This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Theatre is often focussed on the end performance, the things that happen on the stage. This module will look at the many and varied roles that bring the performance into being. Lectures, seminars and workshops will be used to introduce and analyse roles through current productions and companies. In the final weeks will explore how these fit together through the use of virtual companies, productions and spaces. We will investigate and analyse the roles of the main creative teams (producer, writer, director, choreographer, dramaturge, music director, stage fight director, stage/lighting/sound/costume designers, puppeteers); the technical teams (stage management – SM, DSM, ASM, company and production manager, technical managers, lighting/sound technicians and engineers, carpenters, prop maker, dancing and movement coach, props manager); the backstage roles (costume and wardrobe assistants, hair wig and makeup assistants, dressers, stage hands); the Front of House roles (Box Office, bars, ushers, cleaners, merchandisers); the marketing, education and finance roles, the administrative, organisational, artistic and production roles (casting/actors/writers/directors agents, marketing and audience development, education and outreach, artistic schedule planning managers, finance, contract manager).
A term will consist of 10 x 2 hour lectures, 4 x 3 hour workshops and 10 x 2 hour seminars. The students will work both individually and within groups.
Contact Hours: 52 hours
Independent Study: 248 hours
100% Coursework:
20% - Seminar Diary – includes activity, personal weekly reflective blog, group participation analysis
40% - Group presentation (approx. 20 minutes with 4-6 in a group)
40% - Workbook (critical reflection on process) – 2500 words
• Broderick, Jason (2015) Networking Is Not Working: The guide to easily connecting with Agents & Casting Directors: Amazon Kindle
• Foreman, Gill (2009) A Practical Guide to Working in Theatre: Methuen
• Mackintosh, Iain (1993), Architecture, Actor, and Audience, London & New York: Routledge
• Pallin, Gail (2010) Stage Management: The Essential Handbook: Nick Hern Books
• Pickering, Kenneth and Mark Woolgar (2009), Theatre Studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
• Seabright, James (2010) So You Want to be a Theatre Producer: Nick Hern Books
• Trott, Lloyd (2015) Actors and Performers Yearbook 2016: Essential Contacts for Stage, Screen and Radio: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama;
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate knowledge of the underlying concepts and processes of how theatre is made
2 Demonstrate, through discussion, presentation and writing, an understanding of the structure of the roles and disciplines involved in theatre and performance making
3 Demonstrate skills in critical analysis of the creation and development of a production and demonstrating sound judgment
and developed lines of argument and persuasion
4 Apply a vocabulary of theatre making and creative idea development; presenting and interpreting qualitative and quantitative data to develop convincing proposals
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