Module Information

This module focuses on the development, rehearsal and staging of a performance event for a public audience. Working under the guidance of a member of departmental staff, or an experienced theatre practitioner, students will be allocated to roles integral to the performance and/or production team and engage in an original piece of theatre making of 60-90 minutes’ playing time (or less where appropriate). The project director will construct the rehearsal and performance processes to give students opportunities to investigate, reflect upon and evaluate critically their experience of working on the project. The project will be performed in one of the departmental performance venues or an appropriate site-specific location. During the production project students will encounter specific performance challenges and performance research questions and will be required to compile a critical reflection in which they contextualise their experience through a developed and sensitive understanding and analysis of appropriate performance theories, compositional vocabularies and methods.

Working in project groups, students will be allocated roles appropriate to the theatre-making project (for example, as assistant directors, actors/performers, stage managers, scenographers or any combination of the above). The project will involve working for at least 16 hours per week during the semester, during which students will apply appropriate compositional and rehearsal strategies to developing the project, while also contextualizing their work in relation to the work of relevant theatre practitioners and artists. Students will be expected to undertake and apply independent research and devise and lead creative development exercises and rehearsals. Students will also take part in four reflection-in-process tutorials where the MC will lead them to continually reflect on their process and offer critical observations and feedback on practical work. Students will keep a working notebook documenting significant developments and challenges they have encountered in the process and will use these to reflect on the project. Throughout the project students will be expected to work responsibly, constructively, creatively and safely with fellow students, solving problems as they arise and undertaking the specific challenges inherent to the nature of their project.