2BA DTP Modules Semester 1 2017/2018
Semester 1
4 September / 15:00 – 2BA DTP introduction, STUDIO 14 September / Week 1 of teaching
16-22 October / Baboro International Arts Festival for Children (performances in O’Donoghue Centre)
Friday 24 November / end of teaching.
27 November – 2 December / study week – no exams, assessment or classes may be scheduled during this week.
15 January 2018 / teaching resumes
19-23 February / Theatre Week
22 April / End of teaching
23-28 April / Study week
All students take DT2105 Modern Drama and DT2106 Irish Theatre, then choose ONE module from the list below:
- DT2108: Voice and Shakespeare
- DT3101: Dance and Movement
- DT207: Intermediate Performance.
Please note that you may not be able to take your desired optional module if it clashes with the time of a lecture in your other subject.
TIMETABLE
DT2105: Modern Drama / Ian Walsh and Finian O’Gorman / Monday 2-4 / STUDIO 1DT2106: Irish Theatre / Miriam Haughton and Patrick Lonergan / Tuesday 2-3 / CR1
Tuesday 5-6 / STUDIO 2
DT2108: Voice and Shakespeare (not available to students whose other subject is in Group 1) / Max Hafler / Wednesday 12-2 / STUDIO 1
DT3101: Dance and Movement (not available to students whose other subject is in Group 3) / Rachel ParrIy / Monday 11-1 / STUDIO 2
DT207 Intermediate performance (not available to students whose other subject is in Group 7) / Aisling Smith / Friday 12-2 / STUDIO 1
In the second semester, all students do DT2104 Contemporary Theatre and DT2107 Stagecraft 2, and choose from Playwriting OR Directing OR the 2BA production.
The 2BA production will be open to BA DTP and BA Connect students in Second Year only and will be directed by Dr Miriam Haughton in semester 2. Auditions will be held in semester one.
DT2105 MODERN DRAMA
Workshop: Monday 2-4pm Venue: STUDIO 1
Instructors: Ian R. Walsh (IW) Finian O’Gorman ( FO’G)
In this course, we will examine a selection of the major texts and thinkers from the field of modern dramatic literature. We will situate the development of this body of work in cultural, social and historical currents of the early-mid 20th century in the context of the U.S, and Europe primarily. In order to trace these cultural, historical and social dynamics, we will explore the relationship between the terms modern, modernity, modernism and modern drama.
Students will engage in regular in-class performance exercises which include experimenting with acting exercises from major theorists of the time (Meyerhold, Brecht, Adler etc.) as well as staging short scenes from texts read in class throughout the semester. There will be a final performance that offers the opportunity to explore in independent group work processes and approaches covered on the course.
This course targets the development of analytical reading and writing skills: close-reading, critical thinking, and argumentation. Students will also learn to put their close-readings of primary texts in conversation with secondary historical and critical sources. Writing in this class is stressed as a rigorous process of ongoing reflection, rewriting and peer collaboration.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
LO1 / Identify the particular conventions of a range of modern theatrical stylesLO2 / Critically assess varying dramatic forms and functions
LO3 / Situate experimental movements and seminal plays within their cultural and historical context
LO4 / Formulate a critical argument addressing a specific topic or issue
LO5 / Give presentations to small groups
LO6 / Practice modern staging techniques and exercises useful for actors, directors, designers, critics and dramaturgs.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week One: Introduction : The Twentieth Century and Modernity (IW and FO’G)
Please view videos on Blackboard on Marx, Freud and Nietzsche.
Week Two: UNIT 1: Expressionism and Meyerhold (IW)
Readings:
J.L Styan ‘Expressionism in the Theatre’ from J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre, (CUP)
J.L Styan ‘Expressionism in Soviet Russia” from J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre, (CUP)
Joanthan Pitches, ‘Meyerhold’s Key Writings’
Week Three: UNIT 1 Machinal and Expressionism
Readings: Sophie Treadwell, Machinal (1928)
JeStudio y Dickey, ‘Sophie Treadwell: The Expressionist Moment’
Week Four:UNIT 2Dadaism, SuStudio ealism, Futurism and the Reaction Against Realism (F O’G)
Readings: F.T. Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism”, The Dadaist Manifesto, Andre Breton, ‘The First SuStudio ealist Manifesto’
Week Five: UNIT 2 Pirandello and the teatro grottesco (F O’G)
Readings: Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters Searching for an Author (1921) (Drama Online)
Theatre Histories, 417-424 (Second Edition)
J.L Styan ‘Pirandello and the teatro grottesco” from J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 2: Symbolism, SuStudio ealism and the Absurd (CUP)
Preface to Six Characters Searching for an Author
Week Six: UNIT 3 Brecht and Epic Theatre
Readings:
David Barnett, Ch. 4, 5, 6 in Brecht in Practice (Available through Drama Online)
Week Seven: UNIT 3 The Good Person of Szechuan and Epic Theatre
Readings:
Bertolt Brecht, The Good Person of Szechuan (Drama Online)
Theatre Histories, 450-456.
Week Eight: UNIT 4 Stanislavski in the States: Strasberg/Adler/Meisner (FO’G)
Readings:
David Krasner ‘Strasberg/Adler/Meisner: Method Acting’ in Actor Training by Alison Hodge
Class 7-12 in The Art of Acting by Stella Adler
Also look at videos on
Week Nine: Bank Holiday – No class
Week Ten: UNIT 4 Death of a Salesman andThe Method (FO’G)
Readings:
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Drama Online)
‘Tragedy and the Common Man’ by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Saleman by Peter L. Hays‘ Background and Context’; ‘Analysis and Commentry’ (available on Drama Online)
Week Eleven: (IW and FO’G)
Final Group Performance Project Rehearsal in Class
Week Twelve (IW and FO’G)
Final Group Performance Presentation & Essay Preparation
ASSESSMENT
Unit Worksheets (20%)
– 4 Unit Worksheets x 5%
Group Performance Project & Critical reflection (30%)
-15% Performance
-15% Critical Reflection
Final Essay (50%)
2000 words
Play Texts:
Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman ( Drama Online)
Pirandello, Luigi, Six Characters in Search of an Author ( Drama Online)
Treadwell, Sophie, Machinal
Brecht, Bertolt, The Good Person of Szechuan( Drama Online)
Core Reading
There will be weekly recommended readings provided on Blackboard.
Students may also wish to consult the following texts:
Meyerhold on Theatre, edited by Edward Braun, (Eyre Methuen,)
Shomit Mitter, Systems of Rehearsal (Routledge)
Alison , Hodge, Actor Training (Routledge)
Peter l. Hays, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (Bloomsbury)
Jonathan Pitches, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Routledge Performance Practitioners
J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre, (CUP)
J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 2: Symbolism, SuStudio ealism and the Absurd (CUP)
J.L Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 1: Realism and Naturalism (CUP)
Peter Szondi, A Theory of Modern Drama, (trans. Michael Hays) (Un. Of Minnesota)
Brecht on Theatre, edited by John Willett (Hill and Wang)
David Barnett, Brecht in Practice( Bloomsbury)
DT2106: Irish Theatre
Patrick Lonergan and Miriam Haughton
This course provides an introduction to modern Irish drama, starting with the foundation of the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, and running to the present. Each week, students take two classes. In the first, the group will read and discuss key Irish plays in their cultural and theatrical contexts, aiming to form a deeper appreciation of the contours and preoccupations of the Irish dramatic tradition. In the second, students will participate in skills-based workshops that will explore a variety of topics related to the plays.
Assessment:
• Archives-based assignment (500 words): 20%
• Final performance: 30%
• Final essay (1250 words): 50%
Texts:
• John Harrington, Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama
• Drama Online
Class Format
- Lecture – covers a range of texts (usually 2-4) from a thematic context. Students are expected to read at least one and familiarise themselves with the others.
- Workshop – focuses on one of those texts from a performance context.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module the learner will be able to:LO1 / display through writing and performance their knowledge of the development of Irish drama from the late nineteenth century to the present
LO2 / retrieve and make use of archival material for the production of research papers and performance projects
LO3 / Show awareness of the different approaches to making theatre in Ireland, and the ability to apply the skills needed in those different methodologies.
Week 1 MH/PL (wb. 4 Sept)
Class 1: Introduction, course overview, discussion, visit to archives reading room Class 2: The Irish Literary Theatre / Performing Ireland
Week 2 PL (wb 11 Sept)
Lecture: Nation and Woman: Yeats and Gregory, Kathleen ni Houlihan (HaStudio ington); Synge, The Shadow of the Glen; Synge, Riders to the Sea (Drama Online)
Workshop: Riders to the Sea
Week 3 MH (wb 18 Sept)
Lecture: Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon, Spreading the News (HaStudio ington), The Gaol Gate. Excerpts from Our Irish Theatre
Workshop: Spreading the News
Week 4 PL (wb 25 Sept)
Lecture: Modernism and the New Ireland – Mary Manning, Youth’s the Season? and Deevy, Katie Roche
Workshop: Deevy
Week 5: MH (wb 2 Oct)
Lecture: Strangers in the House: Synge, The Playboy of the Western World and O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock (Harrington)
Workshop: Archives Visit
Week 6 MH (wb 9 Oct)
Lecture: Beckett and the Beckettian – Waiting for Godot, Play, Not I. (Drama Online)
Workshop: Play
Week 7 PL (wb 16 Oct)
Lecture: Troubles Drama – Friel’s Translations and Reid’s Tea in a Chinacup (Drama Online)
Workshop: Reid, Tea in a Chinacup
Mid-Term Archives assessment due.
Week 8 MH (wb 23 Oct)
Lecture: Sexualities – McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster (Drama Online); Conroy, I Heart Alice Heart I (Oberon Anthology)
Workshop: Conroy and McGuinness
Week 9 MH (wb 30 Oct)
Lecture: Embodying the Nation – Murphy’s Bailegangaire and CaStudio ’s Woman and Scarecrow (Drama Online)
Workshop: Preparation for final performances begins
Week 10 PL (wb 6 Nov)
Lecture: Globalising Irish Drama – McPherson’s The Weir; McDonagh’s Cripple of Inishmaan (Drama Online); Rosemary Jenkinson, Planet Belfast (Bloomsbury anthology), Kuti, The Sugar Wife (library)
Workshop: The Cripple of Inishmaan
Week 11: PL (wb 13 Nov)
Lecture: Disrupting Form – Enda Walsh, Arlington (Drama Online); Louise Lowe, Boys of Foley Street
Workshop: Final performance preparation continues
Week 12 MH/PL
Lecture: CONCLUSION
Workshop – final performances.
OPTION 1:
DT2108: VOICE AND SHAKESPEARE - TUTOR MAX HAFLER
The student will receive fundamentalpractical training in Voice for Actingand how toput it into practice. Voice requires both technical understanding and imaginative work. It is essential for an actor, but also other areas, like teaching. Breathing, diction, resonance, expression and projection will be amongst the areas covered. We will be working on Shakespeare'sMIDSUMMERS NIGHTS DREAM. Work will focus on the role of language in Shakespeare, story and imagery; how language informs acting; and explore through discussion and exercises how the very buildings and audiences had a fundamental effect on why the plays were written as they were.
LearningOutcomes
- The student will have learned to breathe diaphragmatically and be able to incorporate it in some level into their acting
- She or he will have explored the whole range of components: diction/resonance/ projection and understand the link between the ability to perform and the importance of voice.
- She or he will have understood and experienced something of the connection between body/voice and imagination inorder to create whole powerful and mature performance.
- She or he will have understood the link between theatre/audience and actor in Shakespeare's theatre and something of why the plays were written as they were, through study and practise of MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM.
- She or he will have learned something about the issues of performing Shakespeare through hands on practise.
RequiredTexts (core)
TEACHING VOICE by Max Hafler [Nick Hern Books 2016]
MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM Shakespeare [Arden edition; available in library and on Drama Online]
Assessment(Modes, Breakdown of Marks)
Development/ involvement and progress. This includes the weekly ‘entries’. 50%
There will be a presentation at the last class, with each student performing a monologue of 25 lines duration to the class from the play. 25%
A short self assessment of 1000 words is required based upon the weekly entries, focussing on their personal learning and development. 25%
oWeekby week breakdown of readings and planned activities
CLASS ONE : physical warm up. introduction to basic relaxation and breathing work (fuel for the voice) diction, resonance, projection. Looking at the imaginative and physical response to words and language. Using a few lines of Midsummer Nights dream.
CLASS TWO: physical warm up. Development of the above singing, and primarily projection and resonance. Connecting the voice to the body and imagination. Radiating receiving.
CLASS THREE: physical warm up , Vocal qualities ( Chekhov). Body voice exploration. Placing the Voice. Talk, discussion : Shakespeare’s plays and the theatres in which they were performed : the connection .
CLASS FOUR: Physical warm up. Work on 8 line soliloquy of a character they like. The issue of emphasis / breath /radiating . Working in chorus. Working on the 8 line speech.
CLASS FIVE: regular practise . More work on 8 lines , colours and phrasing. Pitch and Tone. Midsummer - the different socio economic groups/worlds and how they needed to be catered for and how it affected the play writing .
CLASS SIX regular practise. Developing breathing, diction etc. Working with the audience . Exercises in backwards and forward energy. The Power of The Pause.
CLASS SEVEN regular practise working with rhythm. The rhythm of regular speech developing soundscape, and pace. Through voice and bodywork, the emotional Journey of the chosen speeches.Rehearsing monologues .
CLASS EIGHT. Regular work. Exercises in tone and pause.rehearsing monologues
CLASS NINE. Regular work . Rehearsing monologues .
CLASS TEN: presentation of 25 line monologues and feedback. Delivery of journal .
Secondaryand Further Reading List
Berry, Cicely (1973)VOICE AND THE ACTOR London: Virgin Publishing
Brook, PeterEVOKING (AND FORGETTING) SHAKESPEARE(1998). London.Nick Hern Books
Option 2:
Dance and Movement DT3101 (2017)
Tutor: Rachel Parry
Contact:
Course Overview
This ten-week module will investigate the influence of Western dance history on current Irish and international dance and choreographic practice. The course will begin with an exploration of prominent dance practitioners and their ideas, and will culminate with students choreographing and performing their own short dance solo. Each class will comprise a basic dance technique class, a choreography lab and group discussion of process and practice.
This course is suitable for both beginners and students with some dance experience. No previous dance experience is required for this course.
Students should wear loose, comfortable clothing for class and be prepared to work barefoot.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will:
- be able to choreograph a short solo drawing a variety of styles and choreographic approaches;
- have performed a short solo;
- be able to place current Irish and international dance practice within theoretical frameworks;
- have a good working knowledge of dance vocabulary;
- have reflected on and written about their own choreographic process;
- have researched and written about an element of contemporary dance practice.
Course Schedule
Each week will begin with a 40-minute Graham and Release Technique-based dance class.
Week 1Introduction to course and assessment.
11.09.17
Week 2Ballet: 1500’s – present day
18.09.17Choreography lab: Linear and Non-linear narrative.
Week 3 Modern Dance, 1890 – 1950.
25.09.17 Choreography lab: Abstraction and Expressionism.
Week 4 Postmodern Dance: Judson Dance Theatre, 1962 – 1964.
02.10.17 Choreography lab: Chance techniques and non-narrative choreographic approaches.
Week 5Contemporary Dance, 1964 – present day: Dance Theatre, Physical
09.10.17Theatre and multidisciplinary approaches.
Choreography workshop: initiating movement material.
Week 6Choreography workshop: developing material.
16.10.17
Week 7Choreography workshop: dance and sound.
23.10.17First showing of solo choreographies.
NB There is no class on Monday 30th October due to the Bank Holiday.
Week 8Site-dance: place-specific dance practice.
06.11.17This class will take place at various locations around NUI Galway campus.
Week 9Final rehearsal of solo choreographies.
13.11.17
Week 10 Final showing of solo choreographies.
20.11.17
Assessment and Grading
- Participation 10%
- 3-minute choreographed solo 30%
- Reflective journal 30%
- 1,500-word essay on an element of the module 30%
Required reading
•Adshead-Lansdale, Janet and June Layson.Dance History: An Introduction. Routledge, 1994
- Banes, Sally. Terpsichore in Sneakers. Wesleyan University Press, 1980
- Mulrooney, Deirdre. Irish Moves. Liffey Press, 2006
Option 3: Intermediate Theatre Course Outline
Course description
In this module, students will explore the development of physical theatre in the Western Theatre during the twentieth century. Working individually, and in groups, students will explore the theory surrounding Poor Theatre; Total Theatre; and ensemble and actor-led performance. Through a mixture of seminars and practical workshops the class will look at the specific theatrical practices of Jacques Le Coq; Grotowski; Steven Berkoff; and London theatre company Complicite. This will involve reading and analysing play-texts which aim to make the actor’s voice and body the central aspects of the performance.
Week 1
Introduction to Intermediate Theatre looking at Physical Theatre in the 20th century
Read: Accidental death of an anarchist by Dario Fo
Week 2
Seminar: Le Coq, mime and physical theatre
Week 3
Practical workshop on Le Coq
Read: The Saliva Milkshake by Howard Brenton
Week 4
Seminar: Grotowski and poor theatre
Preparation for Mid-term assignment. Essay titles given, completed assignments due in Week 8
Week 5
Practical workshop on the methods of Grotowski
Read: Kafka’s Metamorphoses, adapted for stage by Steven Berkoff
Week 6
Seminar: Berkoff and Total Theatre
Week 7
Practical workshop on Berkovian theatre
Read Martin Crimp’s version of Chairs by Ionesco
Week 8
Seminar: Complicite
Week 9
Workshop on the theatre of Complicite