BA Drama and English Literature

In this module students will investigate and practically explore approaches to acting and performer training and as well as the social, cultural and economic contexts that produces them. Engaging in weekly practical workshops, students will explore critically investigate a series of historical techniques that have been developed to train the performer, understanding their emergence in relation to social processes. These training processes will prepare support students into preparing and performing a piece of text. Alongside developing practical, hands-on skills to support performance practice, students will have the opportunity to unpack, interrogate and critique canons of training, positioning their experiences in relation to their own sense of identity, culture and ethics.

Students must have taken DRAM10101 or DRAM10102 in year one. 

• To introduce and explore key practices and cultures of acting and performer training. 
• To critically examine the social, political and cultural contexts of performer training, discussing the relationship between training, industry and society. 
• To engage in a rehearsal process resulting in the performance of an existing dramatic text
• To develop a training praxis that responds to ethical, political and cultural dilemmas

Three hours workshops = 33 hrs

Viewings of recorded material/reading/research -  approx. 12 hours   

• Understand, adapt, and embody key performance training practices in relation to a selected text
• Understand the social, cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which training practice emerges. 
• Identify key debates, questions, and critiques within the process of performance training and understand in theory and practice significant discourses within the field.  

• Outline and critique practical training processes in relation to social discourse.  
• Evaluate and critically reflect on personal and group response to undertaking training techniques, exercises or to specific practitioners.  
• Draw critical connections between training programmes and the creative industries more broadly.  

• Key practical skills in preparation for performance in the areas of voice, body, improvisation and approaching text. 
• Understand rehearsal and acting preparation techniques to prepare and perform a piece of dramatic text
• Facilitate training exercises with a group of peers. 
• Evaluate and critically reflect on embodied learning and performance craft 

• A practical toolkit of performance skills.  
• Group collaboration and enhanced team working skills. 
• Ability to facilitate, lead and deliver solo and group rehearsals.  
• Evaluation and critical reflection on the experiences of the self and others.  
• An understanding of how to plan practice that is safe, ethical, accessible, and takes into consideration the diverse needs of a range of participants. 

Group presentation:  40%

Performance of an existing text - as monologue, duologue or group performance: 60%

1. Informal feedback through sharing and discussion throughout the course  
2. Written formative feedback for the portfolio, workshop rationale and plan. 
3. Aural feedback in response to demonstrations of workshop exercises

Indicative reading:  

• Evans, M. (2014). “Playing with history: personal accounts of the political and cultural self in actor training through movement.” Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 5 (2), pp. 144-156. 
• Gee, E and Hargrave, M. (2011). “A proper actor? The politics of training for learning disabled actors.” Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 2 (1), pp. 34-53. 
• McAllister-Viel, T. (2018). Training Actors' Voices: Towards an Intercultural/Interdisciplinary Approach. Oxon: Routledge. 
• Mitra, R. (2022). “Unmaking Contact: Choreographic Touch at the Intersections of Race, Caste, and Gender.” Dance Research Journal, 53 (3), pp. 6-24. 
• Peck, L (2021). Act as a Feminist: Towards a Critical Acting Pedagogy. Oxon: Routledge.