Introduction to Theatre: The Material Stage

Overview

This module is about theatre and performance as live events taking place on the material stage. This module will examine theatre and live performance by drawing on a wide historical and geographical range of theatre practices: from ancient Greece to the contemporary stage; from Ireland to South Africa and Japan. You will explore several key themes concerned with theatre’s role and relation to myth, ritual, conflict, memory, space and the body. Where relevant you will also attend a number of live performance which will be part of the curriculum.

Learning Objectives

Having completed this module, you should:
• be able to interpret and analyse theatre events as a complex matrix of relationships between texts, participants (spectators, performers), spaces, and the material, historical and cultural contexts of their production and reception.
• be able to identify and interpret the cultural frameworks that surround performance events, and with which these events engage and interact.
• be able to analyse, evaluate and interpret theatre and performance from a range of critical perspectives using a variety of theoretical frameworks.
• have developed critical, analytical and written skills through the submission of assignments.
• have developed essay writing skills and deepened their understanding of how written work is assessed.

Skills

Textual analysis; application of theory to practice in theatre-making; essay-writing skills.

Assessment

None