Challenges and Rewards of Trinity Acting Exams – Shenzhen College of International Education

This summer, G1 and G2 students have been taking Trinity acting exams. The school had a tradition of taking these, but attention has been focused on Edexcel GCSE and A-level exams over the past few years. However, the drama department decided to re-introduce these in August 2023 to equip students with more vocal and physical skills for their Edexcel exams.

The Trinity exams push learners to develop their performance skills and think about how actors communicate meaning to an audience. They have to prepare two scripted monologues and create two based on the scripted pieces. In addition, they create a personal reflection on their work, enhancing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Head of Drama Nicola Howard taught the class through the school’s Enrichment programme and additional tutorials, enabling seven students to take Grades 5 and 6. The results have been fantastic, with five out of the seven students gaining a distinction. Chloe Luo earned an astonishing 93 marks out of 100.

I look forward to taking these students to their next grade after the summer. We should be able to get them all to the Diploma level by the end of their time at SCIE, which will be especially useful since grades 6 – 8 and Diplomas carry UCAS points. “I also hope other students will see the relevance of these qualifications and decide to join us”, said Nicola.

Students' Sharing

While preparing for the Trinity exam, I exercised my comprehensive drama ability and my writing ability, creativity and improvisation ability~ From choosing a monologue to writing the script and finally to improvising at the end. It was challenging and rewarding! In the months leading up to the exam, we rehearsed every week after school with our teacher, Ms Nicola, who guided us throughout the process. One of the most impressive things is that during this process, I realized a big problem in my acting: speaking and exhaling unevenly. It meant that my voice started loud in a scene, then gradually got quieter as I progressed. It may prevent the audience from understanding my lines. Fortunately, because of Trinity, I've been slowly improving with the weekly workouts.

Yuki Gao

The Trinity Exam was both a great challenge and a gain for me. Months ago, I started to prepare for the Trinity Exam with the help of Ms Nicola. I chose to perform two monologues from Goodbye Charles and All's Well That Ends Well. It was challenging because I had to bring myself into two different characters. I even had to study the language and rhyme from Shakespeare's plays. Later, we were assigned to develop our chosen pieces into improvisations and different workshops. I designed my improvisation assuming my character Helena (from Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well) is living in the present time. I had to give my character Helena a new characteristic as her perspective would change if she lived in a different period. The Trinity Exam was challenging as we had to present our drama skills comprehensively.

Chloe Luo

When Ms Nicola asked me if I wanted to attend Trinity, my reaction was, “Heck yeah”. So for the next two months, I would slowly and steadily build and construct my two characters. Character building, in drama terms, is a remarkable process. You start with an unfamiliar script, two pages of a stranger’s inner world. Then, as you read those lines, you try to feel the person behind those words. Progress is quick in the early stages as you catch the general outline of your character, and then you get stuck, digging into your mind to try and grab the minute characteristics and details that are just so hard to remember. The most important thing for me is not to treat my characters like tools for an exam certificate: instead, I treat them like lively people. They are essential and more valuable as part of my drama journey than just the work I must present. Performing a male character is more of a challenge for me, analysing masculine stances and gestures and trying to act these techniques out. I succeeded in catching that masculine feel and that humorous quality in my character, which had troubled me for weeks, and that is the best outcome of my practice. The process matters the essence of my content, the attitude and the effort I put into it.

Alice Li