Courses and structure

The degree is based on a balanced combination of courses in the theory, practice and history of drama, theatre, performance and related media. You take four courses of study a year, but any one course may include within it two or more options.

Year 1

• Theatre Making: Scenography and Technology (15 credits)
• Theatre Making: Process and Performance (15 credits)
• Analytic Vocabularies (30 credits)
• Space-Body-Spectator (30 credits)
• Theatre Making 1 (30 credits)

Year 2

• Performance Theory/Practice (30 credits)
• Elements of Theatre History [options] (30 credits)
• Modernisms and Postmodernity A (15 credits)
• Modernisms and Postmodernity B [options] (
15 credits)
• Theatre Making 2 (30 credits)

Year 3

• Culture and Performance: Critical Theory (15 credits)
• Culture and Performance: Options (15 credits)
• Theatre Making 3 (45 credits)
• Dissertation (45 credits)

[Please note that courses are currently under review, and may be subject to adaptation for 2012.]

Year 1 courses

Theatre Making: Scenography and Technology
This course examines the principles and techniques of theatre design and stage management. 
It introduces a range of key concepts, terms and practical processes related to theatre design and related technologies. Students on this course learn to understand and apply a range of theatre skills in the following areas: Lighting Design, Scenography and Sound Design.

Theatre Making: Process and Performance
This course will introduce students to processes of directing and performing, and examining various approaches to working with space, composition, rhythm, texts and improvisation. The intention is to enable students to interrogate, through practice and discussion, selected historical and contemporary modes of performance. From this, students develop a group exercise in theatre making, based on a text.

Space-Body-Spectator
In this practice/theory two-term course, we focus on the body as your primary tool for communicating theatrically in workshop sessions. In seminars we discuss notions of the body, movement, space, spectator relationship and performing, as well as engagement in critical spectatorship and performance analysis. We look at key theorists and innovations in the 20th and 21st century in which Space-Body-Spectator relationships have been challenged and reconfigured. You develop your own performance material in the Theatre and site specifically, applying the methodologies investigated. Teaching draws on both European 
and Asian sources.

Analytic Vocabularies
An exploration of methods of performance analysis. We examine some of the significant theoretical frameworks for the analysis of Western performance, identifying creative processes and outcomes in the light of the theories of key practitioners. We evaluate performance texts from different media, and distinguish how history and culture influence contemporary theatre making.

Theatre Making 1
This is the culmination of your first year’s work 
in the department. It is an opportunity to explore theatre making in a collaborative, creative and inventive fashion, within defined parameters and 
a constructively critical framework. Although the work is assessed, we hope that this project also 
takes on the quality of a festival.

Year 2 courses

Performance Theory/Practice
This is a laboratory course, which investigates the major forms of 20th-century Western theatrical performance, exploring ways in which various practices have been theorised and, conversely, 
the way performance theories have been translated into practice.

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 two options (each of 10 weeks) from a wide range including for example: French Theatre; Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama; Irish Theatre and Politics; Greek Theatre; Spanish and Catalan Theatre; American Theatre; African Theatre. Options are likely to change from year to year, depending on staff availability and research interests.

Theatre Making 2
This focuses on the development of performance-making skills, including performing, technical and scenographic competence, and the application of those skills to the creation of a performed event. The emphasis is on collaboration and working in companies and teams.

Modernisms and Postmodernity A
This course is an introduction to key aspects of modern and postmodern thought, culture and theatre. It aims to explore the historical and cultural contexts of its topic while at the same time exploring the theoretical and cultural ideas and practices that have been seen as modernist and postmodern.

Modernisms and Postmodernity B
You normally chose one 10-week option. 
These options are designed to extend the study 
of modernism and/or postmodernity through 
a sustained engagement with a particular 
range of material. We offer as specialist topics, for example: Post-Colonial Theatre; Brecht and Political Theatre; Theatre of the Artistic Avant-Garde; and Contemporary Women Practitioners. Options change from year to year, depending on staff availability and research interests.

Year 3 courses

Culture and Performance: 
Critical Theory and Options
This course provides an approach to the study of performance within a culturally diverse society. Lectures and seminars introduce you to a range of issues in the field of multi-cultural performance, including cross-culturalism, interculturalism, interchange and globalisation. You opt to make a specific study of the way contemporary performance in the UK relates culturally diverse practitioners to particular communities or institutions within society.

Theatre Making 3
This gives you the opportunity to study a theatrical form in depth, and to apply your acquired knowledge and skills in a group-based project. Autumn term taught sessions develop into project planning. In the spring term, rehearsals lead towards productions, performed outcomes and events. Genres range from text-based to devised performance and Live Art.

Dissertation
This is a year-long project where you choose a topic of personal interest that motivates you to study intensively, with a tutor as your personal supervisor, to create an extended written critical study. The Dissertation builds your skill and confidence in self-directed research that might be either purely academic and/or bring some fieldwork study to bear.