Repertoire Suggestions and Guidance for Choosing Scenes

General Notes

PAA encourages creativity and does not make any compulsory recommendations for material selection. However, this document is designed to support teachers and learners with tips on how to select appropriate repertoire. Firstly, in the syllabus you will find the following information:

• Each scene must adhere to the required duration for the relevant grade and the number of candidates.

• Teachers should ensure that the content is suitable for the individual age and overall maturity of the candidate(s).

• Scenes should be selected carefully to ensure that they provide suitable opportunity for candidates to demonstrate the relevant assessment criteria.

• Candidates are reminded that if a chosen piece does not meet these requirements this may impact on the level of achievement possible within the examination.

• The second scene (grades 1-8) and third scene (grades 7-8) should provide a degree of contrast in theme, character, mood, setting or style.

Monologues:

– Solo candidates may choose to perform a soliloquy, or a monologue involving another character Monologues or characters. If you choose the latter, you should perform solo, directing your speech to the imagined character(s) as appropriate.

– If a chosen monologue is a direct address to the audience, candidates may either perform the 
monologue to a wider imagined audience, or directly to the examiner/camera.

• When choosing scenes for two or three candidates, care must be taken to ensure that each
  candidate has a similar proportion of involvement in the scene. There should also, as much as possible, be a similar balance of dialogue. However, for grades 1 to 8, the weight of dialogue between the scenes could be considered, ie, if there is less dialogue for one candidate in one scene, there should be more dialogue for that candidate in the next scene.

• The content of the scenes must demonstrate a comparable level of technical and interpretative demand to those suggested in the PAA online catalogue of suitable material at each level, (found later within this document).

• Use of accent/dialect: It is not a requirement to use accents/dialect, however, candidates should ensure that their vocal interpretation reflects the character/situation and the author’s style and intention.

• Published scenes may be edited if necessary, and dialogue spoken by other characters edited out, however the overall meaning of the scene, and the author’s intention with regards to character and situation, must be maintained. Adding your own dialogue to scenes from published plays is not permitted.

• Candidates should play only one character in each scene.

For further information on choosing scenes, understanding the context of scenes, Anthropologies of stand alone monologues/scenes, adapting scenes from a novel and more, download the Teacher Supported Repertoire Suggestions below.