SACE Stage 2 Drama cheat sheet

Dramatic tension is built from three sources: conflict between characters, conflict between a character and their situation, and conflict inside a single character; a strong scene usually layers at least two.

Given circumstances are the facts a scene inherits - time, place, relationships, prior events, social rules; the creator fixes these before dialogue so choices stay consistent.

Objectives are active and playable ("to win her back"), not emotional states ("to be sad"); a usable objective names a target, an action verb and an obstacle.

Dramatic action is what a character does to change another character; a beat ends when the balance of power between characters shifts.

Status transactions (dominant/submissive moves such as holding gaze, interrupting, occupying space) are a rehearsal tool for mapping power without dialogue.

Improvisation rules that generate material: accept the offer, add information rather than blocking, and keep the scene in the present tense.

A devising cycle runs research → improvisation → selection → scripting or scoring → rehearsal → refinement; documentation of rejected material is part of the assessed creative process.

Research for verbatim or documentary work requires source attribution and consent; primary sources (interviews, site visits) outrank secondary summaries for authenticity.

Structural options for a dramatic work include linear cause-effect, episodic montage, cyclical repetition and non-chronological fragmentation; the choice must serve the intended audience response.

Stage areas use standard abbreviations from the actor's view facing the audience: CS centre stage, DSR/DSL downstage right/left, USR/USL upstage right/left; downstage is nearest the audience.

Blocking conventions: strong positions are downstage centre and the diagonal from upstage right to downstage left; keep upstage crosses motivated so the actor does not turn their back on the audience.

Vocal production has four controllable variables - pitch, pace, pause and volume - plus articulation and projection; the breath support from the diaphragm drives volume without strain.

Projection is aimed at the back row, not the microphone; consonants carry clarity and vowels carry volume, so articulation work matters most in rapid or heightened text.

Cheating out means angling the body three-quarters to the audience so facial expression reads while the scene partner stays visible.

Ensemble focus rules: give focus by looking at the speaker, take focus by movement or stillness contrast, and never upstage a speaking actor.

Technical rehearsal order is cue-to-cue, then dress rehearsal; actors must hold for a cue only when the cue is a light or sound cue tied to a line or action.

Performance energy must be sustained across the whole arc; the climax is prepared by contrast, so a uniform intensity flattens the audience's response.

Audience awareness includes sightlines, response timing (waiting through laughter) and the fourth wall convention chosen for the style.

A performance review separates description (what happened), analysis (how it was made to happen) and evaluation (how well it worked against intent); the three must not be blended into one narrative.

Analysis names the element plus its function: "the slow fade (element) isolated the final image (function) so the audience's attention moved from plot to theme."

Evaluation requires explicit criteria - clarity of storytelling, coherence of style, effectiveness of design, strength of ensemble - and evidence from specific moments.

Use precise theatrical vocabulary in responses: cue, beat, tableau, cross, focus, proxemics, subtext, convention, symbol; vague words like "good energy" carry no marks.

Proxemics analysis reads distance as meaning: intimate, personal, social and public zones; a character breaking a zone signals threat, intimacy or defiance.

Semiotics of staging: icon (resembles), index (points to), symbol (arbitrary convention); costume colour is usually symbolic, a prop's wear is often indexical.

A sound or lighting design is evaluated by its dramaturgical contribution - rhythm of the scene, location, time, mood, isolation of a figure - not by technical complexity.

Comparing an intended effect with the observed audience response is the strongest evidence of critical evaluation, provided the moment is described concretely.

Reflective writing on one's own process distinguishes what was planned, what was tried, what failed and what was changed as a result.

Aristotle's Poetics ranks plot above character; the tragic hero's reversal (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis) produce catharsis of pity and fear.

Freytag's pyramid models five parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution; it fits well-made plays better than episodic or non-linear work.

Stanislavski: given circumstances, objectives through-line, emotion memory, and the "magic if"; the actor works from inner justification to outer behaviour.

Brecht's epic theatre uses the alienation effect (Verfremdungseffekt): direct address, placards, visible lighting rigs, song and episodic structure to prompt critical judgement rather than empathy.

Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty targets the senses rather than the intellect through sound, gesture, extreme imagery and the elimination of the psychological plot.

Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed uses Forum Theatre, where a spect-actor stops the scene and replaces the protagonist to test alternative actions.

Naturalism (Zola, later Stanislavski) aims for photographic surface and environmental determinism; realism is a broader convention of plausible behaviour in a coherent room.

Greek theatre conventions: masks, chorus, offstage violence reported by messenger, unity of time and place; Elizabethan conventions: soliloquy, aside, boy actors, daylight open-air staging.

Commedia dell'arte relies on fixed masks (Arlecchino, Pantalone, Il Dottore) and lazzi - rehearsed comic routines - performed around a scenario rather than a script.

Physical theatre and Viewpoints (Bogart and Landau) build work from tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, shape, gesture, spatial relationship and architecture.