Set Text Study

What is a character's motivation in drama?

• •how a character speaks and moves
• •the role they play in the plot
• •their relationship with other characters
• ✓what drives their choices

What does 'context' mean when studying a set text?

• ✓historical and social background
• •the language and dialogue used by characters
• •the staging and performance choices made
• •the structure and length of the play

What are stage directions in a play script?

• •Descriptions of the theatre building required to stage the play
• ✓Instructions from the playwright about movement, tone, setting, and action — not
• •Lines spoken by the director to the cast at the start of rehearsal
• •Notes added by the publisher to explain difficult vocabulary

What is subtext in a dramatic text?

• •A secondary plot running parallel to the main storyline
• •Stage directions printed below the dialogue on each page
• •The playwright's note explaining the meaning of the play
• ✓Unspoken meaning beneath a character's words — what they feel

Why did the political climate at the time of writing matter to the playwright?

• •Playwrights are required by law to reflect the politics of their era
• •Political climate only affects where the play was first performed
• •Political context determines the number of characters in a play
• ✓Political context shapes what playwrights dramatise and the message they encode

What is dramatic irony in a play?

• •when a character reveals their inner thoughts directly to the audience
• ✓when the audience knows something a character does not
• •when the playwright deliberately withholds information from the audience
• •when two characters misunderstand each other's meaning during a scene