List A — AQA A-Level Drama and Theatre
Teaching note based on the AQA specification.
List A comprises classic pre-20th century and pivotal modern drama set texts in Component 1 of AQA A-Level Drama and Theatre, requiring students to analyse performance, design, and directorial choices in light of original performance conditions. Mastering List A involves demonstrating deep textual analysis alongside theatrical understanding from the perspective of an actor, director, or designer.
Test yourself on List A with AQA A-Level practice questions.
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Your focus
- Specific editions are not prescribed for these plays. However, we've listed the editions we use to set questions on our website in the A-level Drama and Theatre: Notes and guidance: Set plays document.
Which command word is this?
Provide detailed, step-by-step practical performance or production methods, specifying exact vocal, physical, or design techniques and their intended dramatic effect on the audience.
List A exam tips
Topic Overview
Component 1, Section A of AQA A-Level Drama and Theatre requires the study of one set text from List A, which contains seminal classic plays ranging from classical Greek drama to early 20th-century milestones. The list features Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Lorca's Yerma.
This section assesses your ability to interpret dramatic texts from the perspectives of performer, designer, and director. You must demonstrate how meaning is communicated through theatrical form, staging configurations, performance semiotics, and an informed awareness of the social, cultural, and historical contexts of the play's original staging.
Key Concepts
- →Original Performance Conditions (OPC): The theatrical architecture, audience relationship, technological constraints, and cultural conventions of the era in which the play was first produced.
- →Perspective and Voice: Writing convincingly and authoritatively from the chosen perspective (actor, director, or designer) using exact technical vocabulary.
- →Semiotic Analysis: Understanding how physical signs, vocal signals, spatial geometry, and design choices encode thematic meaning for an audience.
- →Subtext and Motivation: Translating the psychological or ideological motivations behind a character's dialogue into concrete, actionable performance choices.
- →Contextual Synthesis: Weaving the playwright's social, political, and philosophical intentions seamlessly into practical staging decisions.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Use the 'Quote - Intention - Technique - Effect' structure for every acting or directorial point to guarantee high marks across all assessment objectives.
- 💡Always specify stage geography precisely: refer to downstage centre, upstage left, cycloramas, wings, or vomitoria rather than generic locations.
- 💡State your overarching directorial or design concept in the opening paragraph and tie every subsequent practical decision back to this central thesis.
Common Mistakes
- Confusing Literary Essay Writing with Theatrical Analysis: Writing about characters as real people or focusing exclusively on narrative quotes without detailing lighting, sound, proxemics, gesture, pitch, or movement.
- Treating Historical Context as Separate History Notes: Adding isolated paragraphs about 19th-century Norway or Ancient Athens instead of showing how that context dictates staging choices, acting style, and design conventions.
- Vague Technical Terminology: Using imprecise words like 'talks loudly' or 'bright lights' instead of 'crescendo with resonant projection' or 'floodlights with straw gels at 75% intensity'.
Revision Plan
- 1Day 1-3: Read the chosen List A play thoroughly, annotating key scenes for character objectives, dramatic climaxes, and social-historical context.
- 2Day 4-6: Create comprehensive character profiles and design moodboards detailing specific vocal/physical choices and period-accurate staging ideas.
- 3Day 7-9: Practise mapping out 25-mark answers for actor, director, and designer prompts, focusing on precise stage coordinates and technical terms.
- 4Day 10-14: Write full timed exam responses under closed-book conditions and peer-assess using AQA mark schemes.
Exam Question Types
- 📋Performer Perspective Questions: Asking how you would perform a specific role in an extract to communicate feelings, subtext, status, or motivation.
- 📋Director Perspective Questions: Asking how you would direct performers and design elements across an excerpt to communicate themes or ideological conflict.
- 📋Designer Perspective Questions: Focus on lighting, sound, set, or costume to create mood, convey period, or reflect symbolic themes in a specific scene.
Command Word Expectations (AQA)
Explain how
Provide detailed, step-by-step practical performance or production methods, specifying exact vocal, physical, or design techniques and their intended dramatic effect on the audience.
Analyse
Break down how individual dramatic elements (e.g. lighting, movement, pauses) deconstruct the text and create theatrical meaning in relation to context and intention.
Evaluate
Judge the effectiveness of specific directorial, performance, or design choices in realising the playwright's intentions and communicating meaning to a contemporary audience.
How Students Lose Marks (Examiner Pitfalls)
Pitfall: Treating the List A text as pure English literature rather than living theatre by focusing solely on themes and dialogue analysis without practical stagecraft.
❌ Weak Answer (Loses Marks):Hedda feels trapped by George Tesman and Victorian society, so she speaks coldly to him to show her anger at her domestic situation.
Example improved answer:As an actor playing Hedda, I would convey her suffocating entrapment within Victorian bourgeois domesticity by positioning myself downstage right, isolated from Tesman. When delivering 'I was simply bored', I would use a clipped, deadpan vocal delivery with downward inflection and minimal eye contact, sharply peeling off my leather gloves with precise, aggressive micro-movements to externalise her suppressed neurosis.
Examiner Tip: Always write using the triad of vocal, physical, and spatial theatre terminology, explicitly linking practical choices to character motivation and social/historical context.
Pitfall: Ignoring the Original Performance Conditions (OPC) or treating historical context as a bolt-on paragraph rather than integrating it into production choices.
❌ Weak Answer (Loses Marks):Yerma was written in 1930s Spain when women were expected to have children and be Catholic housewives, which makes the play tragic.
Example improved answer:To reflect Lorca's critique of 1930s rural Catholic Spain, I would use an austere thrust stage evocative of a dry, barren threshing floor. The harsh, overhead white profile spotlighting (par cans at 80% intensity with sharp shuttering) would cast oppressive shadows, mirroring the claustrophobic surveillance of the honour code ('el que diran') enforced upon Yerma.
Examiner Tip: Reference specific staging elements from the text's original era (e.g. amphitheatres for Sophocles, commedia conventions for Goldoni, naturalistic box sets for Ibsen) to justify your contemporary or period directorial concept.
Step-by-Step Worked Solutions
Question: Explain how you would direct a key excerpt from your List A text to highlight ideological conflict to a contemporary audience (25 marks).
- 1.Step 1: Identify the selected excerpt, the core ideological conflict (e.g. divine law vs civil obedience in Antigone), and state an overarching directorial vision.
- 2.Step 2: Detail specific proxemic and spatial relationships between the two opposing characters to manifest ideological tension physically.
- 3.Step 3: Provide explicit acting instructions (vocal dynamics, posture, gesture, tempo-rhythm) for both performers across two key dialogue exchanges.
- 4.Step 4: Integrate lighting, sound, or set design elements that visually support and reinforce the thematic polarity on stage.
- 5.Step 5: Justify how these directorial decisions communicate the central message to a modern audience while honouring the playwright's intentions.
Final Answer: A comprehensive directorial response establishing clear spatial polarity (levels, proxemics), contrasting vocal and physical deliveries that embody the ideological debate, and complementary non-naturalistic design elements that illuminate the universal thematic conflict.
Question: As a designer, explain your set and lighting ideas for an opening scene from your chosen List A text (25 marks).
- 1.Step 1: Define the staging format (e.g. end-on, in-the-round, thrust) and overall stylistic concept (e.g. symbolic expressionism, strict naturalism).
- 2.Step 2: Detail physical set elements, specifying materials, textures, colours, and functional acting areas with appropriate stage coordinates.
- 3.Step 3: Detail lighting design using exact technical terms (lantern types, angles, gels, colour temperatures, intensity, gobos, transitions).
- 4.Step 4: Synthesise how the design choices establish exposition, social status, and atmosphere, referencing textual evidence and original context.
Final Answer: A fully realised design proposal detailing set materials, colour palette, floor levels, lantern types, colour temperatures, and beam angles that harmoniously establish the world of the play and support the opening dramatic action.
Active Recall Memory Test
What are the six plays currently prescribed on AQA Drama and Theatre List A?
Key Fact: Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Lorca's Yerma.
What three core perspectives can exam questions in Section A adopt?
Key Fact: Performer (actor), Director, or Designer (set, costume, lighting, sound).
What does OPC stand for, and why is it vital in List A answers?
Key Fact: Original Performance Conditions; it is essential because students must evaluate how the original staging conventions, theatre spaces, and historical context informed the play's dramatic meaning.
Which four elements should every performance paragraph include?
Key Fact: Vocal delivery, physical movement/gesture, spatial positioning/proxemics, and intended audience impact linked to context.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I modernise my List A play or must I set it in its original historical period?
AQA allows you to propose either a period-faithful production or a conceptually reimagined contemporary production, provided your choices remain justified by the text. If you choose a modern concept, you must demonstrate a deep understanding of the original text's themes and show how your modern staging communicates the playwright's intentions to today's audience.
How many quotes do I need to memorize for List A in the Component 1 exam?
Because the exam is closed-book, you should memorise 15-20 short, highly functional quotes and stage directions per key character and scene. Focus on brief, punchy lines that can be directly paired with physical gestures, vocal choices, or specific design cues.
What is the difference between Section A (List A) and Section B (List B) in Component 1?
List A covers older classic or seminal 20th-century plays studied in relation to their social, historical, and original performance context. List B covers contemporary 20th and 21st-century plays (such as Our Country's Good or Jerusalem) where you must apply the methodology of an influential theatre practitioner (e.g. Stanislavski, Brecht, Berkoff, or Artaud).
Do I have to write sketches or ground plans in my exam response for design questions?
Sketches and ground plans are not strictly mandatory, but clear, neatly annotated ground plans or costume sketches are strongly encouraged by examiners. They quickly demonstrate spatial awareness and can support your written descriptions of stage levels, entrances, lighting states, and sightlines.
How do I balance writing about acting versus writing about design in a director question?
A strong directorial response synthesises both elements seamlessly. Spend roughly 60% of your response directing actors (blocking, proxemics, vocal delivery, physicalisation) and 40% on design elements (lighting states, set texture, soundscapes), showing how staging and design combine to communicate your unified artistic concept.