Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

This course sets out to explore why an important number of contemporary performance makers have abandoned the confines of the black-box stage and have turned instead to various types of space-based performance. It does so by focusing on how a practice of location is played out through 3 key terms: space, place and landscape.

10 sessions of 3 hours duration

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Theatre Studies and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

None

None

Assessment

1 X 20-30 minute group presentation which will be a practice-based performance that embodies the concepts and ideas explored in the course   50%

1 X 3500 Word Research Essay   50%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ explore contemporary site-based performance that focuses on ideas/practices of location

■ develop a theoretical context for site-based performance by investigating concepts of space, place and landscape

■ allow students to practise theory and expand their knowledge and repertoire of performance making

■  enhance student knowledge of the contemporary performance field, and to show the extent to which performance is always part of larger spatial discourses and practices

■ To develop interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary skills by showing how geographical and ecological concepts and texts inform contemporary theatre practices

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ understand the diversity of site-based performance practices and engage critically with the set of historical, political and aesthetics reasons for their development

■ work in an interdisciplinary manner by applying spatial theories and concepts from geography and ecology to the reading and making of contemporary performance

■ identify the different ways in which contemporary performance practitioners 'compose' or 'sculpt' dramaturgies of place, space and landscape

■ partake in critical and creative research through interpretative and practice-based methodologies

■ produce a practical presentation that explores issues of location in line with concepts explored in the course

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.