BA (Hons) Drama

Level One

Reading Performance (Semester A double module)

This core module at Level One introduces students to a range of theoretical approaches to Drama through practice. During the course of the module, students work on an ensemble production which is presented for public performance at the end. Week by week, as each theoretical topic is introduced and addressed, students apply that particular theory to the practice of performance-making.

Improvisation & Devising (Semester A single module)

Where do we start to make a piece of new work and why do we need to? What tools and processes are at the disposal of the artist to assist the process of making? What is the history of devised theatre and who are the key practitioners in this area? What is the ethos behind the work of such practitioners as DV8 or Forced Entertainment? These are some of the questions that will be posed by this module. Improvisation and Devising provides Level 1 students with a foundation in the techniques of improvisation as a tool for the creation of new work. It will seek to engage students in understanding improvisation techniques and devised work as a valuable method of making theatre. Furthermore it will set out to emphasise the importance of process over product when working in a collaborative environment.

Study Skills for Drama (Semester A single module)

This course introduces students to a broad range of skills needed to study drama successfully at university level. It will provide a supportive atmosphere as students adapt to university life and begin to understand the demands of their respective courses. Recognising the different school/college experiences of our students, it is hoped that this course will enable each student to become proficient readers, writers and researchers while providing key transferable skills for their university course and after.

Module options - Tradegy & Comedy, Documentary Theatre

Students choose from one of the following two double modules in semester B;

Tragedy & Comedy

What do we think of as tragedy or comedy? When does something tragic become comic and vice versa? How thin is the line between these genres or has indeed this line broken down? To what extent are previous distinctions still helpful and valid? This introductory level 1 module will set out to examine these questions by exploring the origins and developments of these genres beginning with Aristotle’s founding text on Tragedy. It will set out to gain an understanding of the form and structure of the Aristotelian model before going on to explore the ways in which these and other models can be applied to historic and more contemporary texts. Students will examine various subgenres of tragedy and comedy and learn how to analyse them in their historical, ideological and social contexts as well as engaging with the texts on a practical performance level.

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Documentary Theatre

In recent years, documentary theatre has again come to the fore, creating a new politicised theatrical arena. Part of a specific and rich genealogy, these modern incarnations examine the contemporary world through a dynamic and challenging dramatic form. This module provides students with an opportunity to critically examine a range of plays from the twentieth century. Taking these examples as starting points, students will design and produce their own productions dealing with contemporary issues and news stories. During the course the students will learn more about the relationship between political engagement and the theatrical sphere. They will examine and workshop a number of plays that seek to present the contemporary world on the stage, using these experiences as they create their own piece.

Modern European Drama (Semester B single module)

‘Modern European Drama’ will examine a range of European movements, playwrights and practitioners from the first half of the twentieth century. Using naturalism as a starting point, this module will allow students to discover some of the most exciting performances of the early twentieth-century theatre. While recognising the continued importance and influence of the naturalist mode, this course will provide an opportunity to explore plays and movements that challenged, adapted and/or reappropriated this important theatrical genre. Rather than focus exclusively on the written texts, there will be ample opportunity to explore notions of acting space, the moving body, and the cross-generic nature of the modern European stage. The module will examine some key playtexts (both canonical and less well-known) by taking them off the page in practical workshops informed by a programme of interactive seminars.

Histories of Performance (Semester B single module)

This module introduces students to key moments and movements in the history of the Western theatre. Using a variety of case studies, students will learn how to contextualise each play within its specific historical context to understand the relationship between the play text and the theatrical, social, political, and historical conditions in which it was first performed. Interactive lectures and seminars will include a variety of activities including class discussions, presentations, debates, creative tasks, and perfomative script readings.

Level Two

Shakespeare & Performance (Semester A Double Module)

This module will introduce students to the opportunities and challenges of performing Shakespeare’s plays on the contemporary stage. They will participate in a series of practical workshops that will address a range of considerations, from speaking the text to understanding the material implications of demarcations of space on the Shakespearean stage. At all times, students will be required to consider the relationship between performer and audience, the use of space, aspects of genre and the relationship between performer and character in performance. The module will culminate in a festival of practical work in which students will work in ensembles to stage a variety of Shakespeare’s plays for a public audience.

Module Options: 20th Century American Drama, The Musical, Post-war British Drama

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester A:

20th Century American Drama

Taught through lectures and seminars, this optional module at Level Two introduces students to: the historical cultural and theatrical contexts of American drama; issues around the ‘Americanness’ of American drama; canonical texts; the American avant-garde.

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The Musical

Why are musicals so popular (and why are some more popular than others?) What can a musical tell us about the culture in which it is produced and staged? How do you apply a critical framework to a study of the musical? These are some of the questions that will be addressed on this module. In interactive lecture/seminars, students will investigate how the musical, whilst operating as a mainstream form of popular theatrical entertainment, it similarly can be seen to engage with, challenge or enforce issues of race, gender, class and national identity. The module will provide a historical framework for a study of the musical, and will explore the origins and development of the genre of musical theatre both on the American and the British stage.

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Post-war British Drama

This module will study in detail a range of dramatic texts from 1950 to 2000 and apply to them the skills of close critical analysis developed throughout the course. It will also consider the challenges posed to the tradition of realism and the legacy of Modernism by postmodern and anti-realist movements and ideas, and examine corresponding dramatic experiments and innovations in form. They will consider aspects of staging and performance as well as style and theme.

Module Options: Arts Management, Production Skills, Stage Combat

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester A:

Arts Management

During this module students will examine and investigate the necessary skills that make up arts management so they are better equipped to develop careers in the arts upon graduation. The module will explore various elements of arts management as outlined below through task- based exercises, group and individual working and guest speakers. The module tutor will work with students to identify a relevant case study based on an arts organisation or theatre company. Students will be assessed on a group presentation and essay, as they analyse their chosen case study.

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Production Skills

This module aims to provide a basic introduction to the production process of a working theatre. It focuses on three key elements of production – Stage Management, Lighting and Sound. The module introduces students to a range of technical terms within the production realm and trains students in rudimentary safe working practices conforming to Health & Safety legislation. The module has a vocational strand to it and acts as a training platform for future paid work in the LPAC facility as well as providing excellent routes into the professional world beyond.

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Stage Combat

This module introduces to the basics of engaging in stage combat and gives students the option of taking the Academy of Performance Combat Basic Three Weapon exam.

Site Specific Permformance (Semester B Double Module)

This practice-orientated and project-based optional module introduces students to site specific performance and environmental theatre and the range of creative possibilities and challenges these approaches offer. Students will investigate various relevant practitioners and their practical and conceptual approaches in a quest for answers to the “what? why? where? and how?” of making a performance which involves relationships between the actors and the audience in unfamiliar spaces and unconventional environments. What is the nature and relationship of space to the act of performance? How can we exploit the possibilities of an unconventional space in order to develop a critique of the site? How do we shape physical proximity between the performance and the audience to make meaningful creative experiences? How do the approaches to acting and directing change and shift in relation to the different spaces? In what way does the embodiment of the space interact or influence the dramatic text? Students on this module will research, rehearse and stage a site specific performance in small groups of between 4-6 students per ensemble presented to a public audience at the end of the module.

Module Options: Restoration & Melodrama, Practitioners in Practice, Post-colonial Drama

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester B:

Restoration & Melodrama

Spanning an historical period that begins in 1660 with the restoration of the theatres after the English Civil War and ends in the late nineteenth century, ‘Restoration to Melodrama’ will introduce students to a range of plays and theatrical practices.

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Practitioners in Practice

This practice-orientated optional module at Level Two introduces students to four key drama practitioners. What can the theatre practices of Meyerhold, Chekhov, Reinhard and Kantor teach us in our approach to making theatre today? How is their work related to the Stanislavsky, Eisenstein, Vakhtangov,Tairov, Craig, Grotowski practices? Each section in the module will work with a different practitioner. Students will research¬¬ historical, cultural and political context of each practitioner’s work and will explore main principles of the practitioner’s training and rehearsals.

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Post-colonial Drama

This optional module at Level Two surveys drama from post-colonial countries such as Australia, Nigeria and Kenya as well as plays addressing the issue of imperialism from within imperialist countries and city states such as the UK and Ancient Athens. How such drama in post-colonial countries forms a recuperative enterprise by countering the rhetoric of imperialism is central to the module.

Module Options: Applied Drama, Teaching Drama, Placement

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester B:

Applied Drama

What do we think of as a community? How many ways are people, part of particular communities? What binds communities together and how can particular communities communicate their shared narratives and rituals through a variety of dramatic interventions? Moreover, how might particular communities benefit from the intervention of drama as a tool for the improvement of individuals and societies in non-traditional theatrical contexts? In the module Applied Drama students will address these questions through studio based practical activities examining the history of the term in its various social, historical, cultural and political contexts as well as engaging with Case Studies on key practitioners in this area. This module also examines how drama might function in non traditional theatrical settings, for example: schools, prisons, care homes, on the street or hostels as well as what impact that might have on the groups that inhabit those spaces.

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Teaching Drama

This module introduces students to teaching drama in schools and enables them to take part in a mix of practical workshops, interactive seminars and school-based research projects. It promotes the teaching of drama as a subject in its own right and helps students review their own experiences and concepts of drama. The module will take account of the latest developments in all areas of drama teaching while emphasising recent developments curriculum developments at GCSE, AS, A level and BTEC levels. The module explores how the teaching of drama as a discreet subject links with the National Curriculum and KS3 strategy. The module introduces students to a range of educational and drama-specific strategies enabling them to teach a successful lesson or run a successful workshop.

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Placement

On completion of this degree in Drama, students need to be able to decide how best to employ the skills that they have gained. As well as the more obvious routes within a Drama degree such as teaching, students need be aware of what other options may be open to them practically, to explore their route out of the University and on into appropriate employment. This Level 2 optional unit is part of the University’s commitment to academic programmes that encourage a high level of vocational relevance. Furthermore it encourages students to think beyond the confines of the University, reaching into the wider community to hone their skills for future employment.

Level Three

Dissertation

The ‘Dissertation’ provides the opportunity for a student to investigate and pursue a Drama-based topic of his or her own choosing, and in more depth than is normally possible in a conventional essay. Each student will be closely supervised, though the emphasis will fall on independent learning. Students will be required to work on their own initiative and to provide clear evidence of their ability to collect, select and evaluate relevant information, which can subsequently be presented in a clear and logical manner, in the form of a 7000 word dissertation.

Module Options: Advanced Scene Study, Acting for Media, Theatre for Children

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester A

Advanced Scene Study

This is an optional, studio-based, practical module at level Three. In the course of the semester, each student will work in groups of two or three towards the presentation of two scenes, one classical, probably Shakespearean, and one from Chekhov or more recent. The module builds on early modules in the degree at Level Two such as Practitioners in Practice and at Level One such as Improvisation and Devising although is still an option for students who have not taken this particular pathway.

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Acting for Media

This optional module at Level Three teaches students practical skills and techniques needed to perform in front of a microphone and camera. In this module students will investigate how acting for media is different from stage acting. What kinds of techniques are required and how to develop them? How the use of space and timing changes, shifts and is different in acting for media. How screen continuity and different editing methods shape and impact on acting style. What are the differences between the actor’s focus on the stage and in front of camera and / or microphone. How to behave, move, pause, speed-up or slow-down, how does an actor need to physically change their voice and body language before still and mobile cameras and for the microphone. All these techniques will be explored in the studio.

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Theatre for Children

What part does theatre have to play in the lives of children today? How do we make such theatre relevant, accessible and alive in a world dominated by interactive video games and reality TV shows? What is the most appropriate setting and subject matter to engage children in a theatrical experience? These are some of the questions that will be addressed by students undertaking the module Theatre for Children. Students will be required to engage in the history of making theatre for children as well as analysing contemporary practice in the area. Students will engage in a series of case studies to assist in the formulation of their own methods of devising a relevant piece of theatre for today’s audience of children.

Module Options: Off the Page, Physical Theatre, Directing

Students can choose from one of the following double module options in Semester A

Off the Page

This module is about creativity and places the creative process at its very core. Each student on the module develops a short play over the course of the semester while at the same time examining some key skills in playwriting and dramaturgy by discussing and responding to the work of other playwrights. The focus of the module is always on the work itself which evolves week by week into a final draft of a short play.

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Physical Theatre

This practice-orientated optional module at Level Three introduces students to the range of approaches to Physical Theatre. How to define Physical Theatre – can we question different paradigms? How can the physical audience’s presence shape performance? What is the human body and what is it capable of doing/performing? Why could space be seen as the dominant physical factor?

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Directing

This optional module at Level Three introduces students to the practical process of directing for theatre, from researching the script, through casting, auditions and rehearsals to reviewing performances. It is taught through seminars and practical, studio-based classes. Principles and practices developed in class are applied by students to individually-chosen plays.

Module Options: Drama & Contemporary Performance, Staging the Supernatural, Theatre & Consciousness

Students can choose from one of the following single module options in Semester B

Drama & Contemporary Performance

This optional module at Level Three explores developments in contemporary performance through an investigation of a range of contemporary practitioners whose work has historically grown out of experimental, multi-media and multi-disciplinary approaches, and which has led to a contemporary hybrid form of avant-garde theatre which synthesises and mixes dramatic forms, genres and performance styles. During the course of the module students will develop their own small group practical work in studio-based workshop / rehearsal sessions, with the emphasis on exploring new approaches to theatre-making and performance.

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Staging the Supernatural

How do you stage a ghost? In this module, students will explore representations of the supernatural (such as the ghost, the devil, the witch and the vampire) on the European and American stage in a variety of historical contexts. The module will investigate the relationship between theatre and the occult, from the theatre of Ancient Greece to modern and postmodern theatrical performance. Through a series of workshops and seminars, students will discuss the challenges of staging the supernatural from both a practical and theoretical point of view.

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Theatre & Consciousness

Research into human consciousness has yielded some fascinating frameworks for understanding the workings of the human mind. Such research insights have been utilised in traditional interpretations of drama and theatre. This module will discuss a number of approaches that make use of traditional and more recent developments in the understanding of human consciousness as relevant to stage acting and the reception processes in the theatre, and the expression of consciousness in drama.

Module Options: Solo Performance, Multimedia Performance, Theatre Company

Students can choose from one of the following double module options in Semester B

Solo Performance

This module seeks to enable students to explore various techniques of producing solo material in order to eventually produce their own 20-minute solo performance piece. During the course of the module, students analyse the work of several contemporary solo artists and discover a personal voice and persona as an artist.

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Multimedia Performance

This optional module at Level Three will explore multimedia, inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary applications through live theatrical performance, in which students working in groups make their own multimedia performance which is presented publically as a final degree show immediately prior to graduation.

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Theatre Company

This 30-credit module will focus on the concept of the theatre company, and is about the collaborative effort of conceiving of and planning a theatre company and, as a way of focussing and making manifest this process, planning a production of a theatre play as well as actually performing it. Students will consider the various aspects of production, planning and organisation involved in the formation and running of a theatre company including, most importantly, formulating decisions about their company’s artistic policy and approach. Questions concerning what kind of company it is, what kind or style of work it does and what is, therefore, the company’s artistic policy or profile, will need to be considered, as well as how the company is structured / organised, funded and administered, what its artistic strategy and business plan is, and how these strategies will be implemented.

Contact hours are dependent on whether you are taking a 15- or 30-credit module. This means the time you will spend in lectures, seminars and practical workshops. Outside of formal classes you will be expected to undertake research, rehearsals and to prepare for forthcoming seminars.

There are no formal end-of-year examinations; instead, students are assessed on their ability to work under pressure and think on their feet through their ability to produce live theatre. Throughout the degree students are assessed through their production of practical and written work. As the programme involves the acquisition of a wide range of practical and intellectual skills, assessment is quite varied and includes presentations, writing projects, individual and group practical work, projects and portfolios in addition to academic essays. All assessed practical performance work is accompanied by an assessed scholarly written report reflecting on the processes and end product of the creative activity.

Teaching is centred in the purpose-built £6 million Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

The LPAC (Lincoln Performing Arts Centre) building serves as a fully functioning arts centre, complete with a 450 seat theatre, performance areas, studios and hospitality suite.

The study of Drama is undertaken through a mix of practical and scholarly activities. Teaching is supplemented with guest lectures and practical workshops There are no formal end-of-year examinations and modules are delivered across a whole semester.

If you have a passion for the study of Drama as an academic subject, then this is the right course for you! The balance of practical and scholarly approaches is about equal, and a rich range of options are available throughout the three years that will enable you to tailor the course to suit your interests.

The degree is aimed at students who are specifically interested in drama and theatre as a practical and academic subject of study. The programme is designed to provide students with fundamental training in all aspects of practical theatrical production, approaches to acting, directing, technical theatre, stage management and design. Students are taught the necessary skills of research, dramatic and theatrical history and theory, surveys of dramatic literature and production styles, dramaturgy, and vocational preparation for their future career.

Graduates are well equipped for employment in various on and off stage theatre professions as actors, presenters, directors, playwrights, producers, stage managers, technicians, publicists, marketing officers, researchers and academics.

You do not need to be a star performer on the stage. You will, however, need plenty of passion and commitment in order to energetically engage with the course, in terms of both practice and scholarship. Expect to work hard, both in and outside of class. A willingness to read, broadly and deeply, is a must for any degree level course.

You need 280 UCAS points and three GCSEs at grade C or above, to include English Language (or equivalent) for entry onto this course in 2011.

2012 Entry	UK/EU	International
Full-time	£9000	£12033
Part-time	£75 per credit point	£100 per credit point
Placement (optional)	Exempt	Exempt
Assessment Only	£38 per credit point	£50 per credit point

 

2013 Entry	UK/EU	International
Full-time	£9000	£12755
Part-time	£75 per credit point	£106 per credit point
Placement (optional)	Exempt	Exempt
Assessment Only	£38 per credit point	£53 per credit point

For further information and funding your study please see our Fees & Funding pages.

Fees and Funding