BA Drama

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This course aims to introduce students to theatre history/histories as an academic discipline. Focusing on key moments in theatre history, and via close readings of playtexts, performances, and critical material, it encourages students to think carefully about theatre as an art form. Drawing attention to the wide range of contexts which inform both the making of and the understanding of theatre practice, it aims to give students a grounding in key skills (relating to the analysis of play texts, performances and contexts) while also developing their understanding and knowledge of theatre over time, incorporating both European theatre canons and global perspectives.

The course aims to encourage students to consider contemporary theatre practices in relation to historical precursors, and vice versa.

The unit aims to:

• To engage students with a range of pre-20th century performance texts, and 20th/21st century responses to those texts and associated critical materials.
• To enhance students’ critical appreciation of play texts and theatre practices, in relation to their performance history as well as potential contemporary relevance.
• To equip students with key historical and analytical skills related to theatre and performance studies.
   

This unit will be taught through a mixture of lectures and small-group seminars. Lectures will provide students with the key contexts and methods for approaching a range of moments in theatre history.

Seminars will allow students to apply skills and knowledge through discussion, mini-presentations and other academic skills exercises.

The VLE will be used to support and guide students in their weekly preparation through the use of software which may include Adobe Express and Padlet. The VLE will be used to structure and focus preparatory work.

Students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a critical awareness of the multiple ways in which theatrical performances are ‘read’ by spectators within varying historical moments and cultural contexts.
• Articulate a clear and detailed understanding of how plays and performances are shaped by, and speak to, their theatrical and historical contexts.
• Position a work of theatre in its cultural and performance context.
• Demonstrate an understanding of methods for scene analysis and wider textual theatre analysis.

Students should be able to:

• Analyse theatre texts and performances using a range of key disciplinary skills.
• Identify key features of playtexts and performances, and analyse these in detail.
• Understand and explore the relationships between playtext, performance, and context.
• Locate, synthesise and connect a range of source materials and contexts in order to develop detailed understandings of primary texts.

Students should be able to:

Communicate understanding of course materials effectively in writing (as evidenced by summative assessments).

Develop a clear, coherent and critical interpretive argument.

Analyse theatre scenes in detail and with precision.

Students should be able to:

• Work productively independently through written submissions.
• Engage critically and creatively with new and challenging material (including texts, performances, resources).
   

Potential assigned readings on this unit include:

Aristotle. Poetics. London: Penguin Books, 1996.
Boucicault, Dion. “The Art of Dramatic Composition. Part I.” The North American review 126.260 (1878): 40–52.

Mitra, Royona. “Decolonizing Immersion: Translation, Spectatorship, Rasa Theory and Contemporary British Dance.” Performance research 21.5 (2016): 89–100.

Odom, Glenn. World Theories of Theatre, London: Routledge, 2017.

Rangacharya, Adya. Introduction to Bharata’s Natyasastra. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharla Publiushers, 2011.

Soyinka, Wole. Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Zeami, J. Thomas Rimer, and Masakazu Yamazaki. On the Art of the Nō Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1984.