Directing Things That Matter: Unpacking the Director's Concept

When you are revising for your live performance exam, you will want to unpack what you think the Director; Anapela Polata’ivao, intended to communicate through their choices. In the case of Things That Matter and its journey to the stage it is important to consider the show's whakapapa – Dr David Galler’s life experiences and writing, Gary Henderson’s play and Polata’ivao’s research and preparation as part of the director’s concept. These activities will help you brainstorm and collate your ideas, as well as providing evidence or quotes to support your explanations and discussions around the exam questions.

read through the education pack, copy out quotes from Dr Galler, Henderson, Polata’ivao, the actors and designers that you think will be useful in your Live Performance exam. Make sure you note down a short statement about why you think this quote will be useful. This could be connecting the quote to a social, historical, political, or geographical idea, something that drove acting or design choices or you have a hunch it might be powerful evidence to support your ideas in the exam.

Unpacking “Directing Things That Matter”:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ĀKONGA:

A Glossary of Quotes: Individual Activity

In your drama book or on your device create a document called “A Glossary of Quotes.” As you

Divide into four groups, with a big bit of craft paper each. Each group will take a different prompt to use in conjunction with Polata’ivao’s interview. Discuss what she intended to communicate through her directing choices. You could also refer to anything you discussed in the previous activities as well, building on this korero.

Prompts:

• Research material: what research material was mentioned. Think of examples where this is brought to life on stage through design, directing or acting choices.

• In the rehearsal room: what ideas do you think were explored in the rehearsal room and how does this connect to what you saw on stage.

• The big themes and intentions: identify the themes or intentions that Polata’viao had for the piece or chose to highlight through design or directorial choices. Whose stories were being told and why was this important?

• Style and flair: can you identify a specific style or aesthetic in the way the performance was pulled together. What do you think Polata’viao intended to communicate through these choices?

You will have 10 minutes to discuss and annotate around the prompt you are given as a group. Then you will rotate around the different prompts, spending 5 minutes at each, discussing and adding your own ideas. Once you are back at your original brainstorm prompt collate the ideas into bullet points and share these back to the class for discussion. Make sure you take photos of all the evidence you produce during this activity to reference during your revision later in the year.

Extension activity:

Write a short response or create a short presentation as a group around the following question -

“What was your initial reaction to the performance of Things That Matter? How did it make you feel as a member of the audience? What have you been thinking about since?”

Performance Activity:

In small groups, discuss and choose an ensemble moment that surprised or compelled you in the performance. Break down what made that moment surprising or compelling. Think about the acting and staging decisions, structure of the scene, formations on stage and whether they are addressing you directly or the fourth wall is up. What is being communicated to the audience during this moment.

• Using the ideas from breaking down this moment, create and structure a short performance around an issue, theme or idea from your own life or world. These could be connected to the content of the play.

Reflection: How does creating a performance in the same style and structure of a live performance you have seen as an audience member help you as a student of drama?