Understanding drama and performance
Understand how dramatists communicate meaning through performance — including staging, direction, set design, lighting, and actors' choices — and how different productions can interpret the same script differently
Suggested ages 11–14
Evidence of understanding
- Explain how a director's staging choices (e.g., set, lighting, blocking) affect the audience's understanding
- Compare two productions or adaptations of the same play and evaluate different interpretive choices
- Analyse how a filmed or live production stays faithful to or departs from the original script
Assessment prompt
After watching a stage or film production of a play they've read, can Understanding drama and performance discuss how specific choices — like the lighting, the actor's tone, or the set design — interpreted the script, and whether they agreed with those choices?
Standards alignment
RL.6.7
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects · 6
RL.7.7
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects · 7
RL.8.7
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects · 8
Understand dramatists' work and performance
The national curriculum in England: Key stages 1 and 2 framework document · Key Stage 3