Acting and Theatre Making MA

In this module, you will explore the performance possibilities available for the actor based on your investigation of texts. Through this exploration you will look at how the actor approaches text and character creation, using language, style, context, translation, adaption, and culture. Throughout this module, you are encouraged to be sensible to current debates and issues affecting the actor and the student as a global citizen.

This module will introduce you to voice, movement and physical composition. From established physical approaches to theatre and movement such as those of Laban, Lecoq, the Viewpoints or Michael Chekhov to a range of contemporary performance and live art practices that are challenging. and sometimes contentious. You will embark on an individual and collective journey of discovery within your body, challenge yours and others practice, and develop your own movement and creative language.

In this module, you will explore and develop voice and speech techniques applied to text in performance. Interrogating your own vocal habits and identities, you will engage with performance practices around voice, text and language creatively and critically. In conjunction with Acting: Exploring Text and Character, this module will equip you with embodied skills and critical abilities to develop creative, nuanced and socially conscious responses to textual materials.

In the module, you will explore the range of approaches to planning and facilitating workshops and rehearsals. Through detailed practice research, you will increase your understanding of the needs and abilities of specific contexts ranging from educational, community and professional. During the module, you will investigate critically varying approaches to workshop and rehearsal practice and through practice, you will critically investigate approaches that informs and enhances your practice in workshops and rehearsals.

In this module, you will examine the significant developments in contemporary theatre and performance, with reference to staging and presenting work to audiences. In this module, you will conduct a detailed analysis and exploration of the contemporary transformations to the traditional concepts of space and place, performance, and performativity. You will be asked to explore the influence of performance space on audience reception and on your own creative practices in your curation of a performance event.

This module will provide you with an introductory understanding of the historical and cultural development of performance through both practical and critical exploration, from the mid-twentieth century to the contemporary moment. To do this, you will consider significant moments, key movements, and important practitioners across the field of performing arts. In addition, you will examine performance works within their historical, social, cultural, and political contexts.

This module aims to support you in developing your own performance practice through a deep investigation into an aspect of your work or a relevant method of performance practice. It will introduce you to the process of conducting, documenting and evaluating practice research in the discipline of theatre and performance. You will design your own investigation into an aspect of performance practice and carry out this inquiry, resulting in a performative output that will be presented (or performed)