BA (Hons) Drama: Musical Theatre

This module introduces a range of theoretical perspectives that can be used to analyse diverse forms of performance including theatre, live art, play texts, dance, and performance in the expanded field. The module also examines historical and contemporary contexts and issues to shed light on creative and theoretical developments and the work of specific playwrights, performance makers and theorists. You'll be asked to engage in analysis of individual plays and performances, considering the contextual influences of history and culture as well as genre and form. A variety of approaches are covered, which can be used either individually or in conjunction, with the intention of providing you with the tools necessary for rigorous critical and conceptual interpretation. This module will provide the conceptual basis for further and more detailed study in Years Two and Three of the degree programme. This module also introduces you to a range of academic study skills through a series of special classes as well as an essay sample submitted to your personal tutor. 

 The module will:

• Encourage the ability to think critically about performance (on page and stage), and spectatorship
• Identify cultural influences as they relate to theatre production
• Promote critical evaluation of diverse forms of performance
• Provide an analytical and comparative approach to evaluating critical theories

The module introduces students to basic techniques of movement and dance, concentrating on the kinaesthetic potential of the body to generate various kinds of spectator affect. Students will learn how to warm up, breathe and respond to music in terms of rhythm, space and emotional dynamics. A number of class and own-time exercises will be undertaken to improve your technical skills as dancers as well as to enhance the sensitivity of your body to composition in time and space. By means of an ensemble piece choreographed by the teacher, students will observe and practice the devising of steps and the creation of floor patterns as elements of musical staging, learning to act as both performers and dance captains. The module will enable students to recognize and explore both abstract and storytelling functions of dance/ musical staging as a mode of communication in musical theatre.

The module introduces students to the principal features of musical theatre dramaturgy that make it a distinct artistic form. Introductory lectures on the role of music, book and lyrics will identify the key structural elements of the musical theatre canon since the 1920s, addressing the new formal paradigms created by the postmodern shift towards non-linear musicals occurring during the late sixties. For the purpose of analysis, students will in seminars closely examine one narratively driven musical and one non-linear musical, which exemplify the two chief models of modern musical theatre. Two theatre visits will enable students to apply their analytic skills to comprehending and critiquing the aesthetics and techniques of musical theatre performance. Through class discussion and debate they will learn to identify the complex shaping of performance time in the varying rhythms of the book and music/song; they will acquire the ability to recognize generic distinctions and to identify the demands that the integration of music and libretto make on performers.

Weekly lectures will introduce students to the elements of western music theory (melody, harmony, rhythm, key signatures) in order to support their practical singing and voice work. Pairs of students will work with a voice/singing teacher in weekly tutorials to train their voices and develop their musicality and skill in interpreting songs from the musical theatre repertoire. Each pair of students will work together for 5 hours per week on tasks set by the teacher in preparation for the tutorial.

In the first three weeks, students will work with the singing and dance teachers on songs and dances from three shows learning to recognize various stylistic modes (e.g. musical comedy, rock, ‘naturalism’) inherent in these musicals and to develop skill in mastering them as performers and directors/choreographers. At the same time the cohort will divide into groups, each of which will be responsible for staging a ten-minute excerpt or excerpts from one of the three shows, illustrating the appropriate scenographic and performance style required. The last five weeks of term will be dedicated to the student-led rehearsal and production of the excerpts, mentored by acting, dance and scenography tutors, with some support from the singing tutor. All students will perform in the pieces, but will in addition function in another creative capacity (e.g. director, scenographer, choreographer, dance captain). Each student will keep a week-by-week journal of her individual progress and reflection on the development of the project which will form the basis of a 1,000-word self-reflection report on the creative process.

What is action? What does it mean to act, or to interact? Is understanding what action means relevant to being able to act? In this module we will ask the question: what is action? How does the actor act? What does the actor actually do to prepare a realistic, truthful performance? We will begin at the beginning, with the father of modern acting theory and practice – Konstantin Stanislavsky, who thought about action in a very particular way, which we will investigate through practice, using a new approach that reveals and articulates the underlying principles of how to create action in coherent and easily relatable terms. Having clarified Stanislavsky’s principles we will use them to work with a naturalistic text and bring a scene to life.
We will also look at two different ways in which Stanislavsky’s work has been developed by his immediate successors, which offer interesting contrasts and results: Lee Strasberg’s Method in the US and Nikolai Demidov’s practice in Russia (only just beginning to emerge in the West today).

Assessment: Group Practice 1 and Statement of Purpose
Students will work in small groups and will prepare, rehearse and perform an appropriate scene from a play of your own choice max seven minutes) using only and exclusively the techniques taught on this module. The scene will need to be chosen to fulfill the specific requirements of the module (criteria will be provided).

Each Group Practice will be framed with a 100-word written statement in which students outline the research question they addressed and how this has been explored in their practice, plus a bibliography.

This module addresses two questions: how does the actor train and prepare the voice, and how can voicework be used to approach a piece of text for performance? In practical workshops, we will explore how different approaches to voicework facilitate the encounter with text, providing an embodied alternative to more traditional textual analysis. Behind the practical work will be a chronological overview of post-war voice and text work as used by major theatre companies in the UK. Starting with an introduction and establishment of basic exercises using the Alexander Technique and Chi Gung, we will then explore the methods of Clifford Turner, Greta Colson, Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg. We will also look at the contemporary and rather different approaches of Catherine Fitzmaurice and Joan Melton, and glimpse the new perspective on Shakespeare text being pioneered by Giles Block at the Globe. Workshops will address relaxation, posture, breath, voice and articulation. Throughout, we will be applying this experience to the performance of text, using monologues. Students will have the opportunity to work with Shakespearean or other heightened text.

This module will give you a glimpse of what it is like to work directly with text through the voice, using a variety of techniques from both traditional and non-traditional methodologies. Working closely together in small groups, you will learn to coach each other and by the end of the module you will have engaged closely with the preparation and performance of a piece of text.
Students will work in small groups and will choose from the following options. Groups will assist and coach individual members to prepare, rehearse and perform a two-minute monologue of their own choice (to be approved by the tutor). Groups will assist and coach pairs of students to prepare, rehearse and perform a four-minute duologue of their own choice (to be approved by the tutor). Groups will prepare, rehearse and perform a six to eight minute scene of their own choice, that includes choral work.

Our academic departments are developing exciting elective ideas to allow you to broaden your education, either to develop vocationally orientated experiences or to learn more about contemporary society, culture and politics. You’ll be able to choose safe in the knowledge that these modules have been designed for non-subject specialists and to bring students from different disciplines together. For example, you may want to take introductions to areas such as Law, Education, the digital industries, the creative industries,think like a designer or understand the history and politics behind our current affairs.

Building on the spoken and singing voice skills acquired in Year 1, this module will offer a learning experience that will assist in your application of pure techniques to the aesthetic demands of interpreting songs musically and dramaturgically in an integrated process of singing and acting. The first term will chiefly focus on Stanislavsky’s approach to characterization and active analysis. You will explore dialogue scenes from musicals in studio sessions using Stanislavsky’s innovative later application of his system in preparation for your work as a singing actor. In the second term, you will test the possibilities and problems of using the voice in difficult physical positions and extreme dramatic situations as well as developing creative strategies for ‘reading’ the details of musico-dramatic structure in a song while exploring appropriate methods of expressing these within the flow of the drama. You will work on solo songs and duets to express character using the complex interplay of drama and music in a ‘musical scene’ and learn how to embody its rhetoric in vocal, physical and histrionic terms. Students will work in pairs so each will act as ‘outside spectator/auditor’ for the other, thereby learning the art of delivering musical theatre songs from the viewpoint of a performer and a director/teacher.

The module will exploit the skills acquired by students in Level 5 to explore the aesthetics and techniques of musical staging. In the first term the tutor will initially teach the student three different types of dance (eg., tap, jazz, modern) as a demonstration of different dance techniques. In the second half of term, sequences of steps will then be used to choreograph three 2-minute dances that illustrate three contrasting choreographic styles. The tutor will explain the aesthetic rationale motivating each part of the dances in order to introduce students to principles of musical staging and choreography. In their independent study time, students will take turns to act as dance captains, each rehearsing the rest of the group as a way of learning how to comprehend and communicate the choreographer’s ideas. During the second term, students view and analyse selected examples of musical theatre dance on DVD in order to build up a vocabulary of stylistic and technical approaches. They will work in smaller groups under the supervision of the teacher to create 3-minute pieces of musical staging for musicals of their choice. The teacher will coach both dancers and student choreographers in the use of the requisite techniques to utilise a range of types of musical theatre staging. Students will keep a journal to record their week-by-week progress in developing skills and understanding of musical theatre choreography.

Students will work in groups of seven on the rehearsal and presentation of 15 minutes from a musical, comprised of dialogue scenes, songs and dances. With three hours per week of supervision and coaching from acting and singing teachers, students will work on various elements of their individual roles, identifying weaknesses and strengths and seeking to remove any impediments to their expressivity as performers. Each group will be assigned a postgraduate student director who will rehearse the productions under the supervision of the acting and dance tutors. Students will work in their own time with postgraduate student directors to practice their roles, learning by experience how to work with a director in interpreting and polishing a role to full performance standard. Each student will record his/her progress in constructing the performance by means of a production journal.

In these modules you will investigate contemporary notions of identity and culture in the UK and around the world in relation to an increasingly globalised world. Contemporary Britain is perceived as progressively more multicultural; at the same time, there is an evolving awareness of the impact of global trends in society and culture. These and other factors are challenging our extant notions of individual and collective identity and culture, as well as community.

Culture and Performance begins with a single module taken by all students in the Autumn term – 'Culture and Performance: Critical Cultural Theory'. This 10-week module introduces students to key theoretical perspectives on the function of performance for the negotiation and perpetuation of cultures and societies. Students will become familiar with current debates on interculturalism, multiculturalism, nationalism, and the globalisation of cultures, through a diverse range of historical and contemporary case studies. In weekly seminars they will be encouraged to interrogate and debate their own creative and political relationships to performance cultures of various kinds. This module will equip students with the necessary theoretical tools to effectively position themselves as artists within global, postcolonial, multicultural, and/or intercultural communities.

The module will pose the question who musical theatre is for, contrasting the idea of the audience with that of the community and introducing you to the work of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East (a community theatre with a special interest in musicals), the black British theatre company NitroBeat, and the British Asian company, Rifco. During the first half of the term, you will attend lectures by professional writers and directors on musical theatre for specific constituencies and participate in seminar discussions on musicals that have been produced by these three companies. Topics for discussion will include the formation of diaspora communities in the UK and the sub-cultural forms through which young people in these communities shape distinctive identities. You will explore the notion of hybridity as it functions in the cross-cultural and intercultural construction of alternative musical theatre forms and considers the political implications of multiculturalism for British society. In the second half of term, you will undertake a case study of one theatre company or musical, researching its history and aesthetic aims by means of interviews, short observations/placements, critical analysis of performance and work in libraries/archives.

You will attend lectures and master classes given by visiting professionals to prepare you for working in the theatre industry. These will include sessions with a producer, a casting director, an agent, a musical director, an actor-singer, a director and a choreographer. Under the guidance of a singing or dance tutor, every acting student will construct a CV and showreel and rehearse two pieces to show her/his skills as an actor-singer or actor-dancer. Students who choose the directing option will work with the dance tutor to create musical staging for one or two performers’ audition presentations and will direct and coach the performers to present themselves to best advantage. Each directing student will conduct a mock-audition/ workshop in which s/he tests another performers’ skills.

This module will involve staff-directed workshop productions of two musicals. Students will be divided into two groups, each of whom will be cast by the director in one show. Each group will serve as production team (SM, ASM’s, Assistant Director, Dance Captains, LX, Sound operators) for the other group’s production. In the first term the groups will prepare the production under the guidance of the staff director, choreographer and student assistants. A number of formative exercises will be written up in the form of a portfolio of short reflections on moments in the production process.  Each student will learn songs, dance steps and begin preparatory exploration of the role with the director/s, while also contributing to the elements of technical stage production. In the second term, one group will rehearse for four weeks in order to present their production in the fifth week, followed by the other group in the last five weeks of term.

Students will work in small groups, with one taking on the role of director in each group. A singing and acting tutor will offer advice and support to the student groups. The module provides you with the opportunity to work as directors/writers or performers to devise 20-minute cabaret performances, revues or new material as showcases for agents and producers. The project is intended to prepare you for securing or generating work as a performer or director. You will develop your capacity to work flexibly and independently, utilising personal initiative to succeed in a highly competitive industry. Guest lecturers will introduce you to audition techniques and approaches to career management and continuous professional development within the industry, focusing on performing, directing, musical staging and teaching. The viva voce exam will present you with the challenge of presenting yourself at a job interview/audition.