Top Girls

This scheme uses Act 3 from Top Girls by Caryl Churchill as a textual stimulus from which to devise original material. It is relevant for many new A-level drama & theatre studies exam specifications where devising forms a great deal of the assessment. Through the activities included in the scheme, students will learn how to deconstruct and analyse a play text stimulus, leading them to understand not only how to perform the script in a different way, but how to produce their own original work from it. Through creative explorations, students will learn how texts can be interpreted and then developed to communicate meaning to an audience. There are also ideas on how to apply practitioners’ ideas, which again makes this scheme relevant for many exam specification units.

Learning objectives
By the end of this scheme all students will:

• Have developed their understanding of what devised theatre is
• Have developed their ability to work co-operatively in groups
• Have developed their ability to create original material from an existing play text
• Have developed their understanding of how to deconstruct ideas, themes and narratives that make up the stimulus extract
• Have developed different methods for interpreting the play text stimuli
• Be able to carry out in-depth research to inform and develop ideas and creativityf
• Be able to apply the work of practitioners to the deconstructing of the play text and the devising processes thereafter
• Have explored the actor-audience relationship
• Have developed their ability to interpret meaning and characterisation from a script
• Have developed performance skills – aural and physical
• Have developed a final original performance outcome.

By the end of this scheme some students will:

• Have developed their understanding of theatre companies that produce devised theatre pieces
• Have developed their ability to direct others
• Have developed their characterisation in performance skills
• Have developed their script writing skills.

Number of lessons: 8