Tips on Stage Direction

Stage directions provide information to directors, actors and others

involved in bringing the script to life on the stage. As you read a play,
you should attempt to visualise how the play might look in a
performance on stage. The stage directions will help you to do this. In
your essays, you may refer to stage directions when they reveal
something about:
• the way the writer presents a particular character’s actions or
thoughts and feelings
• the way the writer creates a particular mood.
You should not, however, analyse the language of stage directions in the
way you would the words actually spoken by the characters.
💥Take note on this as it needs to be applied when you are interpreting
the context (Assessment Objective 2) of a text.
Dramatic Techniques
👉What are Dramatic Techniques?: Dramatic techniques are all the
devices a playwright uses to represent their ideas. You might also see
them referred to as dramatic devices or theatrical techniques.
Dramatic techniques include: Staging and Stage Time, Structure,
Juxtaposition/contrast , Humour, Language, Soliloquies, Imagery,
Metatheatrical Conventions, Word play, Setting,
Characterisation/Costuming, Lighting, Sound, Line Delivery, Special
Effects, Conflict, Symbols/Motifs etc
-Staging and Stage Time: Shakespeare used very few stage
directions. There were no curtains and minimal costumes and props.
Characters produced a representation of characters and events on stage.
The actor must demonstrate the meaning and action of the play through
words. Stage time is not real time. This reminds the audience that they
are watching a play, not real life.
-Structure: As with all of Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet is
divided into 5 acts.
Act 1 – Character exposition, Act 2 – Conflict, Act 3 – Crisis/Climax,
Act 4 – Counterstroke/falling action, Act 5 - Catastrophe/resolution.
They are presented in a linear fashion and are constructed by means of
contrast. Contrast helps to maintain suspense and audience interest.
-Juxtaposition/Contrasts: Contrast between characters is structuring
device used by Shakespeare as well as Arthur Miller. Which characters
stand at sharp contrasts in the plays you have studied?
-Humour: Humour is portrayed through which characters in both
plays?
-Language: Language is largely poetry or blank verse. Rhyming
couplets may be offered at the end of speeches to give a culmination to
the speech (particularly in Romeo and Juliet). Most often, Characters of
lower status, speak in prose to reflect their common and low social
status.
-Soliloquies: Character is revealed through the use of soliloquy. It
heightens the intimacy between the protagonist and the audience. •
Soliloquies are used most often to offer philosophical musings. The
complex imagery that also characterises soliloquy further adds to the
layers of the play.
-Imagery: Shakespeare makes use of many motifs in Romeo and
Juliet. The prolific imagery brings out the contrasting themes of love and
fate, of reason and instinct. Dominant motifs include the plague, conflict,
the opium, time, appearances and acting. Sexual imagery is used to
berate women.
 -Metatheatrical Conventions: Shakespeare frequently draws our
attention to the fact that we are watching a play. In this way Romeo and
Juliet can be described as metatheatrical. Metatheatrical elements include
the use of soliloquy and the play-within-a-play(and the subsequent
discussion about the role of drama).
-Word Play: Word play is used extensively in the plays studied.
You should also look at dramatic monologues: a situation whereby one
character addresses a group of characters.
Similarly, dialogue is dramatic technique. When two or more characters
speak on stage (whether quarreling or...) What emotional effects does it
creates?
Emotions created in you the audience to either pity, sympathise or hate
a particular character is also a dramatic technique. etc
Remember you are analysing and evaluating a literary text.
-It's not a descriptive or narrative response
-Don't forget to make a good use of textual references
Remember you are using the Simple present tense in your essay.
Don't forget the standard essay writing format:
👉Introduction: You highlight the issues to be discussed in the essay.
👉Body: You analyse the main issues in details using good textual
references etc You explore all literary and stylistic aspects of the text.
You explore the context and end with your personal response.
👉Conclusion: You sum up everything you have written in the body of
your essay.
Don't forget to make good use of the subject's concepts and
technologies. For example, instead of saying the people , say the
audience; instead of saying Arthur Miller shows the opposite of, say he
shows a contrast of etc..
A good essay is from 2 and a half pages onward
👆👆👆👆Stage Direction is also a dramatic technique
Now what can you remember without guessing?
👉That once you read your question, underline the key words in the
question.
👉That the entire exercise involves 3 parties: the text in front of you, the
question and you the candidate. You are the one to analyse the text with
reference to the question.
Now, this being done,
👉Draft out a plan for the essay. Without a plan, your ideas won't be
consistent, you might left out very important features of the text, you
might suffer from time constraints etc.
Now what should you bear in mind as you write your PLAN?
That a good essay has:
1. An Introduction: Which states briefly the focus of your essay (in at
most 5 or 6 lines).
2. The body Paragraphs: Which breaks down your entire focus by
analysis, reflection , interpretation of texts, etc
3. And the Conclusion: Which sums up the body of your essay.
Before you start writing, bear in mind that you have four Assessment
Objectives. Take these to be some sort of prompts that must be answered
in your essay. Put differently, all the assessment objectives must be
evident in your essay. Each paragraph addresses all the AOs.
🔥 Show but don't Tell. How do you achieve This? By making ample
textual references to the text. Let these references be well integrated into
the sentence structure so much so that the language and meaning can
flow in harmony.
Textual references, I repeat, is paramount in your literary appreciation.
A good essay that can fetch 25marks can't be handled in 1 page or 1
and a half pages. A good essay addressing almost all the concepts you
have been taught should take from two and half pages onward.
Explore the text. Leave no aspect untouched. But by so doing, make
sure you reflect it back to the question.
Every reference or technique used must be explained- don't forget.
PROSE
In poetry you have a range of structural devices draw upon, which is
absent in Prose.
In prose, the narrative style is an important element.
How many narrative styles do you know? Can you state and explain
them? Can you spot one if you see it? Then you are good to go.
First, ask yourself the 4 'Ws' question: Who is speaking? What is he
saying? To whom is he/she talking to? Where are they? This is going to
help you a lot in gathering enough materials for AO1.
So, just like in Poetry, underline the key words in the question and and
proceed with a plan and then...
You must also use textual references. How do you select quotations?
Ask yourself how the quotation helps to explain something about:
>Narrative/events
>How characters think and behave
>Relationships between characters
>Themes
>Settings
>sense of atmosphere.

As per language, you have:

>Dramatic, Situational or verbal Irony
>Narrative style
>Foreshadowing
>Symbolism
>Allegory
>Imagery
>Flashback
So basically, your essay must touched all the above where present.
In your personal response, look and comment but on:
.character behaviour and actions
.character relationship
.Themes
.Settings
.Events
.Atmosphere
All your personal responses should be written in your conclusion to
relate the ideas of the text to your own personal experiences and how
you understand such messages in relation to how you see the world DO
this in Drama, Prose, and Poetry.
NOTE
- Make sure your introductions are brief (4 lines).
- Don't waste words. Keep your writing direct and specific (avoid long
summary about the historical background of the text or the the author's
biography).
- In a passage-based response or question, include a brief summary of
events that happened immediately before the passage.
- In a whole-text response, briefly summarise relevant aspects of the
narrative or a characters role in it, relating this to the focus of the
question.
The role of a character can be seen: 1. in how the character develops
themes in the story. E.g. In 1984, Winston helps to develop the theme of
rebellion.
2. How the character helps in developing style. E.g . Julia helps in
developing deceit in the story- all the party members know that she is a
hard supporter of the party and its philosophies but deep inside, she is
not.
3. How the character helps in throwing light on the personality of other
characters.
4. Plot development
Some devices to use in both Prose and Poetry
1. LANGUAGE DEVICES
>Interesting adjectives
>Powerful verbs and adverbs
>Simile
>Metaphor
>Personification
>Alliteration
>Oxymoron
>Repetition
>Hyperbole
>Reported speech
>etc
2. STRUCTURE DEVICES
>Sentence structure
>Paragraph length
>Use of flashback, >Irony
>Contrast
>Narrative voice (is it the first or third person point of view)
>Foreshadowing
>etc