Quick questions on The dramatic languages: the working materials of drama (QCE Drama Units 3 and 4)

The elements are the building blocks of dramatic action. The QCAA set includes role, character and relationships; situation; voice and movement; focus; tension; space and time; language and ideas; mood and atmosphere; symbol; and dramatic meaning. These are not separate ingredients used one at a time; they interact constantly. A single moment combines a relationship, a tension, a use of space and a symbol at once.

The skills are how a maker works with the elements. They include forming (devising and shaping action), performing or presenting (acting and realising action for an audience), and responding (analysing and evaluating). In Unit 4 the skills extend explicitly to directing and devising. The skills are the verbs; the elements are the nouns they act upon.

Conventions are the agreed techniques of a particular style or tradition, the placard and gestus of epic theatre, the soliloquy and aside of Elizabethan drama, the chorus of Greek tragedy. A convention is a recognised way of manipulating the elements that an audience reads as belonging to a style.

Stagecraft is the production layer: set, lighting, sound, costume, props and the use of the performance space. These are not decoration; they are part of the language, shaping mood, focus, symbol and meaning as powerfully as an actor's voice.