module specification

The Festival Showcase represents the student’s final piece of practical work, the equivalent of a dissertation, and will be a culmination of all the work undertaken on the course or through prior experience.  It consists of a programme of short theatre, performance, and multimedia productions, which will be presented to a public audience in a professional context. It is designed to allow students to develop their chosen specialisms, both within creative and production roles.

The module will enable students to apply creative and production skills, and knowledge learned on the course, to complete a professional level work.  It will utilise the ability to work both collaboratively and independently within a self-managed ‘festival’ setting and provide the opportunity for students to develop professional skills fostering their potential employability.

The module includes the following areas of work-related learning:

- creating and presenting original performances to an external audience;
- marketing, including the professional use of social media;
- box office and audience management;
- logistics of setting up a company;
- pitching work to producers and programmers;
- writing an agenda and keeping minutes of meetings;
- creating a timetable.

Completion and pass (120 credits) of previous level.

Following the module SM6015 Performance R & D, students form their own collaborations for the Festival Showcase module. LO1

Students pitch their collaborative concepts in an assessed seminar. They then continue to develop such concepts into fully realised performances. Both creative and production skills are assessed and all students are expected to take on roles accordingly. Students may combine and tailor these roles according to their individual works. LO1, LO2, LO3

The Festival Showcase module is self-produced by students but mentored by members of staff who act as Festival Curator and Production Manager. LO2, LO4

Scheduled teaching ensures that independent study is effective and addresses the learning outcomes and assessment tasks. Students are expected to (and to have the opportunity to) continue with their studies outside of scheduled classes. There will be a range of learning strategies deployed and individual learning styles will be accommodated. The module’s learning outcomes, its contents and delivery, have been scrutinised and will be regularly reviewed to ensure an inclusive approach to pedagogic practice.

The module and course utilise the University’s blended learning platform to support and reinforce learning, to foster peer-to-peer communication and to facilitate tutorial support for students. Reflective learning is promoted through assessment items and interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, seek help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes, and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-related learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

The Festival Curator and Production Manager (staff) will provide regular feedback of work in progress. Peer mentoring will also provide feedback. Written feedback will be given for the online submissions.

This module will be taught through practical and theoretical approaches.  These include:

• practical workshops;
• self-directed learning;
• independent completion of tasks in small groups;
• guided learning through observation and feedback;
• seminars;
• tutorials.

By the end of the module students will be able to:

1) create, independently and/or in groups, a short theatre and performance work of professional standards;

2) work within a festival production team, according to a set role;

3) present ideas, concepts and practice in a clear, engaging and complex way, suitable for the professional industry;

4) manage their own progress, demonstrating professional awareness and competence.

Assessment will be practical with supporting online submission:

1) a presentation/exhibit, in which students pitch their performance concept, in order communicate this to an invited audience;

2) their Festival Contribution, according to a selected creative role, or a combination of more than one, as agreed with the tutor, (creative roles include: performer, writer/dramaturg, director, choreographer and designer); this is assessed through both continuous process and final product;

3) their Festival Contribution, according to a selected production role, or a combination of more than one, as agreed with the tutor, (production roles include: stage manager, assistant curator, technical assistant, set and props, costume and makeup, workshop leading, outreach and documentation); this is assessed through both continuous process and final product.

Bicat, T.  (2012) Costume and Design for Devised and Physical Theatre,  The Crowood Press
Bleeker, M. (2011)  Visuality in the Theatre: The Locus of Looking,   Palgrave Macmillan
Collins, J. and Nisbet, A. (2010) Theatre and Performance Design: A Reader in Scenography,  Routledge
Dean, P. (2002) Production Management: Making Shows Happen - A Practical Guide, The Crowood Press
Fenton, R. and Neal, L. (2005) The Turning World: Stories from the London International Festival of Theatre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Hamilton, J. (2007) The Art of Theatre (New Directions in Aesthetics),   Wiley Blackwell
Knowles, R. (2004)  Reading the Material Theatre (Theatre and Performance Theory),  CUP
McAuley, G. (2000) Space in Performance: Making Meaning in the Theatre
(Theater: Theory/Text/Performance),   University of Michigan Press
Mudford, P. (2001) Making Theatre: From Text to Performance,  Continuum International Publishing
Murray, S. and Keefe, J. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction, Routledge
Pitches, J. and Popat, S. (2011) (eds) Performance Perspectives: A Critical Introduction, Routledge
Seabright, J. (2010) So You Want to be a Theatre Producer,  Nick Hern Books

http://www.liftfestival.com/
www.jstor.org/
http://muse.jhu.edu/
http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/
http://totaltheatrereview.com/artforms/devised-theatre