MA Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship: Theatre & Performance Pathway

Theories of Capital critically examines key theories of social, economic, cultural and symbolic capital.  The module details these conceptual capital frameworks and compliments this theoretical foundation with application in the creative and cultural industries with a focus on government policy and the unique economic characteristics of the creative industries.  For example consumer consumption of status goods will be assessed using theories of symbolic and social capital. Emphasis will be given on the role of intellectual capital in policy. Students will learn the analytical rigour to critically assess creative and cultural industry policy and market structures.  Students will be able to translate theory into practice, and practice into theory.

This module will introduce students to a range of business modelling tools, and provide insight in to the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and enterprises. The module has evolved from NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Programme and will use the Modelling Techniques that were designed and have evolved from The Academy and Insight Out which provide approaches to commercialising creativity.

It will critically review the key characteristics of successful enterprises, entrepreneurs and leaders, within the cultural and more commercially focused creative industries. It will look at the range of business models that exist and review how best to build a financially sustainable organisation.

Students will be introduced to a range of techniques:

1. Relationship Modelling – this will assist students to understand the range of business models in the creative industries, and to create the most appropriate route to market; it will consider the relationship that the originator of the creative idea has to the production, distribution and the audience/customer/client; it uncovers the student’s relationship to “reward”.

2. Evidence Modelling – this model uses Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad Model to review the likely impact of the idea; it helps makes the enterprise tangible and to ensure that the entrepreneur remains in control of the effects of their ideas. Using the modelling technique helps students to articulate their values and the benefits of their ideas.

3. Blueprint Modelling – an approach to creating an operating plan which will move their idea to market, articulating all of the activities and responsibilities required.
Consequence Modelling – using all of the knowledge from the modelling techniques, this will uncover the financial consequences of the decisions made. It will introduce them to basic financial modelling concepts, and ensure they are comfortable with the financial language of creative entrepreneurs.

The dissertations are intended to assess the full range of students’ abilities and to apply a range of learning outcomes which the programme enables students to develop. In particular it enables assessment of the ability to design, develop and write an advanced research project using primary and/or secondary materials appropriate to the topic and according to the necessary conventions of scholarly work. It requires independent motivation and self-directed learning, under supervision, and enables students to demonstrate competence for critical analysis and sustained persuasive argument.

The projects are intended to assess the full range of students’ abilities and to apply a range of learning outcomes which the programme enables students to develop. In particular, it enables assessment of the ability to design, develop and write an advanced practice-based research project using primary and/or secondary materials appropriate to the topic and according to the necessary conventions of scholarly work. It requires independent motivation and self-directed learning, under supervision, and enables students to demonstrate competence for critical analysis and sustained persuasive argument.

This module will introduce students to models of management, entrepreneurship and professional practice appropriate to creative, social or cultural organisations. It will examine the relationship between arts management practice, design thinking entrepreneurial practices and the culture in which that practice is situated. The module is in two parts, the first through presentations and seminars will equip students to develop a critical approach to both general management policy and practice and to practice has been developed to meet the characteristics and requirements of the arts sector. Students will be introduced to key ideas in organisational management from Weber to Handy and Belbin and current writing on leadership. Students will also be introduced to different forms of legal structures for organisations and basic issues relating to employment.

The second part of the module is the placement, which will work where possible as or like a knowledge transfer partnership scheme. One of the key aims of knowledge transfer partnerships to help businesses ‘improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base’. So, we understand this placement as not only an important learning experience for the student but also as an important link between companies (across sectors) and academe (Goldsmiths and its offer particularly). The placement may be attached to various projects - research and consultancy – ICCE is engaged with and also continuing to develop but equally may be a new initiative.

This overview of the performing arts sector will analyse the different structures of arts organisations from the small 50 seat experimental venue or touring theatre company to the large commercial or state organisations. Looking at how this range of organisations place themselves within a political, social, economic context and at how new developments in technology are changing both the structure and culture of management within these organisations. Issues of audience development relating to access and diversity as well as funding sources have a political dimension that has to be addressed in parallel with an understanding of the techniques and tools used.

The course will build on the theoretical approach of "Theories of the Culture Industry: work, creativity and precariousness" to examine one sector in greater detail (bearing in mind that there is always considerable crossover and dependency between sectors such as theatre, dance, opera, site-specific performance etc) looking at the core producing models and at the great range of ancillary support business that sustains the sector. Both traditional and new performance forms will be studied in relation to the organisational structures that are needed to sustain them, ranging from established building based enterprises to the more fluid ‘festival’ or single event forms. Some seminars will be with arts organisations – see Appendix A for partners in Learning.

On this module students will review and critically appraise:

1. The way creativity works in different sectors of business,
2. The many ways in which professional practice is organised across different sectors.
3. The professional practice that is required by creatives and managers of Innovation.
4. Applying this knowledge to building a critical approach and understanding of creativity in business to a personal plan.
5. Communicating both knowledge and understanding of business of creative industries through a formal presentation to peers and staff.

Students will look at how creatives (and managers) within organisations, working in arts organisations, creative enterprises and social innovation enterprises and in their own practice locate themselves and negotiate the political, social, economic, environmental and technological contexts that impinge on their practices. The module will introduce students to different examples of business structure and practice of creative and cultural organisations and innovation. Students will explore how creative thinking and practice is involved in business, so that they may critically appraise and contrast different models of creative related business. The module will engage in new developments in technology are changing both the structure and culture of management within these organisations. Issues of audience development relating to access and diversity as well as funding sources have a political dimension that have to be addressed in parallel with an understanding of the techniques and tools used.

The culmination will involve both written reflection and a proposition for how this knowledge can inform their own future careers. The students will be required to make a report of their engagement with the materials and also create a presentation of their proposed professional practice plans that take this knowledge and synthesise it into their own plan.  

Radical Performance attempts to probe the creative innovations in theatre, performance, and live art practices that intersect with notions of 'radicality'. The topic is approached through an examination of the various creative elements that have underpinned theatrical experiments, challenges, and resistances. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and philosophical aspects, this course aims to enhance students' abilities to critique the ethics and efficacy of radical performance.

This module will explore Disability Theatre in the UK, focusing on the role that theatre and drama play in the development of a more inclusive society. Students will study the context in which Disability Theatre takes place and develop an understanding of the distinction between the “social” and “medical” models of disability and how this impacts on practice. The module will examine how a range of theatre and performance practices can address the barriers faced by people with physical, sensory and communication impairments, people on the autistic spectrum and people with learning disabilities. Students will develop critical frameworks to study a range of practices; topics covered include: the aesthetics of access, multi-sensory work for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, participatory arts, outdoor performance and institutionalisation. Students will be encouraged to engage with contemporary practice and debates and there will be two guest speakers, Tim Webb (Artistic Director, Oily Cart) and Jenny Sealey (Artistic Director, Graeae) - both leading practitioners in Disability Theatre.

This module focuses on contemporary literary drama and dramatists from the Anglo-phone, Franco-phone and Luso-phone language zones in Africa. One of its major aims is to remove the tendency in previous African theatre and performance scholarship to study these theatre traditions and genres as separate, while in fact, the impulse behind them was essentially the same, and their hybridizing strategies follow the same path. The module investigates the impact of different forms of colonisation on the creation and direction of the theatre. It also explores the influences of the indigenous traditions and the function of theatre within African societies - it specifically looks at theatre and politics, the role of the dramatist in Africa, the playwright and the state, theatre under apartheid and totalitarian regimes, theatre and liberation struggles, theatre and the universities, African audiences, video drama/movie (theatre, technology and innovation).

The module encourages students to explore and extend their perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. The students will be encouraged to research into one of the themes identified above to give them each the opportunity to explore a specific concern in contemporary African dramaturgy and theatre and performance practice.

This module focuses on a selected number of fundamental concepts, categories of thought and methodological issues and problems pertinent to cultural theory and its relation to performance.

The module is based on the premise that performance activity, however defined for specific purposes, is a social and cultural practice. As such, performance is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its complexity. These terms are provided by interdisciplinary work, which, in this course, will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, the sociology of culture, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, political science, philosophy, aesthetics, and theories of signs and of artistic genres.

Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is dialogically interrelated with the practice of practitioners. It thus uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses theory to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. Apart from the inclusion of contemporary practitioners in the module structure, as indicated below, students will be expected to engage with performances available to them in London and elsewhere during their studies, and discuss them in the seminar, as appropriate.

The interdisciplinary principles of the module highlight the interdisciplinary dimensions of what is, nevertheless, discipline-specific to drama, theatre and performance studies.

The module is designed to allow students to carry the conceptual and methodological grounding provided by this core module across to the options offered by the MA in Performance and Culture. It is also designed to link intellectually with other MA programmes available at Goldsmiths College.

The module is structured on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are cross-referenced, cumulative, and require depth. Its structure fosters initiative in research, independent research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in-class discussion.

This pioneering module (there is no such course in existence) will explore the broader context – historical, cultural, ideological, economic – informing the emerging field of performance (theatre, dance, Live Art, music, digital art) that has addressed/collaborated with/applied both medicine and medical issues through creative practice, in the UK and internationally. Within the context of the growing field of Medical Humanities, the theoretical perspective is framed by Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, in which he articulates the medical gaze and ‘medical couple’ and the rise of the European medical institution. Exploring the field from an interdisciplinary and culturally diverse optic, studies will cover a range of topics that explore mental/physical health, medical institutions/protocols and medico-performance practices, through lecture and seminar:

• Exploration of the braiding of medicine and art across histories;
• Consideration of Shamanistic traditions of healing;
• Comparison of non-Western to Western medical perceptions of the body and illness;
• Exploration of the history of Renaissance European anatomy theatres;
• Investigation into classical/modern/contemporary dramatic texts about medicine/medical characters;
• Practices that overlap healing and the arts (drama therapy/dance therapy);
• The affective turn and the neuroscientific turn respectively as recently applied to thinking through and about creative practice;
• Critical analysis of a range of evidence of medico-artistic practices particularly during the past two decades: artists, projects, contexts, organisations, funding bodies and cultural policies that address how medicine and performance have been, and might be, conjoined in creative innovations, processes and productions.

Theatre or the practice of drama has an extraordinarily long, ruptured and variegated history in India. The module will examine this history of practice along a few different lines - classical, colonial, traditional, regional, English, Parsi, urban, contemporary and global. We will begin with a critical study of the unique aesthetic theory of Rasa concerned with production and communication of theatrical experience by the actor and its reception and enjoyment by the spectator. It is the core proposition of the Natyasastra (lit. Drama Principles), the drama manual from India, ascribed to a sage called Bharata, dated 200 BCE-200 CE and recognised as the world's oldest treatise on dramaturgy. The study will draw upon commentary from scholars as ancient as Abhinavagupta, as modern as Adya Rangacharya and as transgressive as Richard Schechner, and more, and take a look at renowned plays from pre-Christian eras and early Christian eras such as 'The Clay Cart' and 'Sign of Shakuntala', the latter being the first-ever translated Sanskrit play leading to the creation of early 19th operas and ballets based on the story. We will then swiftly move to gain familiarity with still current traditional forms of theatre, often akin to storytelling with words, movement and dance, such as Ram Lila, Bhagavatha Mela, Koodiyattum and Kathakali.

A second part of the module will focus on urban and urbanisation of forms and means of production and presentation examining the impact of the colonial period which re-introduced written plays after a gap of nearly 1200 years when non-written, improvised theatre was favoured. A regional sweep will take in the focus and politics of theatre practice and plays in regional languages in the '60s-'70s through the works of playwrights such as Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, and Habib Tanvir, who were also translated into English and other languages. Bombay's Parsi theatre will come in for special consideration for their Gujarati theatre and contribution to India's English theatre featuring Brecht and Chekov and more. Conversely, we will look at India's popular regional language translations and re-renderings of Brecht and Shakespeare in urban and rural modes -- the latter most recently at the Globe to Globe festival in London.

The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity. These terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in-class discussion and practice workshops.

What is the significance of distinguishing European theatre culture(s) between East and West? What histories are recalled or forgotten in making this distinction? When did Eastern Europe, or East-Central Europe, become identified as distinct from “the West” - by and for whom? Prior to being the “Other Europe” of the Cold War, and the “New Europe” of the 1990s, “Eastern Europe” was a colonial designation of Prussian and then Nazi empires. And prior to this, these terms designated confessional empires, distinguishing Catholic (then Lutheran) and Orthodox regions, as also Teutonic and Slav domains, while today the nations of the “European home” are all partners of a European Union. Is all Europe “Western” today, with a capital in Brussels (or even Frankfurt)? Is Eastern Europe like Shakespeare’s legendary Bohemia, with its imagined deserts and shorelines? Or is it like Jarry’s Poland at the end of the nineteenth century – somewhere that is remembered culturally, but which doesn’t exist politically? How is a geographical region – with its histories of empires (including the Ottoman), nationalities, minorities, and changing borders - thought of in terms of its theatre practices? This module will explore the emergence of a new critical discourse about “Eastern Europe” (principally in the context of the visual arts) and reflect on ways that twentieth-century “art theatres”, “experimental” or “laboratory” theatres, National theatres, “director’s theatre”, ensemble theatre, repertoires, “classic” and “contemporary” plays, have been understood in English translation(s) as “East European”.

Amongst topics to be considered will be: the relation between romanticism and modernism; realism, socialist realism, and the avant-garde; the impact of two pan-European wars and the aftermath of foreign occupation; censorship, exile, “inner emigration”, and dissidence; organisations and festivals for exchange, such as the ITI, UNIMA, IETM, and BITEF; the haunting figure of “Hamlet”; and besides the dramatic canon, examples of cabaret, performance art, and puppet theatre. Amongst artists (besides Craig), we will consider the example of two, exiled Poles as professors of theatre at the College de France (Mickiewicz and Grotowski); the particular history of Stanislavsky in Poland (in the contrasting legacies, pre-and post-war, of Limonowski and Witkacy, Grotowski and Kantor); the legacies of Brecht and Müller, both during and after - but also across - the division of Berlin (where, in a real sense, 1945 only occurred in 1990); the European Yiddish legacy, with the example of Ansky’s The Dybbuk (read with Derrida, Krall, and Warlikowski); the changing situations of Vaclav Havel’s theatre work; and the example of two theatre critics, historians, and theorists, Jan Kott and Dragan Klaic. The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity.

The terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.

The emphasis is on the interrelationship between the issues discussed in class and students’ analysis of live and video performances, as well as of performance in the fieldwork of special interest to them. This module cross-refers to the theoretical and conceptual knowledge acquired in modules in the Autumn Term and builds on these acquisitions. As in these preceding modules, practice and conceptual reflection go hand in glove, and the perspective is interdisciplinary. The main groupings of concern here are corporeal and very much of the present: rituals (including urban ritual), shamanism, healing and performance, dance, hybrid forms (especially movement-based hybrids), and manifestations in alternative spaces such as site-specific performances, street and square performance, festivals, multi-ethnic performances, community theatres, and theatres of exclusion, including theatre of the homeless. The module encourages students to explore the multiple performances available to them in London and which will extend their perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. You will be encouraged to do some fieldwork in a chosen performance area, which will give you the opportunity to explore types of current performance that challenge well-accepted practices and notions and extend your understanding and analysis of socio-cultural dynamics.

This module will be concerned with the adaptations, re-readings and responses to the drama and performance of Shakespeare from around the world, in particular the non-English speaking world.

Adaptations, reinterpreting, and reworking of plots and characters have been employed in many instances by writers to re-read historiography and intentions of/in political and cultural contexts. This exercise or reinterpretation is often designed to respond to the text or to transcend contexts of Shakespeare, and to comment on contemporary affairs. In most parts of the world, dramatic re-readings of Shakespeare tend to review metaphysical or existential agendas in the texts from a political and materialist position, to challenge ideas about literary influence and intertextually question historical perspectives. The aim of this module is to explore the methods employed in creating this drama and performances in terms of political and cultural contexts, and how each not only recreates its environment but also responds to Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. The module is designed to provide a base theoretical underpinning and practical grounding to help achieve the stated aims of the MA programmes as a whole as well as introduce the interpretations of Shakespeare to the students. It also aims to address the tendency to view adaptations of Shakespeare as direct dramatic responses to the plots and characterisation. The module will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops, using the texts by dramatists as well as drama and performance from different parts of the world, including such as Federico Garcia Lorca, Bertolt Brecht, Welcome Msomi, Femi Osofisan, Wale Ogunyemi, Heiner Müller, Vishal Bhardwaj, Augusto Boal, Gonçalves Dias, Ching-His Perng, Sulayman Al-Bassam, and Julius Nyerere.

The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.