Theatre and PerformanceBA (Hons)

Acting and Performance Skills 1

Acting and Performance Skills 1 is a year-long module that places the performer at the centre of theatre making. It will encourage the student to investigate the role of the actor in theatre practice by introducing them to performance skills, techniques and processes. It will reference a variety of practitioners. It will allow students to apply these skills and techniques in practice and engage with workshop explorations and text based scene study.

Devising

This module aims to expose students to the skills and strategies necessary for devising performance. Students will engage in practical exploration and debate the content and forms of individual and group devised contemporary theatre practice. Through this they will work with improvisation techniques in the development of original interdisciplinary material towards the creation of ensemble devised performance. Students will negotiate and analyse the process of collaboration towards building knowledge and ability in working inclusively, discursively and proactively in diverse collaborative environments.

Objects, Image and Design

This is a year-long module that will introduce students of BA Theatre & Performance and BA Theatre & Film to performance aesthetics through a range of small scale projects drawing on activities such as abstract renderings and object work. You will learn craft-based skills that will be utilised and developed throughout your course of study and investigate and experiment with the use of objects in regard to narrative, character and theme. This will be complemented with sound and lighting workshops to enable you to understand the process and practice of construction in visual performance forms.
Seminars and workshops will introduce you to the potential of conveying ideas through objects and design.

Performance, Art and Film Ideas 1

This module explores a cross-disciplinary approach to art and cultural studies, centred in the concept of performance as a starting point. It will introduce key questions in performance, art and film theories and relate these to a selection of historical and contemporary practitioners. The module is intended to provide students with an introductory range of critical and creative strategies, which is to inform their development across the whole course, both in BA Theatre and Performance Practice and in BA Theatre and Film.

Through a range of activities, this module will examine links and parallels between artistic disciplines and broader cultural questions and introduce students to an interdisciplinary approach to research, promoting links between theoretical and creative practices in the field. The module will provide an introductory range of critical strategies and knowledge that can be transferred to a variety of subjects across the programme and develop academic skills (e.g. essay writing, study skills, assignment presentation), applicable across the course.

Acting and Performance Skills 2

This core module builds upon the foundational acting skills and techniques developed in Acting and Performance Skills 1 and Devising.

Acting and Performance Skills 2 explores established methods for preparing and utilising texts, and advances students’ understanding of how to employ experience and imagination to achieve truthfulness in acting. You will also engage and experiment with systems of rehearsal that can be employed by actors to generate new texts, imagery, and other performance material. Greater awareness of individual and group identity on stage will be developed through ensemble work and experimentation with different performance styles. This learning will be supported and enhanced through training in voice and movement techniques. You will also be taught to practice industry-specific norms of professional conduct and behaviour.

Performance, Art and Film Ideas 2

Developing concepts and ideas investigated in Performance, Art and Film Ideas 1, this module investigates social and cultural issues that are both enacted and questioned by established texts (“texts” in the broader sense of the term, to include works in theatre, cinema and fine art). Informed by critical theory perspectives, a key emphasis is on social interactions, as explored in the communication strategies between artwork and spectator, in the social function of a work, and in the political and ideological context depicted in this or embedded in its creation. The module will also establish a sociological study of performance institutions and their organisation within the professional industry.
The aims of this module are to evaluate the social context of performance, art and film, as it is consciously depicted or latently inherent to a work; to refer to a variety of theoretical perspectives, ranging from critical theories to sociological concepts, in the analysis of such practices. The learning strategy and indicative syllabus will promote innovative ways of exploring the subject in question, making use of inter-disciplinary, blended learning, field research and creative practice.

Theatre Production

This is a 30 credit module that runs over one semester. The ethos and approaches explored in Autumn Semester in Acting and Performance Skills 2 are applied to the creation of a staged production, led by the assigned Director. The group functions as a company, each member taking on specific roles and working towards a collaborative result. The production will be rehearsed over 12 weeks one day a week (whole day). The production models a professional process and the final performance is open to the public. Whilst the Director leads the process, you will be expected to engage in every part of the process of making the piece of theatre.
The module will facilitate the exploration of systematic approaches to rehearsal in the creation of a mid-scale production, professional relations and dynamics within the context of a company and develop methods of working collaboratively under artistic direction.

Choreography

You will explore a range of approaches in creating choreography drawing on a range of research sources towards performance presentation in collaboration with your peers, professionals and the module leader. You will gain new skills and practical, theoretical and contextual understanding of choreographic procedures within a range of theatre and film contexts. Critical appraisal and analysis of studio based choreographic experiments will contribute to your learning and development. Evaluation on this module is through continual assessment with two key sharing points of student work, where constructive feedback is provided. Staff and students engage in dialogue to promote a shared understanding of the basis on which academic judgements are made.
• To explore a range of contemporary choreographic approaches and strategies in creating and directing movement and dance based composition.
• To gain knowledge of some contemporary companies/artists and their methods/works in successfully stage new choreography for different contexts.
• To gain understanding and experience in effectively planning, leading, staging and performing choreographed performance work drawing on a range of sources.
• To collaborate with tutor, peers and a performance space in the creation and presentation of a choreographed performance event.

This is a semester-long module for Level 5 students, which aims to provide practical, theoretical and contextual understanding of choreographed theatre and performance work. In studio-based seminar workshops you will engage with a range of theatre and dance movement-based approaches and applications for choreographing performance related to professional environments and your own ideas.
You will develop your own choreography that will be directed into a public presentation by the module leader. Critical appraisal and analysis of your work will be performed on an ongoing basis through tasks and discussions and will inform an accompanying written portfolio that will appraise your choreographic journey.

Directing 1

This module functions as an introduction to the skills and concepts behind directing both in theory and practice. You will study key directing practitioners. You will be introduced to the role and function of the director, focusing on the relationship with the performer. You will study and apply basic directing techniques and explore and analyse the directorial process. Much of the work will be text-based, using a set text as a starting point.

Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy is a semester-long module designed to examine and explore the role of the dramaturg. Through the module there will be an attempt to define and analyse the practice of dramaturgy with regard to a wide range of performance practices ranging from traditional playwriting to post-dramatic forms. Dramaturgy encompasses a broad range of applications, providing support to an evolving artistic work at all stages of its development. You will learn to provide constructive input from the earliest seed of an idea to the final documentation of a performed work.

This module aims to:

• explore the role and function of the dramaturg in the context of international performance: examining writers, directors and companies by studying their innovative (post) dramatic dramaturgies, scenographies, uses of text and acting and performance styles;

• discuss selected performance examples with reference to the disciplines utilised and the kinds of connections between them;

• investigate new forms in relation to the performances’ thematic and political concerns as well as the artistic context from which they emerge.

• undertake practical work in the role of dramaturg with a selected particular emphasis.

Workshop Leadership

In this module you will gain the skills and experience to confidently lead theatre and performance workshops within a wide range of community contexts and is designed to facilitate your progress from theatre student to creative practitioner. You will explore games, exercises and strategies to engage, inspire and develop creativity and skills with others in group work. You will be introduced to pedagogic and leadership theories to stimulate workshop design and address the concerns and practical implications of professional/client group communication. We will use evaluation and feedback processes to guide the planning and delivery of your own workshop with an accompanying plan. Insight, knowledge and skills into the potential and methodologies of workshop leading within the wider context of participatory and performative theatre work.

Festival Showcase

The Festival Showcase contains your final piece of practical work, the equivalent of a dissertation, and will be a culmination of all the work previously undertaken on the course. It consists of a programme of short theatre, performance, and multimedia productions, which will be presented to a public audience in a professional environment. It is designed to allow you to develop your chosen specialisms, both within creative and production roles.

The module will enable you to complete and showcase a professional level work. You will utilise the ability to work both collaboratively and independently within a self-managed ‘festival’ setting and provide the opportunity for you to cultivate professional skills demonstrating your employability and ability to make your own projects.

The module includes the following areas of work-related learning:

- creating and presenting original performances to an external audience;
- marketing, including the professional use of social media;
- box office and audience management;
- logistics of setting up a company;
- pitching work to producers and programmers;
- writing an agenda and keeping minutes of meetings;
- creating a timetable.

Performance Research and Development

Performance Research & Development complements SM6P10 Festival Showcase; the module will enable you to undertake intensive research and development (R&D) projects leading to the sharing of consecutive works-in-progress: draft performances presented for feedback to an invited audience. The notion of R&D is a vital aspect of the professional industry, increasingly required by funding bodies and an integral part of producing venues’ programmes. Students will work collaboratively, to tight deadlines, in accordance with the creative guidelines provided by the tutor. This will develop their ability to create rapidly within assigned parameters, encompassing such approaches as adapting existing dramatic texts and devising new material from stimuli. Students will engage self- and peer-evaluation skills throughout the module.

Collaborative Project

This is an intensive 30 credit module that runs over a period of 15 weeks. Building on the skills and awareness developed through previous education and experience, this alternative core module joins together students from the BA Theatre & Performance and BA Theatre & Film to create original interdisciplinary work through collaborative processes. You may work across a variety of mediums, including film and digital media, to take ideas from inception to realisation. Although projects will be undertaken in companies, you will have the opportunity to explore specialist areas of personal interest within your groups wherever possible.

Directing 2

Directing 2 advances previously acquired skills in Directing One and Workshop Leadership. It allows you the opportunity to explore your own directorial vision and apply skills learnt in practice. In this case directing refers to text-based work. The practical work is placed within the context of critical theory, as previously explored in Performance, Art and Film Ideas 1 and 2.

This module will develop and apply directorial skills and facilitate the acquisition of new abilities specifically related to production and organisation. It will give you the opportunity to apply skills and knowledges to a fully produced extract from a play text and provide the opportunity to imagine a vision for a production of a play. It will encourage you to pursue individual research into theatre practitioners and cultural theory in the context of your own directed extract, to examine critically the process of directing and to encourage self-evaluation. The final showing of work will activate your skills in leadership, facilitation, imaginative and creative skills and inspire self-motivation and responsibility.

Independent Project

This module allows students to explore in depth a theory or theory and practice topic of their own choice, arising from previous experience or their study at levels 4 and 5 (subject to supervisor approval). A key emphasis here is placed on the notion of research (both theoretical and practical) to develop a sustained project. Their individual study is facilitated by a tutor assigned to the project according to subject specialism.

This module is mainly self-managed by the student with facilitation by a specialist in the chosen subject. Students’ individual work is supported by regular consultation and feedback from their tutor and peer-led workshops.

The project incorporates both formative and summative assessment. Students will present their project plan orally in a subject specific workshop and in written form to their project supervisor. The summative assessment consists of the actual project, either a written project or a film and/or performance project with outline, treatment and theoretical statement.

Installation and Live Art

This module will explore creative strategies in the application of installation art and performative practices, beyond a strictly theatrical context. In doing so, it will promote multi-disciplinary crossovers, in particular between performance, visual and multimedia arts. A particular focus will be dedicated to the conceptual investigation of site and the creative adaptation and transformation of this.

The function and aesthetics of installation and live art will be explored in their broadest significance, making use of concepts such as durational practice, rituality, liminality, hybridity and contamination and relevant theoretical references in this respect. Studying the work of contemporary and historical practices in installation, site-specific and site-responsive art, students will develop new work to be presented and contextualised as part of a self-curated event and will benefit from visits and collaborations with professional structures, both inside the University and outside (galleries, art centres and collaborating practitioners). In this sense, the module will represent an opportunity to gain professional skills both in the artistic and academic development of new work, as well as in the documentation and dissemination of this.

The module aims to critically engage with the contexts of contemporary art and contemporary curating, in light of a range of pertinent theoretical perspectives, applying this knowledge to both live work and installation art and recorded media. The module will promote innovative crossovers between artistic disciplines, in particular performance, visual and digital media, and develop an understanding of the principles of arts curatorship and foster professional skills in the documentation, contextualisation and dissemination of new work.

Producing

This module aims to contextualise the content of the two Theatre Arts undergraduate degree programmes towards professional application by introducing the fundamentals of business practice as applied to the leading of performance-based projects. Classes will introduce you to planning strategies, financial management and fundraising, and business models towards the creation of a project plan. The module addresses the social entrepreneurship movement, embraces technology in business practices, and emphasises collaborative learning.

The module provides an introduction to the business aspects of successfully leading a theatre project or company and aims to acquaint you with the skills and understandings needed, and to explore and engage with a range of business models within the contemporary cultural industries environment. You will be given opportunities to apply methods and techniques in practical settings, by initiating and carrying out projects.

Writing for Theatre and Performance

Writing for Performance develops skills in writing performance texts across mediums and considers the ways in which texts shift, enlarge, contract and transform once they are performed. It combines analysis of existing written and performed texts with creative writing exercises to develop informed, critical, creative writers. You will also view performances and consider the relationship between the text-as-written and the text-as-performance. Students will undertake regular writing tasks to develop a portfolio of work and a completed short script. This module will make links across the programme, with particular reference to Dramaturgy.

Classes will help you to:

• Develop the tools necessary to undertake your own critically-informed script making for performance.
• Explore the role of the writer within the collaborative nature of theatre-making.
• Connect your creative life to global and local and personal events.
• Reflect critically on the implications of theatrical appropriation.
• Reflect critically on the relationship between texts and staging of text.
• Explore the relationship between performance, identity and society.