Module Information
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Workshop | 10 x 3 Hour Workshops |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Exam | 14 Hours Small Group Practical Examination and Viva | 50% |
| Semester Assessment | Critical Portfolio (2,500 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Critical Portfolio (2,500 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Exam | 0.5 Hours Individual Practical Examination and Viva Voce (10 mins) | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Understand and apply the key principles of a number of acting methods and approaches.
Demonstrate an ability to employ personal resources (physicality, vocality, sensory awareness/perception, experience, imagination) effectively in performance.
Demonstrate an ability to employ situational resources (texts, images, objects, environments, scenarios) effectively in performance.
Demonstrate an awareness of the ramifications of social, cultural, political, historical, ideological and aesthetic contexts on the nature, form and function of acting.
Brief description
This module provides an exploration of a range of contemporary acting practices. Recognizing that contemporary actors are required to perform across a broad spectrum of types of theatre and performance the module explores the skills and processes involved in working with and on the self, in embodying alternative performance personae, in playing psychologically realist characters, in enacting tasks, and in working within images. Presented as a series of linked workshops the module provides students with a tool kit of principles and strategies as well as an understanding of the contexts within which these principles and strategies have been developed and used.
Aims
- To introduce theories and practices of acting and actor training.
- To develop students’ use of personal physical and vocal resources in performance.
- To develop a critical awareness of the work of the actor and the development of theories of acting.
- To encourage students to develop a personal process of practical investigation.
Content
10 x 3 hour Lecture/Workshops
This module will be taught through a series of 10 three-hour practical workshops led by departmental staff and visiting guest lecturers when available. Each workshop will involve substantial practical exploration combined with reflection on set readings and tasks.
The workshops will focus on the following:
• Introduction: What is the Work of the Actor?
• Working with Body and Voice
• Improvisation
• Bricolage
• Stanislavskian Principles 1: Interpreting the Text
• Stanislavskian Principles 2: Building a Character
• Brechtian Principles 1: The Socialized Body
• Brechtian Principles 2: Text and Ethics
• Brechtian Principles 3: Gestus in Action
• Making Connections: Action and Response
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | Neither developed nor assessed |
| Communication | The development and use of communication skills are intrinsic to the students’ experience in this module. The individual student’s ability to articulate and communicate their ideas and opinions is developed and encouraged across all aspects of the module, and the assessment forms recognise effective communication across written, verbal and performative material. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Students are expected to respond to formative feedback during workshops and are required to reflect critically as part of their learning process. Self-regulation, motivation and time-management are demanded to maintain engagement with the development of the course and the completion of its concomitant assessed assignments. Assessment procedures recognise effective self-management and self-motivation. |
| Information Technology | Skills of information handling are exercised through the conduct of research, presentation processes, and the collation of materials, within assessed submissions, and weekly writing assignments, and are recognised in the assessment of those submissions. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | The module encourages the initial development of skills directly applicable to careers within cultural (particularly theatre/performance) industries. Further transferable skills (project planning and execution, the development of personal creative initiatives) are also developed through the completion of assessment tasks, though this does not of itself constitute an assessed element. |
| Problem solving | Creative problem solving, outcome recognition, and the identification of appropriate strategies and procedures, are encouraged and assessed across the duration of the module. |
| Research skills | Appropriate personal research and the development of effective personal and group research practices, are implicitly encouraged throughout the module, and are assessed through their impact on the development and presentation of the assessed submissions. |
| Subject Specific Skills | See QAA Dance, Drama and Performance Subject Benchmark Statement (Version 2007). The following subject specific skills are developed and partly assessed: *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 *creating original work using the skills and crafts of performance making *using performance techniques associated with particular cultural forms and/or practitioners *developing physical skills and applying them effectively to communicate with an audience *engaging in research, whether independent, group or performance-based *making records of performance, using skills in notation and/or documentation *working within a group to make performance. |
| Team work | Practical classes demand the application of skills necessary to conduct successful collaborative activity. The assessed group project relates directly to the development and employment of such skills. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 5