PA7002 - Theatre and Performance Practice

You will meet regularly with academic staff and peers in a workshop setting for a series of student led ‘show-backs’ in which you will receive critical formative feedback and feedforward on the development and planning of your final projects. The workshop series will be supported by individual tutorials with staff and industry partners (where appropriate). Peer support is a key feature of this module as you are encouraged to work collaboratively with peers to realise projects and to support each other in the creation and delivery of projects.

Serving as a foundation to the final project, the module enables you to: dissect and critique your own developing practice and thinking through the show back points; contextualise your developing practice/project within a broader professional/academic context; plan all aspects of your project within a structured environment.
Activities and tasks you will engage in include: initiating relevant partners and parameters; planning the logistics for the delivery of the final project; developing high level academic frames and structures for your work, and working towards and within a structured time frame with a series of ‘real world’ deadlines.
Additional workshops will extend your skills in learning how to document your practice, developing your skills in filming and editing video footage of your practical work to support you towards your final project delivery.

Teaching methods are designed to ensure that on successful completion of the module, you will have had the opportunity to test and reflect on the practical project in various stages of development, instilling an enhanced understanding of the ways in which this project might sit within a wider professional/academic context. The module supports you in developing an enhanced understanding of this professional/academic context by extending your industry and scholarly networks, and encouraging you to maintain an ongoing, active engagement with industry and university partners through regularly scheduled theatre visits, participation in workshop opportunities and networking events.

There will be opportunities to discuss and ‘show back’ practical and written work in development at various stages in the module. Group workshops and seminars will support you through the various stages of research and planning for your Project presentation and Q&A. You will be offered formative feedback from your module tutor based on the work you share. Your tutor will also encourage you to use these sessions as an opportunity to rehearse for the Q&A process, and to develop your confidence in talking about your own practice.

Your module tutor will also be available for subsequent follow up tutorials to discuss all aspects of your project and to provide you with more detailed feedback, ensuring that you are on track with all aspects of your work in the lead up towards your assessment. During this module you will be assigned a tutor who will be the supervising tutor for your work on Theatre and Performance Project, and students are encouraged to begin a dialogue with this tutor at this stage.

Depending on the scale, design and ambitions of your developing project, you may also seek additional support from relevant industry partners and independent artists.

Relevant module materials will also be made available to you via the ELP.

All work carried out on this module is subject to Ethical Approval. With the support of your tutor, you will complete an Ethics Approval Form that is submitted for scrutiny by the Faculty Ethics Committee prior to you starting research on your project. You must gain ethical approval before you can begin working on your project.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1) The ability to plan and initiate a (proto) professional and/or academically positioned performance project

2) The ability to demonstrate an understanding of the range and breadth of skills required to operate as a multi-faceted academic and/or professional practitioner in the 21st Century.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

3) The ability to reflect critically on your own performance practice within an understanding of a wider academic/professional context


4) The ability to demonstrate an understanding of the demands of working in academic and professional contexts

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

5) Demonstrate an awareness of ethical practice and cultural sensitivity

Assessment is by Portfolio consisting of:

100%

A c.3,500 word Project Plan for the proposed Project that responds to a ‘real world’ brief, opportunity or application form (1,2,3,4,5), presented (c. 20 min) with an accompanying Question and Answer session (c. 15 min) with tutors in which students individually respond to questions pertaining to their individual performance project. This will offer students the opportunity to articulate an enhanced understanding of their own practice. (1,2,3,4,5)

Formative feedback will be offered in the workshops and in tutorials, enabling students to develop a suitable vocabulary for articulating their developing practice. Feedback on summative work will be delivered according to the existing protocols of the Department of Arts, with comments on feedback sheets. Feedback will encourage and facilitate reflective learning.

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Please find details of this module in the other sections provided.