While watching The Gruffalo, identify 3 drama techniques that you think are effective. Then
consider how you will use them in your own work.
1. Background music and sound effects
At the beginning of the play, they use background music of calming music to
introduce the characters and bring focus to the characters. They also used sound effects of
animals to introduce their characters and made sure the audience understood their
characters. In addition, they have used background music to establish a mood in their play.
When a squirrel is going into the dangerous wood, they play a scary, intense, and dark
music to form a dangerous mood with tension. We can use the drama technique in our play
too. By using sad music, we can form a sad atmosphere when Puss and his master are sad
about being poor. And we can use cat sound effects to clarify the character of Puss.
2. The Narrator plays a character from the play
The narrator in The Gruffalo plays a role in helping the squirrel find nuts. In addition,
he adds a sense of humor to not make the narration boring by overreacting. Narration can
be a boring part of the story: especially for the children, as it has long lines and has little
emotion. But if the Narrator plays a character from the play, he can prevent the children from
being bored. Our play also has a lot of narration. During the narration, the children might get
bored. Our group’s narrator should also play a character from the play. At first, I wanted to
play the role of a rabbit but our group decided to have a rabbit as a separate character other
than the narrator being the rabbit. Secondly, I wanted to be a tree but we figured that it was
not necessary for the play. I do not have an idea in my mind yet, I think our group should
have a discussion to add this aspect in our play too.
3. They use effective gestures to show their character
The main character plays the role of a squirrel. She uses gestures of a squirrel
having its arms and walks in a low stance like a squirrel to show that she is playing a
squirrel. Another person played the role of a snake. He used hissing sounds and he makes
wavy movements like a snake. Our group at first was going to play a rabbit role by jumping
around while sitting down. However, this method does clearly show the character but it is
cliche and not interesting. Instead, our rabbit character uses hand gestures like a rabbit and
hops around to show his character. This will be more creative and interesting for the
audience to see.