Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Workshop | 1 x 32 Hour Workshop |
| Lecture | 1 x 1 Hour Lecture |
| Practical | 18 x 8 Hour Practicals |
| Lecture | 1 x 2 Hour Lecture |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Rehearsal Process and Performance | 60% |
| Semester Assessment | Analytical Documentation including Research Essay (equivalent to 4,000 words in total) | 40% |
| Supplementary Assessment | 6,000 Word Essay. The scale and nature of this essay will be determined by the Module Co-ordinator and the Institute Director of Undergraduate Studies, according to the percentage of work missed. | 60% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Creative portfolio documentation or research essay. The scale and nature of this essay will be determined by the Module Co-ordinator and the Institute Director of Undergraduate Studies, according to the percentage of work missed. | 40% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate a grounding in key theoretical and practical issues involved in researching, rehearsing, and staging a performance event.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of compositional and rehearsal methodologies appropriate to the execution of the particular event.
3. Demonstrate the ability to work towards the collective presentation of a performance project.
4. Critically engage with the production/performance process through a developed and sensitive understanding and analysis of appropriate performance theories, vocabularies, working methods and relevant models of practice.
Brief description
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 60-120 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 analytical documentation in which they contextualise their experience through a developed and sensitive understanding and analysis of appropriate performance theories, compositional vocabularies and methods.
Aims
- Provide students with an opportunity to realize and apply techniques for creating theatre work.
- Enable students to conceive, design, context and create performance material.
- Provide students with the opportunity to contextualize their work within contemporary performance practices.
- Provide students with an opportunity for critical reflection on the processes and presentation of theatrical performance.
Content
1 x 1 hour intoductory lecture
1 x 2 hour feedback forum
144 hours of rehearsal across the semester. This includes 4 days of initial intensive rehearsals and at least 16 hours of rehearsal per week. Some periods will be designated as student-led rehearsals.
32 hours of intensive production time
12 hours of performance and related preparation
Working in project groups, students will be allocated roles appropriate to the theatre-making project (for example, as assistant directors, actors/performers, stage managers, 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 three tutorial feedback sessions in which a member of staff external to the module will aid them in reflecting on the progress of the project and the procedures involved. 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.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | Not developed |
| Communication | The development of communication skills is intrinsic to all aspects of performance. The ability to interact effectively with members of the company and other people encountered during preparation process is a fundamental subject specific skills. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Students are required to analyse and reflect critically on their own work and progress throughout the rehearsal and performance processes and analyse the effectiveness of the group's and directors' ethos and method. |
| Information Technology | Not developed |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Personal development and career planning will not be explicitly developed through this module. however, many of the generic skills developed through the practical work of this module will have significant transferability to a wide range of contexts. |
| Problem solving | These skills are developed as the students respond to the different challenges that emerge during the rehearsal and performance processes for the project. |
| Research skills | These skills are developed as the students respond to the different challenges that emerge during the rehearsal and performance processes for the project. |
| Subject Specific Skills | See QAA Dance, Drama and Performance Subject Benchmark Statement (Version 2007).The following subject specific skills are developed and partly assessed: *describing, theorising, interpreting and evaluating performance texts and performance events from a range of critical perspectives * reading the performance possibilities implied by a script, score and other textual or documentary sources * realising a script, score and other textual or documentary sources in public performance engaging in performance and production, based on an acquisition and understanding of appropriate performance and production vocabularies, skills, structures and working methods * contributing to the production of performance through direction, choreography, dramaturgy, stage management, scenography, sound and lighting production, editing, promotion, administration and funding * creating original work using the skills and crafts of performance making |
| Team work | The development of team working skills is intrinsic to all group performance situations. An integral part of this process will be to encourage student-centred learning. Depending on roles, team leadership skills may also form an important part of the learning experience for this module. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6