BA Music and Drama

This professional practice module offers students the opportunity to explore and experience the activity of directing contemporary plays in theatre spaces and through doing so build the foundations of a working practice. The course will be taught through workshops, readings, discussion, group rehearsal and supervision.  

Assessment will focus on the sharing/showing of work-in-progress excerpts from plays in performance . A complementary written component called a working notebook will build on ideas presented by developing concepts further and reflecting on process and practice. 

• To explore the role of the theatre director in the realisation of play and text-based performance
• To prepare students for professional practice, fostering and noting skills important for theatre and related environments, including cooperative and collaborative working
• To develop student’s abilities to investigate/approach practical methods and critical perspectives when undertaking the development, direction and production of plays/texts for theatre. 

• Demonstrate an understanding of what it means to be a director in the current landscape of theatre practice 
• Work with a range of dramatic texts and approaches, with a focus on textual analysis and the process of taking a text from page to stage 
• Work in a team to produce and present short pieces/excerpts of work-in-progress, in collaboration with their peer group, the CUD and technical staff 
• Consider the relationship between the director, the actor, the text, the stage and the audience 
• Evaluate and apply a process of critical enquiry to their working process and final outcomes. 

• Demonstrate a critical understanding of some of the multiple possibilities that exist in the relationship between director, text, actor, backstage teams, theatrical space and spectator 
• Develop and demonstrate an understanding of your own developing directing practice through critical engagement with that of others.  
• Explore the subject through distinct kinds of writing about directing, including writing by professional directors, researchers, reviewers, and actors as well as other critical and related sources. 
• Demonstrate a systematic understanding of key aspects of practical and intellectual approaches to directing and theatre production 

• Articulate an understanding and use of directing techniques in theatre production 
• Develop an extract of theatrical text towards a coherent work-in-progress performance 
• Demonstrate awareness and apply professional standards and industry practices in the act of directing theatre 
• Work collegially and productively with peers as well as staff to realise theatre production 
• Offer constructive feedback to peers and revise their own approach in response to feedback 

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

Russ Hope, Getting Directions: A Fly-on-the-Wall Guide for Emerging Theatre Directors (NHB 2013)

Katie Mitchell The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre (Routledge, 2008)

Avra Sidiropoulou, Directions for Directing: Theatre and Method (Routledge, 2019)

Rosemary Waugh Running The Room: Conversations With Women Theatre Directors (Nick Hern Books, 2024)

Mike Alfreds, Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor (Nick Hern Books, 2007)