Interpretation of a Script in Performance by Actors, Directors and Designers

Reading the Production as Interpretation

When you attend a production from the prescribed VCE Theatre Studies Playlist, you are analysing how a creative team has interpreted a script — what choices they made, why those choices communicate particular meanings, and how effectively those choices serve the playwright’s intentions.

Understanding interpretation means reading the production as a set of deliberate decisions: nothing you see on stage is accidental. Every choice by every production role is an interpretive act.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Interpretation is not what “just happened” in the production — it is the sum of thousands of specific, deliberate decisions by actors, director, and designers, all working toward a unified (or, sometimes, incoherent) interpretive vision.

The Actor’s Interpretation

The actor interprets the script through:

• Character choices: How they construct the character’s psychology, physicality, and vocal world
• Objective and tactic choices: What they decide the character wants and how they pursue it
• Moment-to-moment choices: How they respond to specific lines, events, and other actors
• Relationship with the audience: Whether they maintain the fourth wall, use direct address, or something between

In your analysis, ask: what interpretation of the character do the actor’s choices communicate? Is this interpretation consistent with the script’s intentions?

The Director’s Interpretation

The director’s interpretation is expressed through:

• Production concept: The overall interpretive idea that shapes all decisions — often expressed as a central image or question
• Staging decisions: How the actors are arranged and moved in the space
• Pacing and rhythm: How quickly or slowly the action moves and what that communicates
• Actor–audience relationship: How the production positions the audience in relation to the dramatic world
• The interrelationships between roles: How the director has coordinated acting and design to create a unified vision

The Designer’s Interpretation

Each design area makes interpretive choices:

• Set design: What world has been created? What does it say about the dramatic situation, themes, and contexts?
• Lighting design: How has light shaped what the audience sees, feels, and understands?
• Costume design: How does the visual appearance of characters communicate who they are and what the play is about?
• Sound design: What emotional and atmospheric work does the sound world do?

Evaluating the Coherence of Interpretation

In your analysis, you should assess:
- Whether the interpretive choices across all roles are coherent — pointing in the same direction
- Whether the interpretation serves the script’s intended meanings or departs from them (and whether that departure is justified)
- Whether the interpretation communicates effectively to the audience

EXAM TIP: Structure your analytical writing around specific, observed examples. “The director’s interpretation of the central power struggle was communicated through consistent use of levels — the antagonist was always positioned at a higher level than the protagonist throughout the first act, reinforcing the structural inequality of the relationship.”

COMMON MISTAKE: Describing the production’s plot rather than analysing its interpretation. “The actor played a character who was angry” is description. “The actor communicated the character’s anger through a low, controlled vocal register and minimal movement, suggesting the anger was suppressed and therefore more dangerous than if it had been expressed overtly” is analysis.

VCAA FOCUS: VCAA assesses your ability to analyse and evaluate the interpretation of a script in performance. Use the language of interpretation deliberately — ask not just what happened but how and why, and evaluate whether the choices were effective.