QCAA Drama cheat sheet

Form is the overall structural shape of a drama (e.g. linear narrative, episodic, circular, montage, ritual); style is the recognisable set of choices shaping how it is performed and received.

Linear form: cause-and-effect progression through exposition, complication, climax and resolution; episodic form: disconnected scenes linked by theme, character or motif rather than plot causality.

Climax is the point of highest tension or irreversible decision; resolution (denouement) is what follows it; the inciting incident is the event that disturbs the initial equilibrium.

Style markers include degree of realism versus non-realism, use of verse or heightened language, direct address, narrator figures, stylised movement, and symbolic rather than literal design.

Convention is an agreed theatrical device accepted by audience and performers: soliloquy, aside, chorus, mask, mime, tableau, split stage, flashback, play-within-a-play, direct address.

Realism aims for plausible psychology and everyday speech (often fourth-wall); non-realism deliberately breaks illusion through abstraction, fragmentation, grotesque, or presentational acting.

Genre labels (tragedy, comedy, farce, melodrama, docudrama, verbatim, physical theatre) each carry expected structural and tonal conventions that can be followed or deliberately subverted.

Dramatic tension is built through stakes, time pressure, secrets, conflicting objectives, and withheld information; suspense differs from surprise in that it depends on audience foreknowledge.

Stanislavski-based realism uses given circumstances, objectives (what the character wants), super-objective, obstacles and inner monologue to generate believable action.

Status and objective drive interaction: each character plays a status (high/low) and pursues an objective against an obstacle, producing conflict rather than mere conversation.

Vocal skills: projection (volume supported by breath), articulation (consonant clarity), pace, pitch, pause, emphasis, and vocal quality (breathiness, nasality, resonance) chosen to signal character and mood.

Physical skills: posture, gesture, facial expression, eye contact, proxemics (use of distance), levels, weight, rhythm and tempo of movement, and spatial relationship to other performers.

Ensemble skills include giving and taking focus, listening and reacting, timing, spatial awareness, and maintaining consistency of character across a whole performance.

Devising processes: stimulus selection, research, improvisation, generating and selecting material, structuring, refining, rehearsing, then performing and evaluating.

Improvisation rules: accept offers ('yes, and'), stay in the moment, commit to character objectives, avoid blocking, and build on others' ideas rather than negating them.

Rehearsal documentation typically records intention (what you want the audience to feel), action (what you did), and reflection (what changed and why) as an iterative cycle.

Analysis separates description (what happened) from interpretation (what it meant) from evaluation (how effectively it was achieved), and each claim needs evidence from the performance.

Evidence in drama analysis cites specific moments: a named scene, a line of dialogue, a vocal choice, a piece of blocking, a design element, or an audience reaction at a particular time.

Semiotics: sign = signifier (the physical element, e.g. red lighting) plus signified (the meaning produced, e.g. danger); signs may be iconic, indexical or symbolic.

Mise-en-scène in theatre covers set, props, costume, lighting, sound, makeup and staging, all of which construct meaning alongside the actor's work.

Audience reception is shaped by context: venue type, seating configuration, cultural background, prior knowledge of the text, and whether the staging is presentational or representational.

Effective evaluation uses criteria stated explicitly (e.g. clarity of intention, coherence of style, impact on audience) rather than unqualified personal opinion.

Dramaturgical analysis asks how structure, character function, tension patterns, and staging choices combine to produce the play's meaning as a whole.

Comparing productions of the same script shows how directorial concept, design and acting choices shift interpretation without changing the text.

Australian First Nations drama foregrounds Indigenous voices, protocols and languages; works commonly address colonisation, Country, kinship and survival, and consultation with communities is an ethical expectation.

Verbatim and documentary theatre build scripts from interviews, transcripts and public records; ethical obligations include informed consent, accurate editing and care for identifiable people.

Contemporary theatre trends include immersive and site-specific work, promenade staging, digital and projection design, and participatory or interactive formats.

Community and applied theatre (theatre in education, forum theatre, theatre for development) uses drama for participation, dialogue and social change rather than commercial presentation.

Forum theatre (Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed) stages an oppression scenario; a spect-actor stops the action and replaces the protagonist to test alternative actions.

Cross-cultural theatre blends performance traditions; practitioners must credit sources and avoid appropriation by respecting ownership, context and permission.

Global influences on Australian stage practice include European text-based theatre, Asian physical and mask traditions, and Indigenous storytelling conventions that are not interchangeable with Western realism.

Contextual analysis links a work to its time, place, funding, audience and political climate; the same script can be read differently under different cultural conditions.