module specification

This is a year long first year module which aims to expose students to the devising process and the performance disciplines that this involves. Students will explore and debate the content and forms of individual and group devised theatre practice in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through this they will work with improvisatory techniques and negotiate and analyse the collaborative process towards the creation of creative ensemble theatre. In this module they will work towards the creation of devised theatre and performance that involves students in practice that is inclusive, discursive, diverse and collaborative.

To introduce students to the nature of collaborative, inter-disciplinary theatre practice.
To gain knowledge of some of the significant companies/artists who successfully create performance through a devised process. To gain an understanding of the forms, structures and methodologies used in devised theatre. To offer students the opportunity to explore a number of roles and professional skills in exploring devising.

This unit will consider the development of collaboratively-created theatre by analysing the work of key artists and companies and through practical ensemble explorations. Through exercises and tasks students will explore and debate the methods of individual and group devising and negotiate and analyse the collaborative process. This will engage students with a variety of stimuli for theatre, and performance disciplines - text, verbal language, physicality, dancetheatre, space and environment, visual and technical elements. The work of specific companies, such as Forkbeard Fantasy, The People Show, Pina Bausch, Complicité, Forced Entertainment, DV8, Frantic Assembly, will be considered in contextualising the ideas and methodologies explored.

Through taught seminars, individual research, group practical exercises and self-reflective tasks, this module will involve practical work that will be supported by research activity into, for example, relevant artists and companies, and their thematic and methodological foci. Such research will aid the students’ contextualisation of their practical understandings and analytic writing for the module.

By the end of the module, students will evidence:

An ability to participate in, and critically evaluate, collaborative, inter-disciplinary theatre practice.
Knowledge and understanding of some key practitioners and their work in the context of devised theatre. Awareness of appropriate research sources and articulation of some of the core disciplines, structures and methodologies used in the process of devising. Ability to undertake a number of roles that utilise professionally orientated skills in devising performance.

This module has three assessment requirements:  A. A group presentation of ideas for a devised ensemble project on a proscribed theme or strategy.20%

B. Small group devised project in response to stimuli. The tutor will assess the student’s ability to work collaboratively in a group and their demonstration of devising skills. This will involve assessment of the process as well as performance. 50%  C. Written documentation (1500 words) designed to establish how far students have engaged with the perspectives offered by the module and to test their skills at developing those perspectives with further information.30%

Allain, P. 2005. The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Routledge
Broadhurst, S. 1999. Liminal Acts: A Critical Overview of Contemporary Performance and Theory  Cassell
Callery, D. 2001 Through the Body  Nick Hern Books
Coult, T.  and Kershaw, B. (eds) 1990. Engineers of the Imagination, The Welfare State Handbook Methuen Dixon, L. 2003. Playacting  Methuen Drama
Etchells, T. 1999. Certain Fragments: Contemporary Performance and Forced Entertainment Routledge
Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. 2009. The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre Routledge
Heddon, D. & Milling, J. 2005. Devising Performance: A Critical History  Palgrave Macmillan
Heddon, D.  2008. Autobiography and Performance Palgrave Macmillan
Johnstone, K. 1999. Impro for Storytellers: Theatresports and the Art of Making Things Happen  Faber and Faber
Salinsky, T. And Frances-White, D. 2008. The Improv Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Theatre, Comedy, and Beyond Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

Project Muse http://muse.jhu.edu/
JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/
www.forcedentertainment.com
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/sound/drama/dramaex/forced/forcedentertainment.html#
www.complicite.org
www.dv8.co.uk/