Module: ACT5023-20 Live Performance

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor:

Module Tutor Contact Details:

1. Brief description and aims of module:

Semester 2 of level 5 shifts from a pattern of short project-based modules to modules that require you to work across different projects concurrently. This module introduces you to the industry model of a directed performance (run over a 3-4 week rehearsal period, or equivalent). The module aims are to:

Broaden your approaches to the process of acting by placing rehearsal practice within a simple production process. 

Extend your creative, critical, analytical and interpersonal skills by asking you to contextualise each through the filter of working as a team to produce a collectively rehearsed piece of work 

Instil strategies for creating and sustaining individual performances within a collaborative production.

2.Outline syllabus

Building on the introductory exploration of production processes in module ACT5020-20; further developing your acting process beyond the challenges set by module ACT5021-20; and asking you to frame your work within the professional processes explored in module ACT5022-20, the production process at the heart of this module advances each of these skills and knowledge bases by asking you to work toward your first public performance. 

The focus here is not on a fully staged production incorporating design and other production elements, but on the process of staging a play with a director so that you can explore and understand how the elements of production require actors to understand how they interact with a creative team in a production.  By way of preparation, you will undertake a ‘dry run’ of the audition, table-reading and rehearsal processes, before moving on to the performance project itself.

By way of preparation for that performance process, the module will begin with a ‘dry run’ by exploring a classic text that requires you to explore language structures and communities outside your own social milieu, for example the canon of American Drama.

3.Teaching and learning activities

In all your second year modules, you will be taught across a series of discipline classes that underpin your development as an actor. These classes include (but are not exclusive to) Acting, Context, Improvisation, Movement, Singing, Voice, stage combat etc.

For this module you will engage with practical classes and then consider the impact of your learning through a public ‘workshop style’ performance. 

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Coursework

• Description: Performance

• % Weighting: 100%