| Unit name | Early Modern Theatre Practice |
|---|---|
| Unit code | DRAM20056 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Eleanor Rycroft |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
DRAM10028 Production Skills for Performance 1 |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Theatre |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Students will encounter a range of performance texts and contexts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in a unit which emphasises modes of staging and early modern performative practices. The students will develop understanding of indoors and outdoors performances: commercial amphitheatres such as The Globe, private playhouses such as The Blackfriars, as well as aristocratic forms of theatre such as dining hall drama, pageants, royal entries and court masques. In the second half of the unit they will focus on texts and performance skills, including early modern rehearsal and acting techniques; uses of space in the early modern drama; and the production of gender, race, and class on the stage. By the end of the unit, students will have a thorough understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of early modern theatre, as well as a detailed knowledge of early modern practices of playing including verse-speaking, stagecraft, costume, make-up, music, and clowning.
On successful completion of this course, students will have:
1) developed knowledge and critical understanding of early modern playing contexts and how these inform playwrighting of the period
2) developed understanding of the key theoretical and theatrical concerns in both current and contemporaneous criticism of the early modern drama
3) applied a range of approaches to reading and interpreting early modern playtexts, and explored their practical implications on-stage
4) acquired knowledge of a range of early modern performative techniques and understanding of their practical application
5) demonstrated the ability to analyse and evaluate early modern performance both in terms of their own practice and the practice of others
6) the ability to conceptualise and perform a collaborative group project based on an early modern playtext, and developed their skills in acting and/or dramaturgy and/or directing
9 X 2-hour seminars
9 x 3-hour workshops
A 30 hour intensive production period culminating in a group performance
One 2000 word essay (40%) ILO 1, 2, 3
One group performance of 10-20 minutes, for a group mark (40%) ILO 3, 4, 6
Individual workfile documenting the performance activity (20%) ILO 3 – 6
John Barton (1984), Playing Shakespeare, London: Methuen
Cicely Berry (2001), Text in Action, London: Random House
Dympna Callaghan (2000), Shakespeare Without Women, London: Routledge
Simon Palfrey and Tiffany Stern (2007), Shakespeare in Parts, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Tanya Pollard (2003), Shakespeare’s Theatre: A Sourcebook, Oxford: Blackwell
Martin White (1998), Renaissance Drama in Action, London: Routledge
