Solo Performance Examination: Building and Defending a Character
What the solo exam rewards
The Solo Performance Examination asks you to create, rehearse and perform an original solo work, then explain and justify your choices. The assessors reward a coherent through-line (a clear journey from first moment to last), a character who is physically and vocally distinct, and a stimulus that has genuinely shaped the work rather than being decoration. Understand the difference between stimulus (the starting provocation), focus (the dramatic question your piece explores) and dramatic tension (the forces pulling against your character). Know the expressive skills you will be asked to name: facial expression, gesture, movement, gait, posture, stance, eye focus, breathing, voice (pitch, pace, pause, projection, inflection, accent) and the expressive agility to shift between them.
Traps to avoid
A common trap is describing what happens instead of how and why. Questions asking you to justify a choice want the intention, the technique and the effect on the audience. Another trap is claiming a stimulus link that is never demonstrated in performance. Beware of confusing character with caricature: exaggerated vocal or physical traits without psychological logic read as thin. Finally, candidates often neglect the transformation moments where you move between characters or states; these transitions are assessable and need rehearsal, not improvisation.
Rule of thumb
For every choice, answer three questions: What did I do? Why did I do it? What did the audience see or feel? For example, a candidate playing an ageing circus performer might say: "I lowered my centre of gravity and shortened my stride to show a body carrying decades of work; the audience reads physical history before a single line." That sentence names technique, intention and effect.
Key points
- Distinguish stimulus, focus and dramatic tension.
- Name expressive skills precisely, not vaguely.
- Justify choices with intention plus effect.
- Rehearse transitions; they are assessed.
- Avoid caricature without psychological logic.