BA Drama

Please note that this unit is delivered on-campus only and is therefore not available to remote learners

During this module, you will draft – and redraft – an original, full length, play script. This process will be supported by your tutor, fellow students and workshops with playwrights and theatre professionals, including sessions with the Royal Exchange and visits to see plays there during the semester. In addition to studying the key elements of a play in depth, students will workshop their own developing plays, and also explore writing for radio. These workshops will provide a coherent toolbox of structures and approaches to writing for theatre, including sessions on dramatic action, character, story, dialogue. They will include a range of writing, reading and discussion activities designed to support students in the writing of their own plays for the course. As well as developing students’ individual writing voices, the course facilitates the development of students’ analytical and dramaturgical understanding and their ability to provide peer feedback and critical support. 

Pre-requisites:    Any Level 1 Drama Practical core option

                             Any Level 2 Drama Study core option - Theatres of Modernity; Screen, Culture and Society

• To develop the students’ creative writing by facilitating and supporting the writing of a full length, original play script
• To develop students’ ability to evaluate and critically appraise their own – and others’ - creative work
• To introduce students to a range of industry practices, working in different forms of drama and theatre-making, in order to facilitate an understanding of the practicalities and realities of writing drama

• Demonstrate a deep, engaged and critically aware understanding of a variety of dramaturgical forms, features and possibilities in both practice (their creative writing) and theory (through critical reflection)
• Understand and critically reflect on a range of professional writing practices across several contemporary dramatic media
• Articulate an enhanced understanding of what makes a script for theatre, and what makes a script for radio, and worked creatively across both forms
• Demonstrate a sophisticated critical understanding of their own creative process

• Evaluate and critically reflect on the craft of the playwright and the effects of particular writing decisions on the overall shape and impact of a piece of drama, articulating this through their own writing (both creative and critical)
• Demonstrate an ability to not only critically appraise but also develop, shape and rework their own creative writing in order to hone its dramatic form, structure and character work.
• Explain, articulate and evaluate convergences and differences in writing practices through a theoretically, professionally and practically informed framework.

• Write, redraft, develop their own pieces of creative writing
• Interpret, apply, and work effectively with a range of feedback and responses (from tutors, peers, and themselves) to their creative work, and discuss this process with clarity and critical rigour.
• Work creatively to deadlines and with specific tasks, paying close attention to details of brief, audience and form.

• Advanced interpersonal communication and team-working skills
• Critical thinking skills and creative practice skills (problem-solving, thinking innovatively, drawing on creative approaches of others, evaluating arguments, giving and receiving feedback, time-keeping)
• Using effective leadership, group-work, and creative/dramaturgical skills to solve complex problems
• Performing with confidence and precision for specific audiences/contexts, making use of diverse creative approaches and media

Play (full length)   60%

Reflective Essay  40%

Scene                   N/A (formative)

Ayckbourn, A (2004) The Crafty Art of Playmaking London: Faber & Faber

Caulfield, A (2009) Writing for Radio: A Practical Guide, Ramsbury: Crowood Press

Edgar, D (2009) How Plays Work, London: Nick Hern Books

Fountain, T (2007) So You Want To Be A Playwright? London: Nick Hern Books

Gooch, S (2001) Writing A Play: Third Edition, London: A&C Black

Griffin, G (2009) Contemporary Black and Asian Women Playwrights in Britain. Cambridge

Hansberry, L (1996) To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her own words. London: Vintage Books.

Sigal, S. (2016) Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making, Hampshire and NY: Palgrave Macmillan

Spencer, S (2002) The Playwright’s Guidebook, London: Faber and Faber

Unwin, S (2011) The Well Read Play, London: Oberon Books

Waters, S (2010) The Secret Life of Plays, London: Nick Hern Books

The majority of books about playwriting have been written by white men, although this is slowly changing. To encounter a more representative range of playwrights talking about the writing process, please delve into the following sources:

https://www.writeaplay.co.uk/

https://royalcourttheatre.com/series/playwrights-podcast/

http://www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk/

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