Drama BA (Hons) year one modules

The Drama BA (Hons) modules listed below give you a flavour of what is available during your first year of study.

Year one (Level 4)

Acting and Performing
This module explores the techniques and principles that underpin varying notions of acting and performing for the stage. It examines a range of methodologies and working processes geared towards performance, drawing on the work of distinguished practitioners in the field. Through workshops, individual reading and research, as well as self-directed group work, students are introduced to the practical tools and shared languages that form the foundation of the creative practice they will develop during the degree programme.

Performance in Context: history and analysis
This module provides students with a broad understanding of the history of theatre and performance from Ancient Greece to contemporary performance art, allowing us to track genealogies of performance, identify innovative changes and understand how these relate to making performance. In so doing it simultaneously enables students to acquire and build on their skills in writing and research, presentation and analysis. Furthermore, this module aims to introduce students to some foundational theories of performance and critical theory with a view to encouraging them to think analytically. These three strands of interest run through this module simultaneously, enabling a holistic and joined-up approach to the foundational study of drama that simultaneously speaks to the three other level 4 Drama modules.

Drama Performance Project: collaboration
This module introduces students to ensemble theatre making with a focus on collaborative working.  Students will use case studies to identify different methodologies and techniques, and apply these methodologies to the realisation of short scenes. The module also equips students with the technical skills to understand the role of lighting and sound in performance.  These are skills on which you can build as you develop your performance and production making abilities on the programme.

Theatre for Social Change
This module introduces students to the relationship between theatre and politics and also to theatre as a vehicle for social change with a particular emphasis on the role of the document as source and stimulus. Having initially explored key play-texts which have responded to periods of socio-political change across a diversity of cultural contexts, before examining the development of documentary theatre, in theory and practice, students experiment practically with methods of key verbatim practitioners while considering both the ethical questions raised by these methods and the political contexts from which they have emerged.

Note: All modules are subject to change in order to keep content current.