Theatre Studies

Level 4 introduces and develops the academic and intellectual skills that you will need for study and professional development. (120 credits) Obligatory (up to 3 years)

• Theatres at Work (40 credits)

These modules identify and explore the techniques and challenges of presenting theatre today. They include an in-depth study of how a professional theatre company functions in terms of its artistic policies, marketing strategies and funding initiatives. Much of your work will be based around the study of a professional theatre company in your own area and investigations of how it contributes to its localised contexts.

• The Craft of Playmaking (20 credits)

This module explores ways of analysing dramatic writing in terms of its potential impact and meaning in the theatre. You will examine dramaturgy from a range of perspectives and focus on ways in which a text becomes a blueprint for performance. Plays currently studied include a range of traditional texts such as Oedipus Rex and Everyman as well as more contemporary writing such as Bryony Lavery’s Stockholm and Suzan-Lori Park’s Topdog/Underdog.

• The Critical Audience (20 credits)

This module examines the relationship between meaning and text by examining a range of approaches to performance. You will investigate how conventions of genre, acting styles, direction and design signify in different ways. By taking the role of ‘the critical audience’ you will explore how contemporary productions are shaped by their historical, cultural and artistic conditions and discover ways of re-framing them within contemporary critical perspectives.

• Elements of the Performance Work (40 credits)

These modules introduce key traditions or “elements” of theatre-making. You will explore the means by which the performing body is codified through visual elements such as costume, make-up and mask and examine the relationship between text, space, action, the changing social and political functions of performance and the role of context in meaning-making.

Modules you will undertake at level 5 include but are not limited to:

• Naturalism (20 credits)

This module interrogates Naturalism in its historical context. The module looks at the impact of science and technology and the new perspectives of sociology and psychology. The works of important writers including Zola, Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov are studied alongside practitioners such as Stanislavski and Antoine.

• Shakespeare (20 credits)

This module seeks to explore the plays as vehicles for performance, understanding them in relation to the original performance conditions for which they were created, and, by extension, in the contemporary theatre. In TS502 Shakespeare’s work is addressed through three key themes: Language, Space and Identity.

• The Playwright (40 credits)

The module closely examines the work of significant British and Irish playwrights within their social and historical contexts. In addition, each unit uses the work of particular playwrights to deepen students’ understanding of certain aspects of playwriting technique. The module closely examines the work of  significant North American playwrights within their social and historical contexts, with units featuring the work of female playwrights and voices from the margins.

• The Director (40 credits)

This module explores the role of the Director in British and European theatre. While there is some discussion of historical context and development, the main emphasis of the Module is on contemporary practice. Students study the work of both leading and emerging directors through an examination of their creative decisions, working methodologies and complementary discourses; framing these in relation to a range of critical and theoretical considerations.

•  Beyond the Stage: Space and Place (20 credits)

TS515 investigates the debates surrounding place and space and examines how these terminologies are applied to performance practice, audience theory and definitions of theatricality. TS515 begins by considering the question of place as a location for transgressive acts, examining medieval carnival and concepts of ‘reversal.’ These investigations feed into discussion of more contemporary case studies – of riots and rallies – as these are examples of the appropriation of space for Political and political ends.

• The Actor and the Realist Tradition (40 credits)

In this practice-based strand, you will be introduced to the dominant approach to acting of the last hundred years, namely that developed by Stanislavski, and guided through the process of the actor’s own preparatory work for rehearsal through a series of practical exercises, tasks and performances of a role of your own choosing.

• Live and Performance Art (20 credits)

This module explores the processes and practices of contemporary live and performance art from ‘happenings’ to fine art and dramatic postmodernity. The meeting point between fine art, installation and performance, performance art and live art have often articulated as a desire for direct engagement with issues of identity, multiculturalism and globalisation.

• Musical Theatre: The American Golden Age
  (40 credits)

These modules investigate the world of musical theatre from a twentieth century American perspective (focusing on productions spanning from 1920s-1970s). You will explore the theatrical forms that influenced the musical as it is widely known.

Module study options at level 6 include, but are not limited to:

• Topic in Contemporary Theatre (20 credits)

This module examines some of the major developments in contemporary theatre, analysing the work of specific playwrights and practitioners and exploring particular sites of interrogation that have emerged in the post-millennial period.

Obligatory for Honours:

• Independent Research Project (60 credits)

The Research Project constitutes the final module for honours students. It is designed to allow you to demonstrate your ability to design and pursue independent research on a subject which draws upon an aspect of your previous study or centres on theatre-related professional practices. Aspects of this work can be practice-based and the module aims to provide broad scope for a range of project types.

Then select 40 credits from the following electives:

• The Empire Acts Back (40 credits)

TS605 addresses post-colonial theatre in a variety of social contexts, drawing on plays and performance studies from the Caribbean, Nigeria, South Africa, and India. Through critiques of play texts, theory and theatre practice the module will guide you through post-colonial, intracultural and inter-cultural issues including negritude, Black Consciousness, anti-apartheid movements and indigenous practices.

• Ancient Greek Tragedy (40 credits)

TS607 and TS608 aim to introduce you to Greek plays in their ancient socio-political and performance contexts and in the contexts of their transformations in subsequent theatre spaces, manifestations and cultures. In TS607 you will analyse the only surviving ancient trilogy, the Oresteia of Aeschylus.

• Brecht and the Epic Tradition in German Theatre (40 credits)

These modules examine Brecht in detail – as writer, director and practitioner. This is achieved through a close reading of a number of Brecht’s plays and productions from the earliest stages of his career through to the immediate post-war period.

• Shakespeare in Performance (20 credits)

This module explores the translation of Shakespearean texts from page to stage through a series of case studies from the performance history of four plays, and through practical exercises requiring you to prepare a text, or part of a text, as a director might prepare it for performance, providing annotations and a critical analysis of the decisions taken.

• Theatre of the Absurd (20 credits)

This module is intended to provide you with an overview of the post-war movement known as the Theatre of the Absurd, to introduce its principal exponents, and to enable you to place the plays in your own cultural context. The primary focus of the module is a number of plays written in English and French (the latter studied in translation) in the 1950s and early 1960s which have been characterised as the Theatre of the Absurd.

• The Theatre Critic (20 credits)

This module is a practical and theoretical introduction to theatre criticism. It discusses the role of the theatre critic in contemporary society and assesses the impact of theatre criticism on performance practices. The unit also explores the techniques and approaches to analysing live performance from the particular perspectives and agendas of the arts critic.

Each module is divided into three units. A unit might include notes, tasks, documents, recordings and images – all of which are designed to guide you through the topic in an active way.

You will keep a Coursework Portfolio and Applied Learning Archive which you will share with your tutors online. Regular monthly webinars will also form part of your study routine and will provide you with opportunities to actively engage with other students.

You will have a range of assessment modes that combine to equip you with essential and traditional academic practices alongside opportunities to create, present, perform, collaborate and research.

Theatre Studies Online Course Specification