OCR GCSE Drama Past Papers & Mark Schemes

For the written paper, the set-play essay reward the perspective taken: director, performer, or designer. Pick ONE perspective per essay and stay in it. Decide your role within the first sentence and signal it: “As the director, I would stage this scene…” Examiners explicitly state that mixed perspectives cap at Level 2. For live-theatre review questions, take notes during your live or recorded production using a structured template: blocking, lighting state, sound, set, costume, vocal delivery, audience response. Pick three moments (opening, climax, ending) and write 50 words on each. Memorise these for the review question. For practical components, the moderator looks for evidence of practitioner methodology in your performance. If you claim to be working in Brüchtian style, every staging choice (placard, song, direct address) must be visible. If Stanislavski, then naturalism, given circumstances, motivation. Mixing methodologies without justification is the most common reason groups underperform. Vocabulary specificity matters: blocking, motivation, given circumstances, gestus, alienation, fourth wall, in-the-round, thrust stage, traverse stage, raked stage. Use these precisely — examiner reports flag the misuse of “blocking” for general staging as a Level-2 ceiling.