Practise writing about how a play makes meaning in performance. Attempt each before revealing; all characters, lines and stage directions here are our own invention.
1In our original play, a stage direction reads: 'She speaks to the audience, but keeps her back to her husband.' Write the opening of an essay on how the playwright presents the marriage.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Argue about the marriage; use the staging as evidence; remember that drama is written to be performed.
Model opening: The playwright presents the marriage as one of concealment: the direction that she 'keeps her back to her husband' while addressing the audience physically stages the distance between what she shows him and what she truly feels.
Checklist:
- Argument about the relationship
- Uses staging or stage directions as evidence
- Considers performance, not just words
- Focuses on the playwright's choices
2Write a body paragraph on how dramatic tension is built, using our original exchange: 'THOMAS: You told her. / MARGARET: I told her nothing. (She does not look up.)'
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Analyse the contradiction between line and action; comment on what an audience sees versus what it hears.
A trial lesson can start from your child's attempt at Drama essay practice tasks, with feedback from an experienced teacher.
Model opening: The playwright builds tension through the gap between speech and gesture: Margaret's denial, 'I told her nothing', is undercut by the direction that 'she does not look up', so the audience distrusts her before Thomas does.
Checklist:
- Focuses on how tension is built
- Reads dialogue and stage direction together
- Considers the audience's viewpoint
- Embeds short quotation
3Write the conclusion to an essay on how a playwright presents power, drawing on our original closing image: 'The lights fade on the empty chair at the head of the table.'
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Draw the argument together; read the final image symbolically; avoid new analysis.
Model opening: The playwright leaves power unresolved and haunting: the final image of 'the empty chair at the head of the table' suggests authority outlives the person who held it.
Checklist:
- Consolidates the argument on power
- Reads the closing image in performance terms
- No new points introduced
- Ends on the play's significance
See the worked annotated model response for drama essay, or the method in our drama essay skills guide.