MA Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance

The key aim of this module is to enhance your understanding of the craft of writing for live performance. A range of work, contemporary and classic, will be examined both on the page (dramatic text) and in live performance (performance text), as will relationships between printed and performed texts, and between texts and the cultural circumstances (cultural, political and/or theatrical) of their production. Notions of authorship and authenticity will be considered, as appropriate, as will the relationship between process and finished text, where known. However, five elements will provide a particular focus: 

1. the study of varying approaches to the use or absence of narrative as a structuring device
2. investigation into diverse approaches to the conception and development of fictional characters
3. the interpretation of dramatic texts first staged in cultures and periods other than our own
4. the theatrical potential or achievement of all work studied, including the creative roles of performers, designers, composers and directors, as appropriate
5. examination of work that tests the boundaries of the medium.

This module aims to benefit Playwrights and Dramaturges by widening their analytical engagement with a range of dramatic texts and live performances. It aims to develop creative sensibility, imagination and intellect. A further aim of the module is to develop your ability to articulate ideas, orally and in writing, and to participate in discussions.

In this module, you'll complete three projects: site-specific theatre, writing for a specific audience and interdisciplinary collaborative writing.

Site-Specific: This gives you a theoretical and practical introduction to site-specific practice and the importance of place and space.

Audience Specific: You'll work collaboratively with young people linked to company three to research, develop and create the plays.  The young people will act as informal commissioners of you as a writer as well as your primary source for the creation of the play.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The aim of this project to encourage innovation and experimentation across your disciplines in order to find a performative language that reflects your collaboration.  You'll produce a short, 10-minute (maximum) piece to be performed on the day of assessment.  In this context, 'text' is assumed to be any of the systems in operation, and not specifically the spoken word.  It is for you to decide whether and how to use spoken text - as monologue, dialogue or multi-voice.  You may decide to abandon its use altogether.  The important thing is that every dramaturgical decision you make is by consensus. Performers will work as creative collaborators and not just as interpretive actors. Writers or Composers will work as creators of the overall 'text' in collaboration with devising performers.  This may work in several ways during your process: you may write from the performers work, or the performers may work from the writers'/composers' work. Or you may move between several kinds of collaboration and role. The vital thing is that you seek and find ways to build a very short work together that expresses your collaborative ideas and strengths.

More information about this module will be published soon.

You'll be supervised to write a 10,000 Dramaturgy Dissertation through tutorials in the Spring and Summer terms. This may involve practice research, interviews and shadowing development processes. You'll also attend all the writing workshops and readings in the Spring and Summer terms as dramaturges. You'll then assist the production process for the Soho Theatre Readings in June.

In this module, you'll prepare a 60-minute piece of performance writing through readings, practical writing workshops, dramaturgical reports and critical evaluation. You'll work throughout the Spring and Summer terms to pitch and develop your ideas, culminating in a performances of extracts of your work and a written report.