Performance Realisation
What's covered
Key facts
Design concept
Candidates must be able to explain how their design concept connects to the text's themes.
Evaluative report
AQA's live theatre could include plays, physical theatre, theatre in education or musical theatre, and productions may be professional or amateur, but not a peer performance.
Intention and impact
Students describe impact by naming the effect a specific performance choice created in the audience.
Design concept
A thematic concept (e.g. "corruption spreading like rot") drives costume choices — costumes might begin pristine and gradually decay through staining, fraying or darkening.
Evaluative report
AQA students must not answer Sections B and C on the same play: the live production they saw cannot be their set play.
Intention and impact
An analysis can link a stated artistic intention (e.g. to create oppressive power) to a realised choice (e.g. hunched posture and silence) and its impact on the audience.
Design concept
A strong concept provides a unifying principle that performers can test each moment-to-moment creative choice against.
Evaluative report
For AQA's Live theatre production, students must learn how to analyse and evaluate the work of live theatre makers: performers and/or designers.
Intention and impact
"Impact" is the effect of a performance choice on the audience's emotional or intellectual response.
Design concept
A design concept should inform every decision about costume, lighting, set and sound.
Sample questions
A taste of the 48 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What is a 'design concept' in OCR Drama?
- ✓the central governing idea that unifies all design decisions
- •the colour palette chosen by the set designer at the start of the process
- •the first staging idea proposed at the creative team's opening meeting
- •the plot synopsis written by the playwright to guide the director's choices
In AQA's live theatre production study, whose work do students analyse and evaluate?
- ✓Performers and/or designers
- •The box office and front of house
- •The critics who reviewed it
- •The playwright and the producer
What does 'performance realisation' mean in OCR Drama?
- •how accurately the performance reproduces the playwright's original stage directions
- •how many performance techniques are visible within a single scene
- ✓how performance choices bring the text's meaning to life for an audience
- •how the performance is evaluated by the examiner during the final assessment
Why must all design elements in a production be linked to a shared design concept?
- •Because OCR penalises productions where more than one designer is listed in the programme
- •Design concept is a legal requirement for productions staged in licensed venues
- ✓So lighting, sound, set and costume work together to communicate meaning
- •To ensure every design choice is the most expensive option available
Which of these can AQA students write about as their live theatre?
- •A performance by classmates
- •A radio drama recording
- •A television soap episode
- ✓An amateur production
When analysing a live performance for OCR, which three things is it useful to link?
- •Character, staging, and historical context
- •Lighting, sound, and costume as separate categories
- •Script, rehearsal process, and final performance
- ✓The artistic intention, its realisation and its audience impact
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