an introduction to drama conventions

Acting Shakespeare: Monologues from A Midsummer Night's Dream

Practising physical and vocal skills

Live theatre responses: Becoming a critic

Narrative structures using poetry: Developing monologues

Who Cares?: A devising unit

Acting Shakespeare: Twelfth Night

Posture, gesture and voice in performance

Live theatre responses: Using social media

Approaching text: Bringing it to life

One text, different approaches

The journey: a verbatim project

Study of text in contemporary, cultural contexts

Live performance responses: Evaluating stagecraft

Understanding roles and responsibilities of the creative team

Commedia dell'arte: an introduction

Using Drama conventions to explore contemporary issues

Drama

Y9 Drama

Key Stage 3

Year 9

UNIT

The Objective for this lesson is to demonstrate a confident understanding of a range of creative and technical roles in the professional theatre, particularly the director, showing a secure awareness of the responsibilities involved.

The role of the director

﻿Hello, my name is Mr. Burt and welcome to your drama lesson. Now this is the first of five lessons looking at understanding the roles and responsibilities of the creative team. And in this lesson, we're going to start with looking at the role of the director. But before we get going, let's just make sure we've got the right agreement for our lesson. So in this lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper and a pencil or a pen. So make sure you've got that equipment before we get going. So this is the rundown of our lesson today. We're going to start off by looking at the keywords we need to succeed in our lesson. Then we're going to look at the role of the director and we're going to start writing your director's vision. You're then going to pitch your production to me before we finish with a quiz. So let's start with the key words we need to succeed in our lesson. The first key word is the director. Now the director is the person who has overall creative responsibility for the creation of a piece of theatre. We're also going to need the word naturalism. Now naturalism is a genre theatre which is focused on creating strong characters and telling character led stories. And finally we're going to be creating a directorial vision. Now a directorial vision is the creative concept the director creates based on how they want the performance to look. Before we get going, let's just have a quick check on some of those key words. So what is the role of the director in a theatre production? You tell me now. That's right. The director is the person who has overall creative responsibility for the creation of a piece of theatre. So the role of the director in a theatre production has three main roles. They begin with the directorial vision, to which then they need to communicate that to everyone. Firstly, through the design and their role then becomes about overseeing the design. And then it's about rehearsing the actors. So it starts with the directorial vision. Now the directorial vision is the creative force behind the production. It's things like what they want the audience to feel at the end of the production, how they want it to feel as an experience to be watching, how they want it to look, how they want it to sound, the ideas for the costumes, the ideas of the set. It's about bringing all those ideas together into a vision which then needs to be communicated to everyone else in the production. It's a bit like creating a manual for the production. So once they've got the directorial vision, the idea, they need to communicate that. The first group they need to to is the designers. So the next job becomes about overseeing the design. Here they need to talk to the set designers, the lighting designers, the costume designers, the sound designers, any the music they need. Anything else that they need theatrically-wise to create the production. They need to talk to them, communicate their ideas so that then the designers can go away with that brief and start making what they think is going to be appropriate for the production. But that role doesn't just end there with the designers. The designers need to keep coming back to the director, checking that they are on track with their work, making sure that everything fits the directorial vision and that will happen right up until the end. Their final job, which is the one that we're most familiar with, is rehearsing with the actors. Now for that bit, the director there is in the room, the rehearsal room, with the actors, giving them feedback, helping them to achieve what they what they want to do in the performance. But it starts well before that. The director needs to have some idea of how they want the performance to be created. So they've got to think about how the characters are going to be performed. The character backgrounds, the interpretation of the characters, the motivation of the characters. This needs to be discussed with the actors at the very beginning so the actors then can go away and do their job, which is to create that character, do their research and then come together with the director in the rehearsal room to continue to improve their performance until they feel that their performance is achieving what they set out in the directorial vision. So if we go back to the directorial vision, that document, that manuscript, that manual for the production really is the most important part of it because it's from that, that everything else is created. So before we move on, let's just check our understanding of the role of the director. One of the key roles of the director is to create that directorial vision. But is this statement true or false? The director has to communicate their vision clearly to everyone else in the production team. Tell me now, is that true or false? Yes, it's true. It's critical that the directorial vision is clear, it's easy to understand and it can be communicated well to everyone who's involved in the production team. Now we're going to create our own directorial vision. Now the first step would be selecting a play. Now I've selected a play for us and the play is called, "Little Miss Burden" by Matilda Ibini. Now the play's themes are coming of age and disability. And the play is set in a family home in East London during the 1990s. And there are three central characters, Little Miss, Big Sis and Little Sis. The plot of the play is this, Little Miss lives with a rare genetic disorder called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and lives with two sisters, Big Sis and Little Sis. The sisters are funny, exciting and really enjoy being with each other. And so the story explores what it means to grow up with specifically a physical impairment and what it means to grow up as the only person in your family with a disability. The plot is about how the three sisters come to terms and understands this the disability and how to live with it as together, they form a girl band. Now, having decided on a play, we need to then go to step two which is deciding on a focus. Now every play has two purposes to entertain and educate. So in terms of entertainment, a play needs to be exciting and engaging and interesting to an audience, but also needs to have an educational element to a play. Also needs to teach the audience something either about themselves or the world around them. So this brings us up to our next task which is to decide on a focus for our performance. And I want you to answer these two questions. Why would an audience find this play entertaining? And what are the audience going to learn about from this play? So pause the video now, answer these two questions and resume once you've finished. So how did you find that task? It's really important that every play, every production has a focus which is both on entertainment, why an audience would want to be there, and education, what are the audience going to learn from being there? So having selected a play and a focus for that play we need to now decide on a style for that play. Now our style in this case is going to be naturalism and it has a quick rundown of what naturalism style looks like. The plots are focused on character development and the timeframe for the play is very short. Maybe one day, no more than two. And the play happens in one or two locations. And so the set, costumes, sound and lighting can all be very detailed and realistic, as are the characters. The characters are realistic and believable. The acting needs to be naturalistic so that we as an audience can really believe that they are those characters. And so the actor's aim is to understand the character and get the audience to empathise with them. So this brings us up to our next task, which is about deciding the style and how are you going to create a naturalistic performance of this play? So I'd like you to do is I'd like you to write a bullet point list on how you are going to make your production naturalistic. Here are some questions to help you with that. What are the play's location and timeframe? What is the set costume and lighting going to be like? What are the characters like? And how are the audience going to emotionally connect with the central characters? So pause the video now, make a bullet point list on how are you going to make the production naturalistic using these questions as a guide and resume once you finished. So how did that activity go? Have you made the production as naturalistic as possible? Have a little look at your bullet point list. Have you really considered the timeframe and the locations or the performance? What about the set and the design of the lighting or the costumes? What about the your initial interpretations of the character? When we're thinking about naturalism everything needs to be realistic and believable. So once we've decided on the play and on the focus and on the style, then we can start to move to step four which is the initial designs for set, costume and lighting. So this is where I'd like us to do for our next task. It's under the headings of set, costume and lighting, is to write down some ideas. So we've set, write down some ideas of how you want the set to look and draw a simple sketch for your ideas on how that scene would look. I'd like you to have a go at some costume design. So write down some ideas of what you'd want the costumes to look like and then draw a simple sketch for how you think the main characters costume would look. And then to have some ideas for lighting as well. So write down some ideas of what kind of atmosphere you'd like to create with your lighting and then write down a list of main colours you'd use in the production. Remember, these are some quite simple sketches and initial ideas. It is something for the designers then to take away and work with. So pause the video now, have a go at having some simple ideas for the set costumes and lighting and resume once you've finished. How have you found that task? Remember, with the set designer and the costume designer the lighting designer, you are not the lighting designer or the costume designer or the set designer. What you are doing is setting out your initial ideas as director so that then when you sit down and have a meeting with those designers they can then take your ideas and make them into a reality. So are your ideas clear enough to be able to communicate your thoughts but perhaps you don't need to go into so much detail and if you have huge complex drawing. Excellent, we are really building up our directorial vision having chosen the play and the focus and the style, and having some ideas of what the set and the costumes and lighting will look like, it's now time to look at step five, developing some ideas for characterization. Now these are the ideas that the actors will then use to create their performance of your play. But characterization is a process, the process that we go from absolutely nothing to a complete finished character. And it starts off with these three words, given circumstances, interpretation and motivation. Now the given circumstances are all that basic information that the author gives us about the character. Then we use that information, as actors, to create our own interpretation based on how the character is feeling and what has happened to the character. And then finally we use that interpretation to create the characters motivation. Now, remember the motivation is the reason why the actor is there, the character is there. What are they doing on stage and why they are doing it. Before we move on, let's just check her understanding of those three words. So match the keywords with their definitions. Well, let's see if you've got those right. So the given circumstances are the basic information about a character often given to us by the author of the play. That leads us then into interpretation which is using information to create your own ideas for the character. We look at the information that the author has given us and we use that to then create our own ideas of how the character is feeling and thinking. And then that takes us onto the next word which is motivation. Why a character does something on stage. And we use our own ideas from the interpretation to give us the motivation for the character. So this takes us up to our next task which is developing your central character. And what I want you to do is I want you to write a list of all the things you know about the central character from the plot outline I gave you and the work you've done on them since and then write a list of questions or things you'd like to know about the central character. Here is a table which you could use to help you form your answers. So in the first box I want you to write down everything that you know about the character. And in the second box, write down the questions that you'd like to ask the character. So pause the video now, complete the task and resume once you've finished. How has that task gone for you? Remember, it's a bit like the set design and the costume design and the lighting design. These are your initial ideas, your initial thoughts on how you would like your character to be performed. You are then going to take these notes to the actors and they're going to do their job of then interpreting your ideas as well as looking at the texts afresh with their eyes and creating their performance. So perhaps review your notes, have a think about what you've created so far. Is it a clear, broad understanding of the character that you want to communicate to your actors? So having created those characters, that completes our directorial vision. And so we need to move on to step six which is preparing for your pitch. Now in a moment I'm going to interview you about your directorial vision. But before we do that I want you to review your work that you've done in all the tasks so far. So pause the video now, spend a few moments reviewing your answers to get ready for your interview and resume once you finished. So now let's move on to step seven, the pitch. I'm going to interview you and I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I want you to answer the questions using the notes you have created. Hello there, I believe you you're a director and you've come here today to pitch to me a production of "Little Miss Burden" which sounds like a really exciting and engaging play and I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are. So I've got some questions. First of all, what are the names of those central characters of the performance and what is the play about? Okay, thank you. My next question then concerns about why an audience would want to come and see this. So why would an audience want to come and see your production? What would entertain them and what would they come away with from the production having learned? Now I understand your production is going to be a really naturalistic one. So just tell me now what emotional connection, as an audience member, might I make with your central character? Now finally, just give me some ideas, just some initial ideas of your set, costume and lighting designs. Excellent, well done. That sounds like a really interesting production and I think I'd really liked to employ you to direct that. Well done. So let's finish up our lesson by putting these seven stages of creating a directorial vision into the correct order. Do that now, please. So let's just see if you got that in the right order. It starts with selecting a play, deciding a focus and deciding on a style. Then it moves on to creating some initial ideas for set costumes and lights and developing the characters and then finishes with preparing and making the pitch. Why not share your work with Oak National? If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #learnwithOak.

The Objective for this lesson is to demonstrate a confident understanding of a range of creative and technical roles in the professional theatre, particularly the set designed, showing a secure awareness of the responsibilities involved.

The role of the set designer

﻿Hello, there. My name's Mr. Burt and welcome to your drama lesson. Now this is the second of five lessons looking at understanding the different roles and responsibilities of the creative team. In our first lesson, we looked at the role of the director. And in this lesson, we're going to look at the role of the set designer. But before we get any further, let's just check that we've got the right equipment. So, in this lesson, you will need an exercise book, or a piece of paper, and a pencil or a pen. So make sure you've got that equipment before we get going. So, in this lesson, we're going to start off by looking at the keywords we need to succeed in our lesson. Then we're going to move on and look at the role of the set designer. We're going to learn a bit about set design, and then you're going to create your own set design. Once we've gone and done that, we're going to finish off with a quiz. So, here are the key words we need for this lesson. Our first key word is set. Now, set is everything that is visible on stage. So this includes scenery, furniture, and props. A prop is anything that is movable on stage but isn't part of the scenery or costumes. And production style. Production style is the overall look and feel for the production as defined by the director in their directorial vision. Excellent. Let's just check on our understanding of that key word set design. So which one of these is not considered part of set design? Is it props? Is it scenery? Is it costume, or is it furniture? Tell me now which one isn't considered part of set design. That's right, costume. Costume is under the control of the costume designer, but props, scenery and furniture all fall under the remit of the set designer. Now let's take a closer look at the role of the set designer. Now the set designer are responsible for the physical environment on stage and that includes props, scenery, and furniture. Now the set designer must interpret the instructions from the director in the directorial vision, and then create a design that will communicate to the audience the key information about the performance. And the most important word in that sentence is indeed audience. For the audience comes first. Everything that the set designer does is in order to communicate something about the production to the audience. So the set has to communicate location and time period of the production. The set has to communicate the mood, atmosphere and overall style of the production. When designing the set you need to take into consideration the entrance and exits, and indeed the space for the actors to act in. And of course, all the time the audience needs to have clear sight lines, so they can see the action on stage without something like a prop or some scenery or some furniture being in the way. But set can do much more than this too. Set can be naturalistic, to create an illusion of real life. Or it could be minimalist, using few but significant props and scenery. Or indeed it can be symbolic or abstract, creating an environment for the audience to use their imagination. A set needs to make the best use of space on the stage. A set designer needs to use levels, exits and entrances in a way that works for both the director's vision and the audience's experience. The materials and textures used in the set need to be appropriate and relevant to the location and time period of the play. And colour, colour can be used in symbolism to add another layer of communication to the actor, to the audience, or colour could be used in a naturalistic and therefore realistic way as possible. Now there's some tools that the set designer has. The set designer could use a revolving stage. Now that's a stage that revolves around, allowing fast scene changes and movement on stage. A set designer might use trucks. Now, a truck is a wooden frame with wheels on it that furniture and set sit on, so they can be moved on quickly and taken off stage quickly. A set designer might use projections. Projecting a backdrop can be a very effective and cheap way of creating scenery. Or a set designer might use flats. You might've seen these in your own drama studios. They are large wooden frames with a black canvas stretched over them. So the audience can't see through them, but they can also be painted, painted to include different scenery. And they can be then used and changed and moved around the set so they can hide entrances and exits and make wings. In a big theatre, you might have flying rigs. Now these are large pieces of backdrop scenery which can be changed by machinery and they are flown in from above. Or you might have a cyclorama. Some school halls have a cyclorama and it's a large white wall on the back of the stage that, when a coloured light is shined on it, it takes on that colour. You might've come across a smoke machine before, as well. Now these machines release water vapour into the air, and then it creates a sense of smoke which helps to create atmosphere or mystery. And when combined with different coloured lighting can create a really exciting, interesting or engaging atmosphere. Or you might've come across other pyrotechnics. These are special indoor fireworks that create a spark of fire or sparks. Let's just check our understanding of some of those tools that are available to set designers. So match up the keywords, cyclorama, revolving stage, pyrotechnics and projections with their definitions. Let's see if you got that right. So a cyclorama is a white wall which you can project colour on to. A revolving stage is a stage that literally revolves around. Whereas pyrotechnics are, of course, special indoor fireworks, which you can use to create flame effects. And projection is quite literally projecting a backdrop and that can create scenery, which is a really efficient and cheap way of creating a backdrop in your own drama studio. Now, we're going to look at some examples of some sets. I've tried to break them down in terms of what the set designer has used and what they are communicating to the audience. Now I'm going to start us off with this one here. Now this set designer's used a smoke machine to create some effects at the back. And they've created a window within the scenery. They've employed some flats, they've got a flat across the back as part of the scenery, and then two more on either side to create entrance points. And then we've got a fairly minimalist set on this actual stage. The colours are all dark and the curtains look old, worn and have a rough texture. Let's just think what are all these things communicating to the audience? Pause the video now and write a few notes on what you think this scene, this choice of set, is communicating to the audience. Press resume once you've finished. Well, this is my reading of the scene in front of us, and yours might be slightly different. But I've got to say a fairly moody atmosphere. I find that the smoke machine mixing with the light and the colour is creating a real moody atmosphere, quite an intense and intimidating atmosphere. And this is only added to by the sheer size of the window in the middle of the scene. I find the textures of the curtains and of the flats to create a sense of age, something which is very old and with that comes a sense of mystery as well. I wonder what you thought was being communicated to the audience? Let's have a look at another example. This time pause the video and write a list of all the tools that the set designer has used. Once you've written that list, press resume. Well, this is what I've identified. I've identified a few. First of all, we've got a black backdrop of a flat at the back in plain colour. Then we've got some individual props that the actors are holding and using. We've got very specific and naturalistic furniture which creates a naturalistic set. Although there isn't many of them, they've really gone to find the right furniture and used it as realistic and believable as possible. And the colours are all bright. There's lots of heavy texted fabric with period features. So let's have a think about what are all these tools communicating to the audience? So pause the video now and write a few notes on what is being communicated by this set to the audience. And resume once you've finished. So this is my reading of the scene, which might be very different to yours, and that's fine. From my perspective, I see lots of bright colours and the bright colours makes me feel happy, and makes me feel excited. I can see that there's lots of different fabrics and the fabrics are all different colours, which I find really intriguing and exciting. But they're also very rich fabrics, which makes me think that they are in a very rich and powerful place. Maybe it's one of the characters' homes and this is very rich and powerful. It's also a definite sense of a period piece. I'm unclear as to what period it is, but the features of the set are telling me that it is not set in the modern time. Working as part of the backstage team in theatre can be very dangerous, and there are some really important health and safety rules we need to follow. And although today we are looking at the design element of things, at some point in the future, you may go on to do some stage design and be working on the stage, so we need to be aware of the health and safety regulations we need to follow. The first and most important one is that you shouldn't work at heights using ladders or scaffolding, unless you are trained. You should be careful lifting heavy equipment, not to injure yourself. You should wear protective shoes and gloves. And falling objects can be a risk, so never work on stage when someone else is using a ladder or a scaffold. So we are going to be doing some design work. Now, when we're preparing for design work, we need to think how our designs are going to meet these four requirements, content, style, dramatic aims, and atmosphere. Now all of these will be detailed to you in the director's vision. But content is making sure your designs match the time period the play is set in and the details of the scene, such as what time of day it is and where they are. Style is making sure you are aware of the style of the production, whether it is naturalistic or minimalist. And make sure that your design meets the dramatic aims as well. Make sure your designs reflect the aim of the performance, how the audience will enjoy the performance, and what they will gain from it. And atmosphere, make sure your designs reflect the atmosphere of the piece of theatre. So onto your commission. You have been commissioned as a set designer to design the set for the forthcoming production of "Hairspray." Now, "Hairspray" is set in the 1960s America in a town called Baltimore, which is, like many American towns at the time, was struggling with a racial divide. "Hairspray" is about a young teenager, Tracy Turnblad, who rises to fame singing in a local music show called "The Corny Collins Show." And while she's on the show, she attempts to use her newfound fame to topple the barriers of race. Now the style of the performance is going to be naturalistic for the time period of the 1960s. The mood and atmosphere is bright, happy, and confident. And the stage is a busy one, with lots of actors entering and exiting, so we need to make sure that we have several entrance and exits points. The production aims to entertain the audience through comedy and music, but also needs to highlight and educate the audience on the racial tensions of 1960s America. We need a stage design that reflects the time period. It is naturalistic, but allows plenty of space for dance sequences and actors to enter and exit easily. Now the production will be performed on an end on stage, as shown in the diagram on the screen. And the scene you're going to design is the set that takes place in the TV studio recording of "The Corny Collins Show," which is a local TV dance programme in America. So that takes us on to our task, which is to complete your commission, to design a set for a scene from the musical "Hairspray" that takes place in the TV studio recording of "The Corny Collins Show." Make sure that you aim to achieve communicating the context, aims, style and atmosphere of the production to the audience. And use as many of the tools of a set designer as you think appropriate. Now how did you find that task? Set design can actually be really complex. It can be a really difficult job to meet all the aims of the director. To make sure that you communicate to the audience the content of the play, the style of the play, the dramatic aims of the play and the atmosphere of the play, all at the same time as managing entrances and exits and making sure there's enough space on the stage for people to act and dance and to make sure the audience can see everything. So in your set design, have you managed to meet the directorial vision of the director? Were are you able to communicate the time period of the 1960s? Could you communicate the style of it, of the naturalistic element. Were you able to get across the youthful excitement of the music show, but also highlight those racial tensions of the time period? What about this use of space? Were you're able to get enough space to have some dance sequences going on? What about entrance and exits? Take a moment to have a look at your stage design and review it. Is there anything you need to change, anything you need to improve? Anything you need to develop? Well done on your work today. Set design can be really difficult. So you've done a good job, well done. Why not share your work with Oak National? If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

The Objective for this lesson is to demonstrate a confident understanding of a range of creative and technical roles in the professional theatre, particularly the lighting designer, showing a secure awareness of the responsibilities involved.

The role of the lighting designer

﻿Hello there. My name is Mr. Burt, and welcome to your drama lesson. Now this is the third of five drama lessons looking at the roles and responsibilities of the creative team in a theatre. Now in our first two lessons we looked at the role of the director and the role of the set designer. And in today's lesson we're going to look at the role of the lighting designer. But before we do that, let's just have a quick check of what equipment we need before we get going. So in this lesson you will need the following pieces of equipment. You will need an exercise book or a piece of paper and you will need a pencil or a pen. So make sure you've got those pieces of equipment before we get going. All right, so the rundown of our lesson is as follows: We're going to start with looking at some keywords that we need to use to succeed in our lesson. Then we're going to move on and learn about the role of the lighting designer. We're going to learn a little bit more about lighting design itself. We're going to have a go at creating our own lighting design, and we're going to finish with a quiz. So let's look at the keywords we need for this lesson. The first keyword is lantern. A lantern is what lighting designers call stage lights. These are held above the stage on what is called a lighting rig. Intensity, colour and direction, these are the words that lighting designers use to describe the use of light on a stage. And finally, production style. Production style is the overall look and feel of the production as defined by the director in their directorial vision. Now, before we go on, let's just check our understanding of some of that keywords. So in theatre stage lights are called torches. Is that true or false? Tell me the answer now. That's right. It's false. In theatre, lighting designers call stage lights lanterns. And for the rest of this lesson so shall we. Let's start by looking at the role of the lighting designer. There is a lot more to lighting design than simply bringing the lights up and then taking the lights down on a stage. It can really help communicate the atmosphere and the feel and the mood of the performance. Lighting has practical purposes, of course, it can communicate to the audience the time of day and year. It can place emphasis on certain characters, moments of action or even dialogue. And it can communicate the location of the play. But lighting can also influence the look and feel of the play. It can help create the mood and atmosphere of the play. It can direct and make the audience look at different parts of the play and become the lens to which the audience will look at the play through. So we talked about intensity, colour and direction being the three words we describe light. Now, intensity is the light's brightness. So harder or brighter light can make the feel more intense, whereas soft or dimmer lighting creates a more mysterious and sinister atmosphere. But we can also describe lighting in terms of colour. And so colour can communicate the time of day or the year and the location of the play. But it's also really important because of the symbolism of colours. And then direction. Lighting the stage from different directions create different effects. Now, normally the stage of lit from the front but moving the lights above or below the actors creates interesting shadows. Now most drama studios have three types of lanterns. The first lantern is a profile spotlight. Now a profile spotlight casts a sharp beam of light onto the stage, Just like the one in the image that's on the screen now. I want you to pause the video for a moment and I want you to write down what effect do you think this profile spotlight is having on stage? Pause the video now, make some notes and resume once you've finished. Now, for me this profile spot is really isolating this girl singing. And because there isn't enough lights around the outside of her, the rest of the stage is in relative darkness. And because the profile spot is so powerful we can see the beam of light coming down from the lantern. It really highlights and profiles the singer on stage. Another type of lantern that you might find in your drama studio is the fresnel spotlight. A fresnel spotlight cast so much softer light and several of them are used together, and they can be good for adding colour as well. Take a look how the lighting used in the picture on the screen now. And I'd like you to pause the video again and just write a few notes on what effect do you think this fresnel spotlight is having on this stage. Pause the video now and resume once you've finished. Now, as you can see on this stage you've got about six, maybe seven fresnel all working at the same time, all with a balloon gel in front of them to make the colour, the light blue. And they're not very harsh. They're quite soft light but they're all coming together enough to light up the silhouette of the girl singing. 'Cause the lights are coming up from behind. Added to that and you've got some smoke effects to be able to carry the light as well. It all creates a much darker, much sinister, much moodier atmosphere. And perhaps the spotlight did in the first image. One last lantern that you might find in a drama studio is a floodlight. Floodlights are large lanterns that throw light over a large space. They can be used with colour or they can be used in combination with other lights, as we see in this image here. So on this stage, we've got a combination of a floodlight and a profile spotlight. So pause the video now for a moment and write some notes what you think this combination of floodlight and profile spotlight has on the stage. Pause the video and resume once you've finished. Excellent. Now I think this image is almost the exact opposite of the first image we saw where we had one single profile spot on the woman singing. Here, instead we've got the whole stage lit and that's coming from that floodlight. And if you look at the way the light comes across onto the stage, there isn't a dim area. There's either areas which are lit and there's areas which are not lit, but there isn't a change in intensity of that light. But then we've got the floodlight on the character who's standing up. And in fact, we've got two. Now, how do I know we've got two? Because we've got two shadows there. We've got one bright light for a spotlight shining down and creating a really dark shadow behind the actor. And then on the other side we've got another light coming down, shining on them and that's creating then a slightly less tense shadow behind them. One final thing that you might've come across in your drama studio are gobos. A gobo is a small metal disc that slots into a profile spot. And they have a picture of a pattern cut into them, so that when the lantern is turned on, that pattern or picture is then projected onto the stage. And we've got an example of that on the screen now. So we've got a young actress leaning back against a wall with her eyes closed and a projection of a window or two windows on her face. So pause the video now and just write a few notes on what is being communicated to the audience with this gobo of a window projected onto the girl's face? And press Resume once you've finished/ Now, in my mind this creates quite a powerful image because the windows are barred. And so she can't get out. So perhaps suggesting that she's in some sort of prison, maybe that might be a metaphor. And actually she's not in prison physically but she's in prison mentally and she wants to become something else, she wants to change. Or perhaps she is actually in a physical prison and she cannot escape. But the fact that it casts a shadow across her face and the fact that she's got her eyes closed also suggests to me that she's thinking about what is going to come next, of the things that will happen if she manages to break free from either the physical prison or the metaphor of the prison. Do you see gobos can be a very important and powerful tool to help you communicate to the audience the themes and issues within the play? So before we go on let's just match up these keywords with their definitions. So match up the lanterns profile spot, fresnel spot and floodlight and gobo with their definitions. Do that now, please. Okay, let's see if you've got those right. So the lantern profile spotlight is a spotlight that cast a sharp beam of light onto a stage. Whereas the lantern fresnel spotlight is a spotlight that casts a softer light. A floodlight is a large lantern that throws light over a large space. And a gobo is a small metal disc that slots in a profile spotlight. Working as part of the backstage team in theatre can be very dangerous, and there are some really important health and safety rules we need to follow. And although today we are looking at the design element of things, at some point in the future you may go on to do some stage design and be working on the stage. So we need to be aware of the health and safety regulations we need to follow. The first and most important one is that you shouldn't work at heights using ladders or scaffolding unless you are trained. You should be careful lifting heavier equipment not to injure yourself. You should wear protective shoes and gloves. And falling objects can be a risk, so never work on stage when someone else is using a ladder or a scaffold. So we are going to be doing some design work. Now, when we're preparing for design work we need to think how our designs are going to meet these four requirements: content, style, dramatic games, and atmosphere. Now all of these will be detailed to you in the director's vision. But content is making sure your designs match the time period the play set in and the details of the scene, such as what time of day it is and where they are. Style is making sure you are aware of the style of the production, whether it is naturalistic or minimalist. Now make sure that your design meets the dramatic aims as well. Make sure your designs reflect the aim of the performance. How the audience will enjoy the performance and what they will gain from it. And atmosphere, make sure your designs reflect the atmosphere of the piece of theatre. So it's time for you to step up as a lighting designer because you have been commissioned as a lighting designer to design the lights for the forthcoming production of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Now the plot of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." is about a gifted boy called Christopher Boone. Christopher also has Asperger's syndrome. In the opening scene Christopher discovers a dead dog in his neighbor's garden. Christopher wants to investigate the death of the dog further, but his father warns him off it and asks him not to get involved. Christopher decides to do so anyway, and in doing so starts and adventure of self-discovery. Now the style of the performance is minimalist and symbolic. Now the set will be fairly minimal and we want the atmosphere and mood to be created through the lighting and sound. The production aims to entertain the audience through comedy and tension, but also to highlight and educate the audience on what it is like to have Asperger's syndrome and to reflect on how they might have dealt with others who have Asperger's syndrome in the past. Now we need a lighting design for the first scene of the play that takes place at night in the neighbor's garden when Christopher finds the dead dog. In our theatre we have a mix of profile spotlights, fresnel spotlights and floodlights. And we'd like you to use a gobo in the first scene, but you need to design that gobo. We don't have any gobos in our theatre. We also want to create a mysterious atmosphere to support the tense and important moment of the play. So this brings us up to our first task which is to design a gobo. You remember, in the commission you're asked to create a gobo for the first scene? So design a gobo that you could use as part of your lighting design for the first scene of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Think about what would be something that you could project onto the stage over the action to help communicate either the time of day, the atmosphere you're trying to create or some of the themes of the play. Now I put on here, an image of a circle with a moon, that's what a gobo might look like. It's a circle disc with a design in the centre. So pause the video now, design your gobo and resume once you've finished. Excellent. This brings us up to the final task of your commission. So to complete your commission you need to come up with a lighting design for that first scene. So the task is, complete your commission to design the nights for the first scene of the play that takes place at night in the neighbor's garden when Christopher finds the dead dog. Make sure that you aim to achieve communicating the context, aims, style and atmosphere of the production to the audience. And uses as many of the lanterns as you think appropriate. And don't forget to make sure that you use your gobo in your lighting design as well. So pause the video now, completing your lighting design and press Resume once you've finished. How did that go? I think lighting design can be trickier than you first think, because you've got to be able to communicate so much to the audience through just a few tools. You've only got those three lanterns and some colours and perhaps a gobo to communicate the context, the aims, the style, and the atmosphere. But when we go to the theatre and we see those lights come up and the atmospheres they create, I think it can be absolutely fantastic. So thinking about what you've created, have you been able to communicate the fact that it was at night? And what about that tense moody atmosphere? How were you able to create that with your lighting design? How did you use the gobo? Did you use it to tell, to show the time or to create some of the themes within the play, or maybe to add to some of the atmosphere of it? Maybe review what you've done. Is there any tweaks that you need to do, any changes to make sure that you're communicating the context, aims, style, and atmosphere of the performance? Well done on your work today. Lighting designers I said can be really tricky. So your work, you should be proud of. Why not share your lighting designs with Oak National? If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

The Objective for this lesson is to demonstrate a confident understanding of a range of creative and technical roles in the professional theatre, particularly the costume designed, showing a secure awareness of the responsibilities involved.

The role of the costume designer

﻿Hello there, my name is Mr. Burt and welcome to your drama lesson. This is the fourth of five drama lessons, looking at understanding the roles and responsibilities of the creative team. Now, so far we've looked at the roles of the director, the set designer, the lighting designer. And in today's lesson, we're going to look at the costume designer. But first of all, let's just make sure we've got the right equipment before we make a start. So, in this lesson, you will need the following things; you will need an exercise book or a piece of paper and you will need a pencil or a pen. So, make sure you've got those pieces of equipment before we begin. So, this is the rundown of our lesson today. We're going to start with looking at the keywords we need to succeed in our lesson. We're then going to learn about the role of the costume designer. We're going to learn a little bit more about costume design itself before we create our own costume designs, then we're going to do a quiz at the end of the lesson. So, some key words we're going to need in this lesson, we're going to start with the keyword of costume. Now, costumes are outfits that actors wear when they are in character. So, they help to add another layer of communication to the audience. Stage makeup is what is applied to an actor's face to emphasise elements of their character, such as age or status. And then production style. Production style is the overall look and feel of the production as defined by the director in their directorial vision. So, before we move on, let's just think about that directorial vision and what information is in the directorial vision. Is it basic set design ideas? Basic costume ideas? The script? Or information of the style of the performance? Which of these do you think you would find in a directorial vision? Tell me now. That's right, you'd find all those three except for the script. The directorial vision is like a manual. It's the book that everyone refers to. The director sits down at the very beginning of the process and they think about what kind of performance they want to do, what they want to communicate to the audience and how they want that communicated. So, they will set out ideas for the set, for the costumes, for the lights. They will set out ideas for how they want the performance to be performed in terms of style, what they want their dramatic aims to be. They will then set out ideas about the character and how the actors should perform it, so, that directorial vision becomes a manual for that production. Something that all of the job roles within the production team will go back to and refer to, to make sure that the job they're doing is on the right track. Now, the role of the costume designer is quite complex and it isn't just a case of simply going to the costume department and taking out some costumes that you think would be appropriate. You need to take into consideration time and place, style and character. Time and place refers to the way the costumes can communicate the time of day and the time of year and the location of the play. The style refers to the fact that the costumes need to refer, fit the style of the play, whether it's naturalistic or abstract. And then perhaps most importantly is character. Costumes are a really efficient way of communicating information about the character's background, about their status, their age, their wealth, their social class or even their profession. So, when we go about designing costumes, we need to think about these three things. We also need to think about colour, materials and texture as a way of communicating time and place, style and character. So, starting with colours. The symbolism of colours are important to costume design. It is a visual element that the audience can clearly understand. Colours can also be used to show connections between groups of characters or to show individual character status. What the character's costumes are made of the materials of costumes can also communicate a lot about a character too. So expensive or decorative materials can communicate that a character are really wealthy, whereas worn or dirty materials could communicate a lower status character. And texture as well, the way a piece of material feels, the texture of material can add realism and authenticity to a costume. We're going to have a look at some examples of some costume, how they've been created and what they're communicating to us as an audience. Now, we're going to look at this one first and I'm going to to take you through it to begin with. So, this character here has short hair, they have no visible makeup on, they weren't in glasses, that might be a choice of the costume designer or that might be that the actor needs to wear glasses, they've got a fitted t-shirt, they've got a well-fitted unbuttoned textured shirt on, they've got fitted blue jeans and nice brown shoes. Now, that's how the costume designer has worked and created that costume. Now, what does that costume tell you as the audience about that character? Pause the video now and make some notes on what you think that character is as being communicated by what they are wearing in their costume and resume once you've finished. Okay. So for me it communicates that the character young and wealthy. He is relaxed and comfortable. Everything he is wearing is fitted, he hasn't just gone to any old shop to buy clothes or hasn't got clothes which are handed down from other people, they are purposefully bought to fit him. So, he's quite wealthy. He's also got quite a young fashionable taste. The location where he is, it's quite warm but not too warm. He's got a t-shirt on and a textured shirt over the top of it. He likes to dress smartly, he looks smart, even though he is in casual clothes and he's chosen to wear nice brown brogues, brown shoes rather than trainers in this circumstance. So, you see the choice of a costume for a character can communicate quite a lot about them before they've even started to act. Let's have a go at this character here, perhaps a more challenging one I think as well. So first of all, pause the video now and write down what elements of costume do you see and then resume once you've made that list. Okay. So this is what I see so far. So, we've got a headscarf and a dark coloured cardigan, I think it might be purple quite hard to see in the night. The headscarf that she's wearing falls down to form a scarf. There's a reddish coloured top and everything she wears above her waist is quite fitted almost too small for her. Whereas she's wearing a light coloured long and flowing skirt. Let's think about what that costume is communicating to us as an audience now. So, pause the video again and write down a list of things that you think this character was communicating to you as the audience and resume once you've finished. So, from my perspective I think these costumes is communicating that she's quite a low status character, perhaps a maid or a servant. Her clothes are clean but they are not fitted. Everything above the waist looks quite tight, everything below the waist is long and flowing. She looks after them because they're clean but they might not be hers originally they might be handed down from older generations or from somewhere else. Her clothes also are not special material. That again gives the sense that perhaps she is of a lower status character. Working as part of the backstage team in theatre can be very dangerous. And there are some really important health and safety rules we need to follow. And although today we are looking at the design element of things at some point in the future, you may go on to do some stage design and be working on the stage. So, we need to be aware of the health and safety regulations we need to follow. The first and most important one is that you shouldn't work at height using ladders or scaffolding unless you are trained. You should be careful lifting heavy equipment, not to injure yourself. You should wear protective shoes and gloves and falling objects can be a risk. So, never work on stage when someone else is using a ladder or a scaffold. So, we are going to be doing some design work. Now, when we're preparing for design work, we need to think how our designs are going to meet these four requirements, content, style, dramatic aims, and atmosphere. Now, all of these will be detailed to you in the director's vision. But content is making sure your designs match the time period the play is set in and the details of the scene, such as what time of day it is and where they are. Style is making sure you are aware of the style of production, whether it is naturalistic or minimalist. And make sure that your design meets the dramatic aims as well. Make sure your designs reflect the aim of the performance, how the audience will enjoy the performance and what they will gain from it. And atmosphere, make sure you're designs reflect the atmosphere of the piece of theatre. So, it's over to you now as a costume designer, so here is your commission. You have been commissioned as a costume designer to design the costumes for the forthcoming production of Romeo and Juliet. Now, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and is a tragic love story between Romeo and Juliet. Sworn enemies who fall in love. Their tragic deaths at the end of the play are the lovers' attempts to save themselves from being parted due to their families ongoing conflict. Now, in this particular production, it's going to be set in 2050, so in the future. In an age where technology has become even more important to the day he running of our lives. The two families are divided by technology. One family who can afford to have access to everything and one family who can only afford the most basic technology. Now, the style of the production is going to be naturalistic for the time period. The mood and atmosphere is moody, tense and indeed threatening. The production aims to entertain the audience through the tension to the story and to educate the audience on the dangers of technology and the divide they can create when you can't access it. You are going to design both the costume and makeup for Romeo and for Juliet. So, I'm going to take you through the two characters. We've got Juliet, who is 18 in this version, comes from a wealthy background. Her family has access to money and has bought her all the most up-to-date technology. She rarely sees the outside world, making most of our connections and interactions online instead. She is drawn to Romeo because he's not excited by technology. The actor playing Juliet is 25 years old. Then we go to Romeo. So, Romeo who is 20 in this version, comes from a lower economic background. He has grown up without access to new technologies when they were developed and he rarely gets things secondhand either. He's trying to break away from technology to find human connections and interactions instead. Now, the actor playing Romeo is 32 years old. So, this brings us up to your task. And your task is to meet my costume design commission. So, complete your commission to design a costume for the characters of Romeo and Juliet in the upcoming production. Make sure that you aim to achieve communicating the context, aims, style and atmosphere of the production to the audience. Once you've done the two designs, resume once you've finished. So, how did that activity go? How were you able to use costume and makeup to communicate the context, style, aims and atmosphere of the production. Costume and makeup design isn't as easy as you first think. Now in this particular director's vision, it was set in the future in 2050. So, how did you interpret that? How were you able to communicate the context of that to the audience? And that technology divide between Romeo and Juliet, how were you able to communicate that with your costume? Did you feel that your costumes were moody and threatening as the atmosphere of the production demanded? What about that tension between the two characters? Think about makeup for a moment. Remember Romeo was an actor who was 32 playing a character 20 years old. So, were you able to use makeup to age the actor? Maybe you need to just reflect over the work you've created so far and change and develop some of it so that it meets the directorial vision of the production. Well done on your work today. Costume design can be really tricky and really tough to be able to communicate all those different aims in the directorial vision. So, well done in your work today, you should be proud of what you've done. Before we finish let's just check our understanding of costume design. Which of these can costume not communicate to the audience? Time, location, character's motivation or character's status. Point to which one costumes cannot communicate to the audience. That's right, character's motivation. That comes from at the character the actor is understanding of the character and how they deliver and say the lines and movement. Whereas time, location and status can all be communicated through the character's costume. Why not share your costume designs with Oak National? If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational or #LearnwithOak.

The Objective for this lesson is to demonstrate a confident understanding of a range of creative and technical roles in the professional theatre, particularly the sound designer, showing a secure awareness of the responsibilities involved.

The role of the Sound Designer

﻿Hello, my name is Mr Burt, and welcome to your drama lesson. Now, this is the fifth and final drama lesson on a series of lessons called understanding the roles and responsibilities of the creative team. And so far, we've looked at the roles of the director, the costume designer, the set designer, and the lighting designer. And in this final lesson, we're going to look at sound design. But before we do that, let's just check we've got all the equipment we need to get this lesson started. So in this lesson, you will need either an exercise book or a piece of paper and a pencil or a pen. So make sure you've got those pieces of equipment and then let's make a start. So in this lesson, we're going to start by looking at the key words we need to succeed in our lesson. Then we're going to look at the role, the sound designer, we're going to learn about sound design and then we're going to print what we've learned into practise by creating our own sound design. We're going to finish the lesson with a quiz. So, onto the keywords then we need to succeed in our lesson. The first key word is soundscape. Now soundscape is layering up sounds to create a strong sense of being in a location. A sound check, sound check is checking all the instruments and equipment are working and sound levels are checked and balanced. Sound levels, so sound levels is a process of making sure that the sound is at the correct volume so that it can be heard by all the audience at the right volume. By the audience who has sat at the back, and the audience who has sat at the front. The audience you are sat three rows above, and the audience who are sat in the stalls. And then the final word is production style. Production style is the overall look and feel for the production as defined by the director in their directorial vision. So let's just quickly check our understanding of some of those keywords before we move on into the lesson. So is this statement true or false. Performing regular sound checks help keep your sound levels balanced. Is that true or false, tell me now. Well done, that's true. It is important that you regularly perform a sound check to make sure that sound levels are balanced. And therefore everyone in the audience wherever they are sat, are hearing it at the right volume. So let's start by looking at the role of the sound designer. Now, the sound designer is responsible for music whether that is live on stage at the time or anything that's pre-recorded. And sound effects again, those could be live on stage or recorded and presented over the speakers and the amplification of the actors if it is needed. Sound design can communicate the artistic vision time period, location, time of day and the emotions of the characters and add to the general atmosphere and mood of the performance. And often the start and ends of scenes will be signalled with a piece of music. So sound and music plays a very important part in a piece of theatre and the way in which that piece of theatre is communicated to an audience. There are two types of sound when we look at sound in theatre. There are diegetic sounds and non-diegetic sounds. So let's start with diegetic sounds. These are sounds that can be found within the world of the play. And so they include specific sound effects that the actors actually hear within the performance. So when someone presses the doorbell, there are characters will hear the doorbell. If an animal makes a sound or there's a knock on the door, these are sounds that the characters on stage will hear and respond to and react to. Now, some of these will need to be live but others will be recorded and played over speakers. Whereas non-diegetic sounds are those sounds that the characters don't hear in the performance but add to it to help create the atmosphere of it. So for example, music which is played in the background or soundscapes that build up the atmosphere or anything that helps communicate the emotion of the character, these are non-diegetic sounds. Now there's a couple of pieces of equipment that is a sound designers you might want to use or need to use. The first one is microphones. Now these are used by actors to amplify their voice through speakers. There are hand held microphones or lapel microphones which are attached to your clothes or you can get sellotaped onto your cheek. Then we have amplifiers. Now amplifiers help increase the volume of a sound whilst maintaining its quality. And speakers then project the sound so that everyone can hear it at the same volume. We might use a mixing desk. Now a mixing desk, it lets the sound designer to control the different sounds and their volumes. And we might use computer software where you can queue up different sound effects so they can be played at the right time. Now let's just check our understanding of some of those keywords. So answer me this question. Is the sound of a doorbell a diegetic or non-diegetic sound? Tell me the answer now. That's right, it's a didactic sound. A doorbell is a didactic sound because it is something that the characters on stage will hear and respond to and react to. Whereas an example of a non-diegetic sound is background music. We are going to be doing some design work. Now, when we're preparing for design work, we need to think how our designs are going to meet these four requirements, content, style dramatic games and atmosphere. Now, all of these will be detailed to you in the director's vision. But content, is making sure your designs match the time period, the player setting, and the details of the scene such as what time of day it is and where they are. Style is making sure you are aware of the style of the production whether it is naturalistic or minimalist. But to make sure that your design meets the dramatic games as well, make sure your designs reflect the aim of the performance, how the audience will enjoy the performance, and what they will gain from it. And atmosphere, make sure your designs reflect the atmosphere of the piece of theatre. Now before we go on, let's just have a quick check of some of the keywords that we learned in the beginning of the lesson. So tell me now, what is a soundscape? That's right, a soundscape is layering up sounds to create a strong sense of being in a location. So these sounds could be a mixture of diegetic or non-diegetic sounds that create that sense of being in a place and creates tension and atmosphere. Now we're going to be creating a soundscape as part of your commission for this lesson. So, you have been commissioned to design and create a soundscape design to accompany the performance of a monologue. The soundscape needs to be played live during the performance and made up of a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The soundscape should communicate to the audience the time of day, the mood and atmosphere of the monologue, and any other diegetic mess sounds mentioned in the script. And here is the script of the monologue. And everything that is in italics is stage instruction, and everything else is being said by character A. So it is night and there is a loud crash off stage and Character A enters. Character A says, "Who's there?" Character A walk slowly on the stage. There are several different noises that happen around Character A, then silence. Then footsteps gets louder as Character A begins to panic more. Character A then says, "I said who's there? Show yourselves, I must see you." And then there was a sound of a heartbeat increasing in tension is heard. Character A slowly turns to see where it is coming from. The heartbeat is really loud and then suddenly silent as scary laughter is heard. Character A runs and exits. Okay, I want you to pause the video now. And using the monologue on the screen, I want you to see and identify what sounds you might need to create as part of your soundscape. So pause the video and resume once you're ready. So having read through it, this is some of the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that I would expect to see in your commission. So I'd expect to see or here rather sounds which suggested that it's night and allowed crash which is offstage. I'd expect to hear several different noises. Now it doesn't say what those noises are in the script, but they happen around Character A. So perhaps they're coming from different directions, then silence, of course silence is a sound. Then there's footsteps which get louder, and a heartbeat which is increasing and gets louder. And then again a bit of silence and then some scary laughter. Now, we're going to watch the performance of the monologue so that you can begin to see where those sounds might come in when you create your soundscape. Who's there? I said who's there? Show yourselves, I must see you. So this brings us up to our next task then which is to plan the soundscape. Now I want you to re-watch the monologue next. And during that performance, I want you to plan what sounds you will create for the soundscape. You will need to use whatever you can find at home that you can use to make a noise as well as your voice. And don't forget, you need to create sounds for the diegetic sounds mentioned in the script as well as the time of day and any other sounds that you think will help create the atmosphere of the monologue. So on the next slide we will see the monologue that I want you to watch and take some notes whilst you watch it. Who's there. I said who's there? Show yourselves, I must see you. Excellent, so pause the video now, plan what sounds you need, go and find the bits and pieces that you think would make good sounds for that. Don't forget, there's a lot of sounds there you can make with your voice. And resume once you've got that ready. Before we go on any further, let's just have a quick recap of some of the keywords from the beginning of the lesson. So what is a chance sound check? Tell me now, what a sound check is. All right, so a sound check is checking all the instruments and equipment are working, and sound levels are checked and balanced. And so sound levels is a process of making sure that the sound is at the correct volume levels so it can be heard by all the audience at the right volume. So what we're going to do now, is we're going to have a practise, a run through, so that you can do your sound check for your soundscape. In the next slide, we're going to see the monologue again. And as I performed the monologue, I want you to perform your sound check, making sure that everything is in the right place at the right time. So we're going to do a sound check, a run through of your soundscape alongside the real performance. And I'm going to count us down. So make sure you've got all your instruments ready. The first one at hand, and I'm going to count us down from three to one and when I say one, we're going to go. So three, two, one, go. Who's there? I said who's there? Show yourselves, I must see you. So this brings us up to our next task which is to review what we've got so far. So I want you to review what you have planned for the sounds you will create for the soundscape. What worked and what didn't work in our rehearsal we just did? Have you created sounds for the diegetic sounds mentioned in the script? Have you communicated the time of day? Are you adding any sounds to help create the atmosphere of the monologue? What I'd like you to do is pause the video now, and review what you've created, add, develop, and change what you've made so it meets the brief and resume once you've finished. Now that you're ready to go, we're going to perform your soundscape. So on the next slide, you will see my performance and this will be our final performance. So as I perform, I want you to perform your final soundscape. So this time, we're going to do it for real. This is going to be our performance. This is going to be the ones and only time we're going to do it. So, make sure you've got all the instruments and everything you need to make this soundscape really awesome. And I'm going to count down again like I did for the rehearsal. So when I get to one, you need to be ready to start. Are you ready? Good, three, two, one, go. Who's there? I said who's there? Show yourselves, I must see you. So how was that performance for you? Were you able to make all the sound effects in the right time to create a real sense of the location and of the atmosphere? I feel it was a really moody monologue. So I hope you're able to get that moodiness out in the atmosphere. And that heartbeat is quite important because it's a non-diegetic sound and it really helps to build tension in the audience's mind. Performing a soundscape like that, can be really, really hard. So well done on your work today. You should be really proud of yourselves. So before we finish up today, let's just check our understanding for some of the keywords reviews. So which of these can sound not communicate to the ordinance? Is it time, is it location, is it the plot of the play or is it atmosphere? You tell me which one of these sound cannot communicate to the audience? That's right, we can use sound to tell us time, we can use sound to tell us the location and add to the atmosphere, but we can't use sound or music to tell the actual plot of the play. Why not share your work with Oak National? If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Unit Overview: Understanding roles and responsibilities of the creative team

Lessons:

The role of the director

The role of the set designer

The role of the lighting designer

The role of the costume designer

The role of the Sound Designer