ENGLISH A1 – HIGHER LEVEL – PAPER 2 – IB Curriculum-12 November 2012

Drama- Sometimes plays move beyond dialogue and conventional stage action into other techniques such
as mime, plays within plays, dance or direct interaction with the audience. How have at least two
playwrights you have studied used such techniques to enhance the effects of their plays?

How to answer ?

It’s crucial to have a concise and well-structured response when responding to inquiries that inquire how a writer has employed unconventional methods to enhance the effects of their plays. This will enable you to effectively and logically communicate your analysis. To supplement the above-described steps, consider the following advice:

Pick at least two playwrights who have employed novel tactics in their plays and whose works you have researched.

Consider the playwrights whose works you are most familiar with and who have employed a variety of unique tactics in their plays when choosing the ones to explore. Consider Samuel Beckett and August Wilson as examples, both of whom employ a variety of strategies in their plays to heighten their effects.

Describe the novel strategies these writers employed.
This phase requires you to pinpoint the unorthodox strategies the playwrights employed. These strategies may take the following forms, as examples:

• Miming is the art of communicating ideas nonverbally using facial expressions and bodily movements.
• Dance: The art of using organised movement to narrate a tale or express emotion.
• The use of a play or tale to make commentary on the main play or to add a new layer of meaning is known as “play within a play.”
• Direct engagement with the audience might take the form of actors breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience, or include the audience in the play’s action.

Examine how these methods are applied to improve the plays’ effects.

Once the atypical methods employed by the playwrights have been recognised, you must examine how they are used to improve the impact of the plays. Take into account how they heighten the play’s emotional impact, provide cultural or political background, or advance the play’s themes or characters. As an illustration, consider how August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” uses dance to depict the feelings of the characters and the history of African Americans.

Provide specific examples from the plays to support your analysis.

You must use specific instances from the plays to substantiate your analysis. To support your arguments, cite passages from the play and make specific allusions to certain scenes or situations. You may use, as an illustration, the scene from Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” where the characters use mime to express their weariness and dissatisfaction.

Draw a conclusion that summarizes your analysis and highlights the significance of the playwrights’ use of unconventional techniques in their plays.

The conclusion you write should summarise your findings and emphasise the importance of the writers’ use of unusual staging methods. You may, for instance, examine how the unique approaches used in the plays contribute to make them more captivating and memorable as well as how they give the people and topics in the plays depth and complexity.

Sample Answer

Using unusual methods is one of the most important ways playwrights may improve the effects of their plays. Mime, plays within plays, dance, and direct audience participation are a few examples of these tactics. Playwrights can provide their audiences a more engaging and memorable experience by including these components in their plays. Samuel Beckett and August Wilson are two playwrights who have successfully applied these strategies.

Playwright Samuel Beckett was renowned for his innovative use of language and staging.