Module: COM4006-20 Comedy Skills 2

Level: 4

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Thomas Kampe

Module Tutor Contact Details: t.kampe@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module offers a development to the comedy, movement and voice skills required to support your comedy actor/performer training process as introduced in Performance Skills 1 module.

The module aims are to:

Foster self-directed application of the skills relevant to a professional comedy career at introductory level

Develop your ability to interconnect the skills learning with the acting and ensemble making process

Develop your reflective learning approaches to foster your personal skills development as an individual and ensemble member

2.Outline syllabus

This module extends your introduction to embodied skills learning and training for comedy actors/performers as developed in semester 1. The module further provides focused tuition in each skills area, and through its interaction with the Acting modules places these skills in differing performance contexts. The module deepens your understanding of appropriate learning modalities and professional standards in all areas of study, and allows you to identify how to improve your skills development. You further your practical knowledge of vocal and movement self-care, observation, warm-up strategies and their application to different qualitative performance processes at introductory level.

3.Teaching and learning activities

This module uses a combination of tutor-led workshops, reflective reading and listening assignments, peer-observation and student-led practice. Echoing a professional model, voice and movement tutors assess your skills as demonstrated in the presentation tasks in the Acting modules. Staff also assess your movement, voice and comedy skills across a range of short performance exercises that give you a clear indication of your skills acquisition. Self-directed study is essential in the preparation for assessment.

Movement training aims to further coordination, flexibility, body awareness, stamina, and expressive range as developed in semester 1. Somatic movement education encourages you to develop more in-depth observation skills and greater internal sense of your individual movement practice and in partnering contexts. Building on embodied self-care and learning modalities developed in semester 1 this module refines the knowledge and control of bio-mechanics, spatial and dynamic studies to support your capacity for heightened embodied communication.

Voice classes continue to ensure a clear and focussed use of voice as set out in semester 1, through effective posture, breathing and release, effective use of resonance and placing, and clear articulation and shaping. There is a greater emphasis on awareness of spoken English in phonetic shaping, in preparation for accent work at senior levels of study. Text study explores the information stored in a text. Singing classes articulate these skills further by introducing elements of tuning, harmony and musicality.

Comedy classes emphasise the establishment of the ensemble and a safe and supportive environment for playful exploration through games and exercises. You will embed comedic concepts, principles, structures and vocabulary as a foundation for the development of your comedic understanding and skills development.

Personal Development Planning (PDP) requires you to reflect on your skills acquisition and learning and how this informs your development as actors. Building on your SWOT analysis initiated in Performance Skills 1, you progress to a written evaluation (1000 words) reflecting on and articulating your personal learning and an action plan (using the templates provided on Minerva), to set goals that allow you to maintain your good practice and improve where you need to. This aspect of the module is addressed in the form of a weekly lecture.

In skills classes, assessment in semester two take into account learning support needs identified for any student and aims to prepare you for successful study at level 5. Formative assessment of practical skills happens towards the end of the module when work presented in class receives peer and tutor feedback. This establishes the rehearsal/feedback process critical to the development of the actor. Skills specific feedback precedes all summative assessments.

The Bath Spa VLE, Minerva, provides information to help develop an appreciation of the broader technical and artistic aspects, which underpin this subject area, and develop skills in independent learning.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Skills Profile (Movement, Voice, Comedy)

• % Weighting: 75%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description: Personal Development Action Plan and Evaluation

• % Weighting: 25%