Course Catalogue

Humanities and Social Science

1. Acquire knowledge of a range of critical perspectives and analysis of new theatre making; 2. Make detailed analysis of selected area of industry and produce a creative response;

Outline Syllabus:Learning Strategy A series of introductory lecture/seminars will cover a range of key critical perspectives relating to popular theatres/performances. It will also touch on semiotics, historiography, phenomenology and other related concepts and approaches to performance theory relevant to popular theatres/performances. It will subsequently go on to further explore works in seminar discussion, and through shared viewings as appropriate, building on students existing knowledge base and using these critical perspectives as frameworks for analysis of the work chosen. Works selected will be agreed in discussion between the tutor(s) and the student cohort. It is also expected that students will utilise their own individual perspectives on specific crafts as studied in the concurrent Cultural Cabaret module, in these seminars where appropriate. This will include research and oral presentation in seminar on a chosen subject (most likely, an individual show or specific artist/team) in preparation for the assessed written case study. Indicative content. Critical perspectives o philosophy of aesthetics and poetics – virtual and hyper-realities o authenticity and theatricality o collective and personal performance and performing identities o feminist, gender, queer theories, race and ethnicity, national and cultural definition o interdisciplinary and integrated performance, o structure and form/post-structuralism (narrative and notional approaches), o audience reception theory (including pleasure and entertainment) o key concepts of theatre in a variety of traditional settings o key concepts of theatre in a variety of non-traditional settings The nature of study will be determined by the background, experience and interest of each student cohort, but in particular reference will be made to current trends and shifts in the theatrical landscape, both new and revived. Staff taught with input from VLs. Indicative examples include Claire Smith (former programmer for Cheshire Rural touring scheme) Porl Cooper (Freelance producer Sheffield Theatres, Harrogate, Venues North). TBC. Gordon Miller Artistic Director – Unity Theatre Liverpool and Alicia Smith – Arts officer at Liverpool culture company. The students will engage with current regional and national Arts strategy – this will be drawn from Liverpool City Council and Arts Council England’s vision for the next decade. Staff will examine the shifts and change in policy and derive what it might mean for the independent theatre sector. The students will create a research framework from which they will all work from. This could incorporate numerous subheadings e.g., Demographic, publicly funded organisations, scale of venue, type of venue (arts centre, community centre, receiving house, producing house) etc. Once this has been agreed the students will apply this framework to each area of the country as defined by each National Arts council. From this mapping exercise they will create a report from the students will identify national and regional trends but most importantly potential artistic opportunities, for example, audiences between the ages of 19-25 are not catered for during the Christmas period. Each report will be shared and this will inform the decision making for Responding to the Cultural Climate 2 which becomes a practical response to the opportunities identified.

Additional Information:Where appropriate students are encouraged to ally this module's work to activity in other modules.