DRAMATIC ARTS
GRADE 12
NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE
SEPTEMBER 2018

INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION

1. This question paper consists of FOUR sections:
   SECTION A: 20th Century Theatre Movements (30)
   SECTION B: South African Theatre: 1960−1994 (40)
   SECTION C: South African Theatre: Post-1994 (40)
   SECTION D: Theatre History, Practical Concepts, Content and Skills (40)
2. SECTION A
   All candidates must answer the questions by referring to the play text they have studied and its relevant 20th century theatre movement.
   EPIC THEATRE
   
   • Caucasian Chalk Circle - Bertolt Brecht
   • Kaukasie Krytsirkel - Translation of Bertolt Brecht play text
   • Mother Courage - Bertolt Brecht
   • Moeder Courage - Translation of Bertolt Brecht play text
   • The Good Person of Szechwan - Bertolt Brecht
   • Kanna Hy Kô Hystoe - Adam Small
     
     THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
   • Waiting For Godot - Samuel Beckett
   • Afspraak met Godot -Translation of Samuel Beckett play text
   • Bagasie - Andrê P Brink
   • The Bald Prima Donna - Eugeni Ionesco
   • Die Kaalkop Prima Donna - Translation of Eugene Ionesco play text
     
     POSTMODERN THEATRE
   • Skrapnel - Willem Anker
   • Top Girls - Carol Churchill
   • Popcorn - Ben Elton
   • Buried Child - Sam Shepard
3. SECTION B
   SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE (1960–1994)
   This section consists of THREE questions. Candidates must answer only ONE question from this section.
   
   QUESTION 2: Woza Albert!
   Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon
   
   QUESTION 3: Sophiatown
   Junction Avenue Theatre Company
   
   QUESTION 4: Siener in die Suburbs
   PG du Plessis
4. SECTION C
   SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE (POST-1994)
   This section consists of TWO questions. Candidates must answer only ONE question from this section.
   
   QUESTION 5: Nothing but the Truth
   John Kani
   
   QUESTION 6: Missing
   Reza de Wet
5. SECTION D
   THEATRE HISTORY, PRACTICAL CONCEPTS, CONTENT AND SKILLS
   QUESTION 7 is COMPULSORY
   QUESTION 7: The History of Theatre, Practical concepts, content and skills
6. NOTE TO TEACHERS
   SECTION D may contain a different number of questions each year depending on the aspects that are tested and the source material used.

SECTION A: 20TH CENTURY THEATRE MOVEMENTS(−ISMS)
QUESTION 1: 20TH CENTURY THEATRE MOVEMENTS(−ISMS)
1.1 Answer this question by referring to the play text you studied and its relevant
20th century theatre movement (Theatre of the Absurd OR Epic Theatre OR Postmodern Theatre).
Indicate at the top of your essay which text you have studied.
Read the following quotes taken from various Facebook posts:
Eish, young people are chasing RDP houses and social grants. Have we no dreams.
Posted by Rachel Rozelle Mohajane
… I’m going to lie down in a dark room and rethink my life.
Posted by LoveScience
… there is no point in searching and aspiring for it outside. Man thinks that he gets bliss in the world or at some other place …
Posted by Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Alone does not mean lonely.
Posted by Huffpost
Some people must exit your life because their season has expired!
Posted by Paula-White Cain
Art is an evolutionary act. The shape of art and its role in society are constantly transforming and at no point is art static, there’s no rules … characters
Posted by Eaindray Minthwin

People in today’s world use social media to express how they feel about life and the world. The 20th century theatre practitioners lived in a different world.
Compare how their world is different and/or similar from the world we live in today by writing an essay discussing the ideas about life and the world as they were expressed in the 20th century play that you studied. Explain and motivate how the playwright expressed his ideas through the techniques that are evident in the play.
Refer to the quotes above as well as to the themes, characters and theatrical conventions used by the playwright of your play.
Your essay must be 3–4 pages long.
TOTAL SECTION A: 30

SECTION B: SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE (1960–1994)
Answer only ONE question from this section.
QUESTION 2: WOZA ALBERT! BY BARNEY SIMONS, PERCY MTWA AND MBONGENI NGEMA
2.1 Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow.
The method of creating work had traditionally been hierarchical, with
an existing script, an interpretive director and performers who enact
the collective vision of the playwright and director. During the
seventies and eighties the performers themselves were given more
interpretive freedom, hence the multiple creators of this work with
Barney Simon as a facilitator for this creative process. During the
creative process many of the traditional theatrical conventions of
space, movement, mood, symbolism and language were challenged.

2.1.1 Which ‘method of creating work’ was used for Woza Albert!? (line 1) (1)
2.1.2 Discuss your understanding of the ‘interpretive freedom’ (line 5). (3)
2.1.3 Explain some of the traditional theatre conventions that are challenged by Woza Albert!. Consider characters, plot and costume in your response. (8)
2.2 Do you think it’s possible to use the Stanislavski system to portray a character out of Woza Albert!? Explain your answer. (6)
2.3 What difference would it make if Woza Albert! had the same number of actors as the number of characters shown in the play? Support your answer with examples. (6)
2.4 Consider the following statement.
Poor theatre has nothing to do with money.
Do you agree or disagree with the above statement?
Refer to setting and costume in Woza Albert! to support your answer. (6)
2.5 How would you go about staging a production of Woza Albert! at your school? Refer to staging techniques and the relevance of the themes to the audience. (10)
[40]

OR
QUESTION 3: SOPHIATOWN BY JUNCTION AVENUE THEATRE COMPANY
3.1 Consider the SOURCE below taken from the article, ‘ʽWe were taken by surprise’’ and answer the question that follows.
‘… We got a notice that we were going to be moved on 12 February 1955, but we were taken by surprise by thousands of policemen and soldiers, who were heavily armed,’ Mokhine adds. ‘We were still preparing ourselves to protest the removals, and we had no choice because no one was ready for them – and besides, they were armed.’
‘Some 65 000 people were taken to Meadowlands, Lenasia, Western Coloured Township (now Westbury) and Noordgesig …’
3.1.1 Discuss the content of the exposition of Sophiatown. (4)
3.1.2 How would you stage the exposition to make it effective and true to Sophiatown? Explain your choices. (6)
3.2 Describe the type of costume you would choose for the character of Mamariti and Mingus. Explain your answer. (8)
3.3 Why do you think the addition of the songs as part of the plot was effective, especially in making Sophiatown a successful musical? (8)
3.4 Write notes to an actor about how to portray the character of Charlie effectively. (4)
3.5 What can the current South Africans learn from the culture or the lifestyle of the people of Sophiatown? Use examples from the play and current issues faced by South Africans in your answer. (10)
[40]

OR
QUESTION 4: SIENER IN DIE SUBURBS BY PG DU PLESSIS
4.1 Identify the protagonist of this drama and motivate your choice by referring to the text. (4)
4.2 You are the director of a production of Siener in die Suburbs. Write short notes in which you explain to your actors why you expect them to use Stanislavski’s acting technique when characterising their parts. (6)
4.3 Name an incident that exposes the central theme of the play text and give a short description of the theme. (4)
4.4 Explain the similarities and differences between the characters of Ma and Tiemie. (4)
4.5 The structure of this play can be seen as typical of theatre of realism (well-made play). Write a short essay explaining the structure of the drama clearly by referring to the plot. (8)
4.6 The character of Ma says that she ‘… knows about the weaknesses of man.’ What ‘weakness’ from her own experience is she referring to? (2)
4.7 Write a short essay explaining the different meanings of the “to see”/ ‘sien’ element in the title and throughout the play according to your own interpretation. Refer to specific incidents in the text to motivate your answer. (12)
[40]
TOTAL SECTION B: 40

SECTION C: CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE
QUESTION 5: NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH BY JOHN KANI
5.1 Read the following extract and answer a question that follows.
… During the two days covered by the action of the play, Sipho
reiterates that, throughout his life, he made sacrifices that often
went unappreciated by his brother. He airs his gnawing
recollections to the visiting Mandisa and to his own daughter,
Thando, played by Warona Seane. (‘People always take things
from me," he says, "that's the story of my life.’) …

Which ‘things’ does Sipho refer to in line 5? (4)
5.2 Explain the term ‘ubtext to a fellow actor. (2)
5.3 Consider the following extract and answer the questions that follow.
… According to Stanislavski (1937), a famous actor and acting
teacher, ‘to play truly means to be right, logical, coherent, to think,
strive, feel and act in unison with your role and thus assimilate a
psychological technique of living the part.
[Acting Training, Theory of Mind, and Empathy: E Ligthelm. UCT, SA]
5.3.1 What are some of the social issues that you need ‘to think’
(lines 2–3) about if you had to play the character of Mandisa? Refer to the play in your answer. (8)
5.3.2 Discuss how the things that happened in Sipho’s past live affect the way he thinks as a character. Use examples from the play. (8)
5.3.3 Why is it important to make your character believable? Consider audience performer relationship in your answer. (8)
5.3.4 Select any scene from Nothing but the Truth. Write director’s notes to your actors on how to play their roles believably. Focus on voice and physical characterisation in your answer. (10)
[40]
OR

QUESTION 6: MISSING BY REZA DE WET
6.1 Motivate shortly, by referring to the text, why the style of Missing can be described as magical realism. (4)
6.2 The play comments on the patriarchal Afrikaner society.
6.2.1 Do you agree with the above statement? Motivate your opinion by referring to the character of Pa (Gabriël). (3)
6.2.2 Explain the stereotyping of Afrikaner women in the play by referring to the characterisation of Meisie, Miem and Gertie. (9)
6.3 You are the director of a school production of Missing. In the following questions refer to the actor’s voice and physical characterisation and highlight specific moments in the text where the changes are evident.
6.3.1 Write short notes to the actor playing Konstabel to help him portray Konstabel before his transformation. (6)
6.3.2 Write short notes to the actor playing Konstabel to help him portray Konstabel after his transformation. (6)
6.4 Will you, as a director, advise your actors in Missing to use Stanislavski’s acting technique to portray the characters effectively? Motivate your answer. (4)
6.5 Grotowski changed the use of the traditional performance space (e.g. proscenium arch) completely by accommodating the actors and audience in the same space. Write a short essay motivating whether you would use Grotowski’s ideas about performance space in your production of Missing or not. (8)
[40]
TOTAL SECTION C: 40

SECTION D: THEATRE HISTORY, PRACTICAL CONCEPTS, CONTENT AND SKILLS
QUESTION 7: THEATRE HISTORY, PRACTICAL CONCEPTS, CONTENT AND SKILLS
7.1 Study the following SOURCES and answer the questions that follow.

7.1.1 Which theatre style can best describe SOURCE 2? (5)
7.1.2 What are the visual differences between SOURCE 3 and SOURCE 4? Use theatre terminology in your response. (6)
7.1.3 Which SOURCE (1, 2, 3 or 4) do you think requires more physical preparation? Explain your answer. (4)
7.1.4 Identify any TWO SOURCES from above that may be associated with realism. Refer to setting and costume in your answer. (5)
7.2 Reflect on your vocal and physical development from Grades 10 to 12 and indicate key exercises that have helped you to improve yourself as an actor. (10)
7.3 Discuss your personal opinion on the difference between a student who studies drama as a subject and a student who learns drama from a community centre. Provide examples to motivate your answer.
Refer to the following:

• Theatre history
• Acting theory
• Voice Theory
• Movement theory

(10)
[40]
TOTAL SECTION D: 40
GRAND TOTAL: 150