Module: ACT5003-20 Creating with Shakespeare

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Sarah Holden-Boyd

Module Tutor Contact Details: s.holden-boyd@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module brings together your practical understanding and application of scene study and text analysis with your devising techniques and skills, to explore selected works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with particular emphasis on giving historical text contemporary relevance and understanding of the varying demands of verse and prose.

The module aims are:

• To develop your understanding and application of the key principles and methods for approaching, analysing, interpreting and adapting texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

• To expand your range and versatility as an actor in more complex and demanding text-based drama.

• To build your understanding of the contextual and critical thinking skills that underpin the production process.

• To equip you with the skills to approach the work of a range of Elizabethan/Jacobean playwrights

2.Outline syllabus

Creating with Shakespeare and his Contemporaries applies current theatre practice and critical thinking to classical text. You will be exposed to the work of a range of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists in order to broaden your skill set for working with classical texts. The module offers a range of methods for approaching the more complex demands of selected texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries: analysing and researching the world of the play; style; historical, social and political context; narrative spine; character analysis and embodiment; super-objective; scene objectives; throughline; given circumstances; language; action and staging.

In rehearsal, you will bring together your research, creative ideas, and critical analysis to adapt and create a group performance using selected texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, considering the dramaturgy of the piece, its relationship to the audience and contemporary relevance and problems. Self-directed study is essential in the preparation for assessment.

3.Teaching and learning activities

This module uses a combination of tutor-led workshops, student-led practice, lectures, and research assignments to underpin contextual inquiry.

The formative assessment activity for this module will be a scratch showing of work-in-progress and tutor notes on rehearsals as you work towards your final assessed studio-based performance. Summative assessment is through the presentation of a prepared text-based scene and one essay that will prepare you for the demands of the Acting Independent Study module and/or Research Project at level 6.

It is important to keep a journal or blog recording your development and to use this to evidence any required research along with annotated texts, character profiles, etc. This is not an assessed item, but you are expected to refer to this in class discussion and the PDP assignment.

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: Course Work

• Description: Performance of adapted Shakespeare play (1 piece)

• % Weighting: 60%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Essay on taught content (2,500 words)

• % Weighting: 40%