GROUP PROJECT 1 at 50%: Group assessment and group marked of presenting a short extract to a peer performance group working as an ensemble under a staff director. No longer than 1 hour
[LO 1,2 3,5]

GROUP PROJECT 2 at 30%: Group assessment and group marked of a short devised piece of work to a public audience. No longer than 10 minutes
[LO 1,2, 3, 5]

PORTFOLIO at 20%: A conceptual directing and design project individually marked. Using images, textual annotation and a short 1,000 word narrative, you will create a portfolio on creating a world of the play utilising directing and scenographic ideas.
[LO 4,5]

Semester 1:
Weeks 1-5: Ensemble Project
Collaborating in companies of approximately 15 through the use of an extant text, you will explore how creative collaboration works in reality on the rehearsal room floor.
Core content will include:
- Examining key principles of acting
- Introducing the notion of the actor as ‘storyteller’.
- Introducing professional practice and ways of working
- Introducing key ideas; terminology and philosophies of acting, directing and ensemble working.
- Ensuring that the departmental philosophies and ways of working are embedded.

Weeks 6-10: The World
Directing, scenography and rehearsal room practice will be introduced surrounding key questions of: Who are the key collaborators the actor works with? How does design and the world of the play affect the actor/character in the moment and situation?
Key areas of exploration:
- Basic ideas of directing and creating the ‘world’ of the play;
- Basic rehearsal practices;
- Creative responses to scenographic practices of light, sound, set and costume and how the actor is informed by these areas.

Semester 2: ‘Fragments’:
You will work developing a set of skills in creating drama and dialogue through a variety of lenses. Utilising these skills, in small groups you will work towards and present a 5 minute devised project demonstrating an embodied knowledge and understanding of these skills.

Weeks 1-3:
Three skills based workshop sessions per week will include:
- Writing drama. Workshops exploring narrative, structure, dialogue, storytelling.
- Improvisation as a means of creation through stimulus such as text (including poetry, short stories); pictures, objects and ideas.
- Initial ideas generation for project

Weeks 4-7:
- You will work in small groups to develop a short devised piece putting into practice the core skills of the above, led in the dramaturgy by a staff member to enable support around narrative and creating stories.

Week 8:
Present work in progress fragment to peers

1. Demonstrate a core set of skills in acting and rehearsal room practice as demanded of early stage professional actors and practitioners.
Knowledge and Understanding

2. Apply the skills and techniques required for the creation of ensemble theatre making, acting and storytelling
Creative Collaboration

3. Select and demonstrate appropriate rehearsal, acting and creative methodologies as required in professional theatre practice.
Problem Solving

4. Apply critical analysis techniques to the understanding of the nature and impact of the director and designer’s roles on both the creation of a ‘world’ and the actor’s involvement with that world
Analysis

5. Demonstrate professional standards of acting and creative practice including attendance, punctuality, openness of approach, responsiveness and aptitude.
Learning

Semester 1:
Workshops and rehearsals will allow you to test the efficacy of acting and rehearsal room practice through staff led sessions on the text you will be working on.
Wider reading and flipped sessions will be introduced as a way of supporting your understanding outside of the workshop / mixed mode teaching approaches.
Student led sessions will enable you to deepen your work from the context sessions and develop and strengthen the learning.

Semester 2:
Workshops on writing, devising and improvisation in a studio based session will enable the skills to be embedded and then practiced in a group led devised/created project.
Wider reading and flipped sessions will be embraced and extended in Semester 2.
Learning will be embodied through the culmination of peer led presentations in Semester 1 and 2. Learning will be demonstrated through a portfolio approach on the world of the play through self directed study following the skills workshops.

Powerpoint (mix)
Projection and Screens
Studio and Workshops
Library
Blackboard VLE
Sound, Costume, Set and Lighting resources.

Bonczek, R (2012). Ensemble Theatre Making. Routledge
Britton, J . (2013). Encountering Ensemble. Bloomsbury
Graham, S. (2015). The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. Routledge
Heddon, D. (2015). Devising Performance. Palgrave
Howard, P (2009). What is scenography? Routledge
Hodge, A (2010). Actor Training. Routledge
McKinney (2009). The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography. Cambridge University Press
Mitchell, K (2010). The Director’s Craft. Routledge
Radosavljevic, D. (2013). The Contemporary Ensemble. Routledge
Simonsen, B (2017). The Art of Rehearsal. Bloomsbury.
Oddey, A. (1996). Devising Theatre. Routledge