Guidance for the AS Portfolio

• Your portfolio should be approx 2000 words long; lettering no smaller than Times Roman Size 12
• You are encouraged to include photographs of work in progress (intelligently labelled), set and costume diagrams and relevant images that have influenced your work. You should not include pages of ‘research’ downloaded from the internet unless its relevance is clearly established.
• Do not write on coloured paper.
• Try to word process – although hand written portfolios are not forbidden.

   

  Try to write confidently and professionally.

  Use appropriate technical vocabulary and don’t whinge!

  Don’t make your portfolio into a diary of problems.

  If you have a problem, write about how cleverly you solved it: impress; don’t irritate the examiner.

Headings

1. Dramatic aims and objectives
2. Inspiration
3. Research        
4. Preparation Process
5. Strengths and Weaknesses
6. Health and Safety

1. Dramatic aims and objectives – approx 150 words.

• These must be precisely defined.

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2. Inspiration – approx 150 words

• This must be precisely defined
• You must demonstrate an enthusiastic commitment to your chosen dramatic form, style or practitioner.
• When you evaluate the process and the product (the finished piece of theatre) you need to measure the success of the piece (and its strengths and weaknesses) against both your stated aims and your initial inspiration.

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3. Research – approx 250 words (can be incorporated into section 4)

• Do more research than you include in your portfolio
• Research the subject matter of your piece; other plays that have dealt with similar issues or storylines; the style of the piece. Style includes visual elements, language and acting style
• Be critical about your research. Only write about the research that you actually use in your devised piece. Explain how you have used it.

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4. Preparation Process: individual and group – approx 1000 words

• This is the most important section and should, therefore, be the largest
• You should include analysis of the group preparation but, more importantly, you should write about the preparation of your individual skill. For most of you this will be Acting but the advice applies equally to technical candidates. You need to write in a detailed and engaging manner about the experiments you have done as you have developed your role(s) or your design.
• Show that you have worked hard to achieve the highest standard in your chosen skill. This will involve rejecting and refining ideas, methods and materials and being ruthless in selecting only what is excellent for your final piece.

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5. Strengths and Weaknesses – approx 150 words

• Yours. The group’s. The style. The excecution.
• Have you fulfilled your stated dramatic aims? – give detailed evidence.

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6. Health and Safety – approx 250 words

• You must be meticulous and detailed in this section, but not lengthy.
•  Fill out a risk assessment form to include here.
•  Make sure you show how you have minimised safety hazards both in the preparation process and in the final performance.
•  Do your homework on health and safety requirements for performance spaces as well as using your common sense.
• Although you must be thorough; don’t include irrelevant lists of health and safety requirements – make this section apply to your group’s  piece – don’t generalise.

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