BA (Hons) Drama: Performance, Politics and Society

What you'll study Year 1 (credit level 4)

In your first year you will take the following core modules:

Year 1 core modules Module title Credits. Analytic Vocabularies Analytic Vocabularies 30 credits

This module introduces and explores critical approaches to theatre and performance through textual analysis of a range of plays. You will be provided with the critical tools to consider the contextual influences of history and culture in performance as well as genre and form.

30 credits. Introduction to Dramaturgy Introduction to Dramaturgy 15 credits 15 credits. Processes of Performance: The Ensemble Processes of Performance: The Ensemble 15 credits

This module addresses various approaches to the imaginative, physical, and vocal training of the actor drawing from a wide range of Twentieth Century key practitioners.

You will be introduced to a selection of approaches to ensemble training that will include the core skills and principles needed for this practice. In tandem will explore key research strategies, and you will carry out your own experimentation and critical questioning. Practical exploration of the ensemble is complimented by seminar discussions and film screenings that assist you in making links between historical and contemporary precedents and what you are discovering in your own training and experiments.

You will focus on how meaning is generated in performance, and begin to ask basic questions about Theatre Making, to explore further in your own work and your analysis of material created by other artists.

One departmental visit will take place in the autumn term to a London venue to see the work of a company working integrally with the idea of the ensemble, or for whom ensemble training is a core process. Students will be asked to write an essay analysing the show and drawing on the language of Performance Analysis and Ensemble Practice, which are introduced and explained in the seminar discussions.

This component enables you to begin to acquire a critical vocabulary with which to ‘read’ the entirety of a performance, and to articulate your responses accordingly. In the final post-show evaluation seminar, you will be guided to understand how to apply such a methodology to the development of your own company’s practical performance, and the critique of others’ work.

15 credits. Scenography Scenography 15 credits 15 credits. Theatre Making 1 Theatre Making 1 30 credits

Theatre Making 1 is the culmination of the first year’s work for B.A. Drama and Theatre Arts and draws on the experiences in the other first year units. It is an opportunity to explore theatre making in a creative and inventive way, applying analytic and research skills to the practical realisation of performance pieces.

Students build on their knowledge of different performance styles, approaches and traditions gained in the year: a presentation of exciting and innovative work, consolidating and building on the learning outcomes the first year of study. In this respect it provides not only a culmination of the first year but a springboard for your next two years’ work.

Students gain practical experience of the relationship between the different roles that make up theatre-making teams, with an opportunity to undertake 2 distinct roles. Team-working is at the heart of this project, exploring the dynamics of leadership, decision-making and the relationship between operational/organisational concerns and the realisation of an artistic vision.

30 credits. The Politics of Play, Plays and Playing The Politics of Play, Plays and Playing 15 credits

This module will focus on the relationship between play, plays and playing in socially-engaged and political theatre. ‘Play’ as a concept will be explored from many perspectives, including its importance in creative learning, playfulness in performative relationships to audience and the ‘play’ as a written text for interpretation.

Students will explore the process of creating ensemble performance in response to studies of key plays and how they can be interpreted in contemporary contexts. Performances can be located in any space that is not designated as a theatre and students will explore playfulness in the context of site-specificity and site responsiveness. An understanding of Space is central to this module; that it generates its own narratives and meanings and that space has political resonances.

15 credits. Radical Performance Vocabularies Radical Performance Vocabularies 15 credits

This module introduces key issues in community, applied, and political drama and performance through a focus on critical analysis of case studies.

Weekly topics will address a wide range of forms and genres. The plays, companies, and performances discussed will be evaluated through the application of relevant theoretical frameworks, with an emphasis on influential philosophical and ideological trends of the 20th and 21st century.

Students will consider a thematic topic each week through the study of a related performance and will analyse the work with reference to assigned critical readings. Topics will include, for example, theatre for development, postcolonial theatres, youth theatre, feminist and queer performance, and others, and these will be contextualised within an exploration of post-structuralism, globalisation, neoliberalism, post-Cold War international relations, and other global political issues.

This module will provide broad subject knowledge alongside fundamental skills in research and critical reflection and will prepare students for further and more detailed study in subsequent years.

15 credits. Year 2 (credit level 5)

In your second year you will study:

Year 2 modules Module title Credits. Modernisms and Postmodernity A Modernisms and Postmodernity A 15 credits

This lecture/ seminar series introduces you to key aspects of modern and postmodern thought, culture and theatre. It aims a) to examine historical and cultural contexts, and b) to explore and analyse the theoretical and culture concerns and practices which have been understood as modernist and postmodern. It is interdisciplinary, considering not only practices in theatre but in other areas of cultural production.

15 credits. Questions of Performance Questions of Performance 15 credits

This modules delivers training my introducing students to practitioners' theories practically and critically, through options of learning and teaching clustered around questions, methodological enquiries and issues that quide contemporary practice. Module choices may change year to year based on staff availability and areas of research, however, see below for a recent selection of options.

15 credits. Contexts of Practice Contexts of Practice 15 credits

Students will work in small groups (3 or 4 students per group) to research a Company whose practice interests them, in order to co-write a 15-minute paper that they will present. (Company to be agreed with convenor)

The students are tasked with researching:

• The history of the Company’s artistic practice
• The impact of the sociopolitical contexts within which their work has developed
• Their core audiences/participating groups and individuals
• Mission statements/Vision. How these have developed and how they are arrived at
• Decision making structures within organisations, and how this may have changed over time
• Working practices (ie terms and conditions)
• Structures (How many staff are there? How many are full time? How are freelancers managed and supported?)
• Key policies (ie child and vulnerable adult safeguarding, equal opportunities etc)
• Methodologies

Students will be expected to make direct contact with organizations and to interview a range of personnel (artistic and administrative). Support will be provided by departmental staff to develop links with existing partners and other relevant organisations. Students should visit the Company or participants, and observe meetings/workshops/rehearsals. They should access relevant documents such as Annual reports, reviews, websites, and social media. They should also access academic writing that references the Company. Each student will keep an individual research log, which will evidence their participation in the group's research process. This will include informal reflections on key sources, methodologies, and observations/interactions with the Company.

Students will be assessed as a group for the presentation, but individual marks will be adjusted based on evidence of each student’s contributions.

15 credits. Creativity and Culture A: Contexts Creativity and Culture A: Contexts 15 credits

Students will be taught through a variety of modes of delivery:

Lectures and presentations will introduce contemporary contexts that artists and arts organisations work within. Indicative contexts include primary, secondary and special schools; the criminal justice system; independent living centres for disabled people; youth and community organisations; voluntary sector organisations and charities.

Workshops will use interactive learning techniques to explore the ethical and aesthetic issues that artists and arts organisations consider when designing, delivering and evaluating projects. Students will work with relevant documentation; such as safeguarding policies, trustee’s reports and school curricula. (For example, students may work in-role as a team designing a project for young disabled adults in transition to independent living or designing an arts-based curriculum for young offenders).

Seminars will offer students the opportunity to focus on praxis; working with their peers to create presentations and provocations that explore how theory relates to practice.

15 credits. Creativity and Culture B: Crafts Creativity and Culture B: Crafts 15 credits

Having had a grounding in some of the contexts in which Performance, Politics and Society students might work and some of the issues they need to be aware of, this module will teach students some of the key methods and methodologies used within these creative contexts such as Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, the aesthetics of access in disability arts and intergenerational practices. The focus will be on workshop facilitation and students will be assessed on this core vocational skill.

Students will be taught through a variety of modes of delivery:

• Masterclasses led by experienced lecturer-practitioners in 'applied theatre' will explore how a variety of performance facilitation techniques are tailored to different contexts
• Seminars will explore the theoretical underpinning of facilitation practice. Students’ own research into case studies will be presented and analysed in the light of theory

Students will all have an opportunity to pilot their own workshops with peers, receiving both peer and lecturer feedback.

15 credits.

You also choose modules from the following options:

Modernisms and Postmodernity B

You choose one option module from a range available within the Department. The modules on offer may differ from year to year as they reflect staff interests, but modules recently offered include:

Module title Credits. Postcolonial Theatre Postcolonial Theatre 15 credits

This module introduces students to the debates and issues about the scope and frame of the postcolonial field and its critical theory. It will specifically look at the relationship between postcolonialism and postmodernism; the shifts and tensions in the centre-periphery relations, issues of cultural imperialism and oppression and strategies surrounding the politics of culture, identity and representation.

15 credits. Theatre and the Artistic Avant-Garde Theatre and the Artistic Avant-Garde 15 credits

This module explores the relationship between visual art and theatre in both the pre-war, historical avant-gardes- such as Futurism, Dada and Surrealism- and some of the post-war, neo avant-gardes. Apart from obvious points of contact such as stage design, we will try to understand the relation between theatrical writing and performance, through art and visual imagery.

15 credits. Women, Feminism & Playwrighting Women, Feminism & Playwrighting 15 credits

This module investigates the relationship between modern women playwrights (writing in English) and the ways in which their work intersects with the tenets of feminist thought. Each week two polemical pieces: one on social history or feminist theory, the other on drama or theatre will be analysed in tandem with the play under discussion.

15 credits. Samuel Beckett: Performance, Writing and Philosophy Samuel Beckett: Performance, Writing and Philosophy 15 Credits

This option focuses precisely on this dual nature of Beckett's work and offers students a chance to study and questions modern/ postmodern tensions with Beckett as a continuous and problematic case study. Students engage with the breadth of philosophical argument found in these readings: aesthetics, politics, philosophy of history, existential ontology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language.

15 Credits. Bertolt Brecht and Political Theatre Bertolt Brecht and Political Theatre 15 credits

This module offers students the chance to go beyond 'soundbite' Brecht and study this key dramatist in more detail. This module will study the career of Brecht, including the political world his drama and drama theory evolved through. Placing his work in a philosophical, historical and artistic context, this module will look at Brecht's importance for his period, his influence in post-war theatre and relevance in contemporary practice.

15 credits. Modernisms and Postmodernity B: Activism and the Theatrical Avant Garde Modernisms and Postmodernity B: Activism and the Theatrical Avant Garde 15 credits

This module addresses historical and contemporary links between avant garde theatre practices and political activism. It expands and deepens the study of artistic practices begun in Modernisms and Postmodernity A, with a focus on the activist elements of theatrical movements and parallel political organisations.

Through the critical analysis of 20th-century case studies, you will develop an understanding of the adoption of avant garde techniques from Dada to Live Art to 'In Yer Face' realism.

You will consider particular theatrical protest performances drawn from organisations including Bread and Puppet Theatre, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, El Teatro Campesino, Solidarity, Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, ACT-UP and more.

Through targeted critical readings, you will situate their analyses of these performances within recent scholarship on the efficacy of political performance in a globalised, postmodern world.

15 credits. Postmodern Gender, Identity, and Queer Theory Postmodern Gender, Identity, and Queer Theory 15 credits

How do social identity categories function politically in contemporary society? What role does gender play in promoting social and political norms? Can the performance of transgressive genders and sexualities create challenges to these norms, or do we inevitably reproduce dominant frames of power and belonging? This module responds to these questions with an introduction to third wave feminism and queer theory.

The module's broad emphasis on the trangressive performance of identities will enable you to gain a comprehensive understanding of key debates in postmodern gender theory and practices.

Through an examination of plays, theatre companies, activist groups, and social performance, you will learn to apply critical concepts to the form and content of relevant performances.

Key theoretical scholarship will be considered each week alongside related play texts, videos or documentary sources. Weekly lectures will provide detailed context and provocations for further discussion/debate. Topics addressed will include late 20th and 21st century gay and lesbian theatre, postmodern feminist performance art, and queer identities broadly defined.

15 credits. Elements of Theatre History

The aim here is to develop an understanding of the relationship between a work and its historical - social, cultural, intellectual - context. You choose one 15 credit module. Options are likely to change from year to year depending on staff interests, but modules offered recently include:

Module title Credits. Elements of Theatre History: American Theatre in the Mid-20th Century Elements of Theatre History: American Theatre in the Mid-20th Century 15 credits

This module is designed to give students a detailed overview of American Theatre in the 20th Century- its texts and contexts. By looking in depth at nine plays alongside a number of key groups and movements such as the Provincetown Players, the Black Arts Movement and the American Avant Garde, and through student led presentations, we will gain a sense of the diversity and development of American Theatre throughout the century.

15 credits. Shakespeare & Renaissance Theatre Shakespeare & Renaissance Theatre 15 credits

This option provides a detailed examination of a range of the dramatic works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the English Renaissance to develop a broad understanding of themes, forms and issues (political,