Moodle

This core module for second year BA Drama/BA Drama and Literature undergraduates will afford students the opportunity to explore a diverse and eclectic range of historical and contemporary models of practice in different areas of theatre and performance-making, and in different global contexts. The main concern of TH241 is to enable students to develop a deep understanding of how pioneering and field-changing practitioners’ different approaches to theatre-making have developed within their unique cultural, historical and political contexts; the module invites students to question how might a practitioner’s context influence their practice?

In common usage, the word ‘model’ can mean something regarded as an ‘excellent example of a specified quality’ or a ‘thing used as an example to follow or imitate’ (Oxford Dictionary). While working in very different political, cultural, and historical contexts, the pioneering practitioners that will be explored on this module have all made lasting and influential contributions to the way in which acting, writing, directing and live art-making are studied and performed – on this module, we will focus on different practitioners that have developed ‘models’ of working that have influenced approaches to theatre-making or challenged previous ideas of what theatre can be, or what it might do in the world.

Each fortnight, an international practitioner, company or organisation will provide a central case study to examine in thought (via micro-lectures), discussion (seminar conversations) and practice (practical workshops). We will explore an eclectic range of traditions, artistic methods or styles that have been established, and subsequently used or developed further by others. Students will cultivate an in-depth understanding of how historical, cultural and political factors have influenced the approaches of different practitioners. 

The weekly topics covered on the module are divided into five main categories: In the first term, following an introduction to the module and the library (Week 2), the lectures and accompanying seminars or practical workshops will explore approaches to approaches to Acting/Performing (Weeks 2 & 3 (AU) & Weeks 20-22 (SP)), Playwriting (Weeks 4 & 5 (AU) & 16-19 (SP)) and Directing (Weeks 6-9 (AU) & 20-22 (SP)).