Developing

Real student work · grade 7 · 2026

See it in real work

This is the 2026 exemplar’s Criterion B: the artistic intention, the moodboard thinking and the scenes developing across rehearsals. The gold notes in the margin are the examiner lens: what each move does and why it earned the marks. Read it for how it is written, not to borrow the content.

Artistic intention + the development journey Task 2, Developing (Criterion B)

B.1Artistic intention

My artistic intention for this performance is to explore how beauty standards negatively adjust the relationships between women and their bodies. I aim to utilise epic theater techniques such as song, multirolling, placecards and alienation to demonstrate how comparison based on existing toxic beauty standards causes deterioration on a woman’s mental health and their body image. We will enforce the idea that perfection does not exist. But by watching women suppress themselves into society’s “criterion” of perfection, the audience will have to interpret our play to question if beauty and uniqueness actually exist in our differences in the modern day society.

Our performance will utilise the concepts of fairytales and pageant culture as a stimulus. The usage of Disney fairytales will exhibit the standards that Disney princesses have set for children including the non existent waist, slim and delicate bodies, large eyes, long eyelashes and often pale skin. Furthermore, Disney movies have often enforced the notion that aesthetically pleasing girls are always kind, worthy and able to be princesses whereas the less conventionally attractive characters are always evil or undesirable. By placing emphasis on the transformation of unique characters into clear clones of each other, the audience will attempt to mourn the loss of personality and individuality however this is immediately interrupted by the introduction of direct address and song.

To make certain that the audience leaves with a clear message that highlights the ridiculousness of unattainable beauty standards we are going to use epic theater techniques that interrupt passive watching for critical analysis. This includes using alienation and SPASS by treating harmful conditions as something to be celebrated. We will intentionally break the illusion and prompt the audience to question the seriousness and societal implications of what they are watching. Additionally, the use of narration, multirolling and gestus will convey the fractured mental state of these women as their world becomes disordered and their sense of identity is unraveled.

B.2Mood board, Barbie

When brainstorming ideas, I found that my group and I were drawing a blank. Therefore, I decided to go online and look for images that represented my theme. Since my group already had a theme to go off, I used key words related to the theme including “body dysmorphia” and “perfection”. I then found the image of Barbie (top right) which I found particularly inspiring. Barbie has always been known for her perfect hair, skin, face and body and has always been someone little girls have looked up to. Although numerous complaints came in about the unrealistic body standards Barbie was promoting, the doll never decreased in popularity and continued to contribute to a lower body self esteem and a desire for a thinner body.

Despite being the literal embodiment of perfection, in the top left image Barbie is seen getting plastic surgery. This is incredibly contradictory as it shows Barbie, a seemingly perfect doll with no insecurities, being “corrected”. This demonstrates that not even the doll that represents society’s ideal women is good enough. The image also hints at what is unfortunately a very common narrative in the modern day, which is that in order to be considered “beautiful” one must undergo plastic surgery to erase anything that makes them different. This promotes a detrimental belief to the youth and states that although society may preach about self love, respect and beauty, the only way to truly be worthy enough is to undergo cosmetic enhancements.

B.3Scene 3, Jasmine’s birthday (Stage 1 → 4 modifications)

In order to make our piece further fit the Epic theater style we knew we needed to include some form of interaction with the audience. At 0:00 we initially started off with Jasmine forcefully taking two tutus, holding them up and asking the audience “which one should I wear”. At the same time, I would raise a placecard which would state “choose wisely”. Whichever tutu the audience would choose Jasmine would throw away and accuse them of trying to make herself conscious about her weight. Although the moment successfully includes the audience in our scene, our audience told us that the circumstances of the scene being a beauty pageant is not very relatable.

So instead of Jasmine picking out her dress for the pageant we decided to transform the scene into a celebration of Jasmine’s birthday, a universal experience filled with fun, love and sugar. We maintained the initial setup; at 0:55, you are able to observe us simultaneously exiting the frame in an overexaggerated and almost predatory manner to wish Jasmine a happy birthday. To ensure that the audience was not only able to relate but was also able to be involved, we decided to use the epic theater technique of alienation, specifically by singing happy birthday to Jasmine while willing the audience to join us in the celebration. By breaking character to encourage the audience to join us, we remind them that this is a constructed piece, keeping them emotionally separated from the action. Moreover, by roping them into the scene, it would also make them feel partially responsible for the events that followed.

Our original idea at 1:07 was to start off with everyone in their respective frames standing around Princess Jasmine; the counterpoint representing how she is always being observed. However, the main issue arose at 1:17 when Jasmine individually approaches each person attempting to grab a tutu out of their hands. But she is turned down with cruel remarks such as “You are too fat” or “go to the gym”. Our aim for this scene was to concentrate on internal pressure rather than societal pressure. Yet, by representing society and commenting on her weight, our audience told us that they believed that the issue our scene was trying to convey was mean people and bullying in beauty competitions which did not fit our objective.

So, at 1:38 we further developed our birthday scene. Jasmine remains in the center eating her birthday cake in a very grotesque and gluttonous way while the rest of us stand around her in our frames. While she finishes eating, we start commenting, not about her unhealthy eating habits, but instead about the weight she will gain. The gestus of us judging her from our frames highlights society’s indifference to physical health as long as the person is visually appealing.

We felt this change definitely suited our artistic intention much more but, other than the over exaggerated eating, it did not fit the epic theater criterion at all. So we decided to make use of SPASS which is using dark humour to confront serious subject matters. At 1:54 we decided to make one of the tutus a birthday gift. Once Jasmine finishes eating, she attempts to put on the tutu but realises it does not fit. So, us as the ensemble, in a cheerful and lighthearted way, tell her: “We’ve got the perfect solution for you, two fingers down your throat” while concurrently turning away. Following this, Jasmine makes a vomiting sound and collapses on the floor while we crowd around above her and repeat our motif “Beauty is pain”. The contradiction between the celebratory tone and the harmful actions creates alienation because the mocking nature of our dialogue forces the audience to reflect on the harmful behaviours women have to undergo to erase their differences.

B.4Cinderella, paparazzi interview (gradient of disorder)

At 2:26 we wanted to present the overwhelming pressure placed upon someone trying to maintain their illusion of perfection. This is done with Princess Cinderella being at an interview. We started off by circling Cinderella in a vulture like formation. The gestus used was deliberate as it aimed to show how society likes to collectively hunt and disassemble people’s confidence and appearances. However, although the scene encapsulates the predatory nature of society it looked unfinished and messy especially since the majority of the time our backs were to the audience while we were also covering Cinderella.

Consequently, we decided to introduce frames as a way to organise our scene, shown at 2:34. Because they were already on stage, they comply with the epic theater technique of visible stagecraft as at 3:01 you can observe us transitioning scenes and moving the frames around. Cinderella walks through the frame at the back and immediately struts her way to a box in the center that was set up in the transition. Simultaneously the rest of the group exits their frames and starts bumping into Cinderella knocking her off course while shouting random phrases such as “that’s your best angle!”, “click!” or “smile for the camera”. The rapid movements helped enforce the chaos of paparazzi, but it made it hard for the audience to hear what we were saying due to our lack of rhythm and synchronisation.

To increase the overwhelming nature of our scene while keeping it structured, we decided to introduce a gradient of disorder. As shown at 3:38, we would originally begin with Cinderella standing at the back in a pageant pose while everyone else remained in their frames. Then one at a time each of us would repeat our own distinct phrase; the staggered delivery ensuring the audience could comprehend what we were saying. Then Cinderella would step out of her frame and the rest of us, one at a time, would follow suit. But almost as if the frame was keeping us grounded, the moment we leave, chaos erupts. The overlapping and seemingly disordered commands from the ensemble who continuously disrespect Cinderella’s boundaries as they enter her personal space highlights the objectification of women.