Course unit details:
Plays, Politics and Power: The Working Playwright
| Unit code | ENGL72412 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 30 |
| Unit level | FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This module will explore power on and off stage. Onstage, one of the best motors that drives a scene and a story is a (frequently unequal) power dynamic. What does each character want from the other, and how is that affected by the power they have over one another? But there’s also the bigger picture—how much of each character’s status, beliefs and life opportunities derives from the world around them, from unspoken assumptions about power, money, gender, race and sexuality? We will interrogate bigger questions around politics, finance and the environment in order to expand your understanding of the macro-frames within which drama takes place, and sharpen your ability to write driving, meaningful plays. We will also learn how to discuss, debate and most importantly disagree with one another in a mutually respectful but also fruitful manner.
The module will also investigate the power dynamics of the theatre industry—giving you the skills and capacities to sustain a career in playwriting and an awareness of the range of issues currently shaping opportunities for new playwrights in the UK. You will learn about pitching, working with a dramaturg/producer, working to a commission, working with issues of access and diversity, professional identity and voice, publicity and promotion, developing resilience, freelancing (basics of self employment, tax returns and accounting, rates of pay, rights and working conditions), publishing, legal issues (copyright, performance rights etc.), writing and ethics (representation, confidentiality, risk).
Pre/co-requisites
| Pre-requisite units | Playwriting: Forms; Playwriting: Structure |
Aims
The unit aims to:
- Develop your ability to frame social and political questions in dramatic terms, to give meaning and power to stories on stages in theatres and in a range of settings beyond theatre buildings
- Develop your understanding of the challenges of, and your skills in, adapting work for the stage. In particular, your understanding of the role and function of power in driving the dramatic potential in a source text, and your use of that understanding to adapt source texts for the stage
- Develop a systematic knowledge of a range of work opportunities open to new playwrights and to the contrasting career paths taken by contemporary playwrights in the UK
Teaching and learning methods
Knowledge and understanding
Demonstrate, through discussion, a comprehensive understanding of the career paths of a selected range of established playwrights currently working in UK theatre
Demonstrate, through discussion, a systematic understanding of the issues affecting the production of new writing in the UK theatre
Evidence their awareness of basic and advanced approaches to collaborative writing, writing for contexts beyond the theatre stage and writing with groups
Evidence their awareness of the ethical issues involved in collaborative writing projects
Intellectual skills
Respond imaginatively, creatively and with originality to a project brief
Effectively give and receive feedback
Practical skills
Demonstrate an ability to design and complete a new drama in response to a project brief set in advance
Demonstrate an ability to complete work to a challenging brief on time
Articulate in a way that is clear and authentic as well as understandable to other professionals their values, identity, ethos and work as a writer
Consider and implement range of approaches to fostering resilience as a writer
Transferable skills and personal qualities
Facilitate creative writing in a range of settings
Work to deliver a brief on time
Adapt skills and interests to diverse contexts
Communicate effectively their unique identity and voice as working artist
Assessment methods
Adaptation of a play 100%
Feedback methods
Adaptation:
Verbal and written formative feedback provided via individual tutorials x 2 during the module.
Reflective essay:
Pitch for collaborative writing project to be presented in week 4, for formative feedback.
Written summative feedback.
Recommended reading
Plays explored on this module may include:
Harold Pinter, One For The Road
Caryl Churchill, Far Away
Stefano Massini, The Lehman Trilogy
Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, An Octoroon
Kieran Hurley, Beats
Yolanda Mercy, Quarter Life Crisis
Charlotte Josephine, Bitch Boxer
Caryl Churchill, The Skriker
Anders Lustgarten, The Seven Acts of Mercy
Hannah Khalil: Scenes From 68* Years
Lucy Kirkwood, Chimerica
Bola Agbaje, Belong
Arthur Miller, Enemy of the People
Gary Owen, Violence and Son
Lola Arias - Minefield
Clean Break – Inside Bitch
Rebecca Pritchard/Clean Break – Yard Gal
Ali Taylor/Cardboard Citizens – Cathy
Chris Thorpe – The Mysteries
Abi Horsfield/Collective Encounters – Cracked
Quarantine/Kevin Fegan – White Trash
Common Wealth – No Guts, No Heart, No Glory
Cardboard Citizens – Home Truths
Other reading materials may include:
Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism
John Berger, Ways of Seeing
Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell
Robert Macfarlane, The Wild Places
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 33 |
| Tutorials | 2 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 265 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Carmen Nasr | Unit coordinator |