Download Information for First Year Drama Theatre and

FIRST YEAR DRAMA, THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE MODULES 2016 2017
Semester 1
KEY DATES for 1BA DTP STUDENTS
Introductions to Years
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1BA DT – Thursday 1 September 12 – 2 (BOI Theatre)
Other Important Dates
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Start of semester 1 teaching – 5 September
Dublin Theatre Festival visit: Carmel Winters play at the Peacock Theatre at
2.30 on 1 October; Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Grand Canal Theatre,
Saturday 1 October 7.30
Auditions for 1BA and 2BA play, to be directed by Ian Walsh in semester 2,
will take place this month.
Monday 31 October – bank holiday (no classes)
End of semester 1 teaching – 25 November
Study week – 28 Nov – 5 December
Semester 1 exam/essay submission period : 5-16 December
Start of teaching semester 2 – 9 January
Friday 17 March – bank holiday (no classes)
End of teaching – 30 March
Study week 3-8 April
Exams 24 April-10 May
Course Layout
All students take Acting 1 and Theatre Histories 1.
They then choose ONE module from the list below:
 DT1102: COMEDY in performance
 DT1101; Building Skills for the Actor
 DT1107: The Body in Performance
TIMETABLE
DT1100: Acting 1
DT1108: Theatre Histories 1
DT1102: Comedy in
performance
DT1107: The Body in
Performance
Monday 10-12, BOI Theatre
Wednesday 1-2 Room 101.
Tuesday 11-1, BOI Theatre.
Thursday 11-12 IT202
Friday 10-12 BOI Theatre (not
available to students taking subjects
in Group 3)
Thursday 1-3 BOI Theatre OR
Wednesday 5-7 (not available to
DT1101: Building Skills for
the Actor
students with subjects in group 2)
Wednesday 10-12 (not available to
students taking subjects in Group 1)
BOI Theatre
Second Semester Modules:
Core: Theatre Histories 2; Stagecraft 1
Options: Improvisation, Devising, Staging text; Theatre Production
(full timetable and details will be released in November)
COURSE OUTLINES
Acting I
Ian R. Walsh and Nelson Barre
The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to the fundamentals of
an actor’s process: one that is rooted in the dramatic works and teaching
approaches of the contemporary Western theatre, with an emphasis on realistic
acting technique and texts. You will be engaged in an active and experimental
process that draws on your artistic and intellectual skills, thereby aiming to
furnish you with an understanding of basic realistic acting terminology and
processes.
This module will consist of a weekly one-hour seminar and a two-hour
laboratory session.
Required Reading
Plays:
 Chekhov, Anton The Seagull (available on Drama Online)
 Miller, Arthur, The Crucible
 Other plays TBC
Weekly readings will be provided on Blackboard and will include excerpts from
the following books:
 Ball, David. Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading
Plays. Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. Print.
 Carnickie, Sharon, Stanislavsky in Focus: An Acting Master for the TwentyFirst Century, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1998. Print
 Hagen, Uta. A Challenge for the Actor. New York: Scribner, 1991. Print.
 Rosemary Malague, An Actress Prepares: Women and “The Method”
 Stanislavski, Constantin , An Actor’s Work on a Role, translated by Jean
Benedetti London: Routledge, 2010. Print.
 ----------------------------- An Actor Prepares. Elizabeth R. Hapgood, trans.
New York: Routledge, 1964. Print.
Theatre Histories 1
Patrick Lonergan and Justine Nakase
This module offers students the opportunity to develop their skills in analysing
and staging dramatic texts from diverse periods in the European theatrical
tradition. You will trace developments in theatre from the Ancient Greek
through to the middle ages and the Renaissance in Europe. Students will discuss,
stage and analyse theatrical conventions in a range of texts, and examine the
relationship between space, audience, language, and convention.
The course aims to foster active learning and creative thinking through
developing the practice of analysis in practical sessions, and in the discussion of
lecture materials.
This module will consist of one-hour lectures followed by a two-hour practical
teaching workshop. In the practical workshops you will test and explore the
practice implications of your analysis for staging and performance.
Reading
 Philip Zarrilli (editor) Theatre Histories (Routledge)
 Sophocles Oedipus
 The Second Shepherd’s Play
 Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream
 Goldoni, The Servant of Two Masters
 Moliere, Tartuffe
Most plays are available online via Drama Online (library website) or will be
provided on blackboard.
OPTIONS
Comedy in Performance
Emer McHugh
This course aims to explore the major periods in theatre history by considering
the development of comedy, especially in the English-speaking tradition. We
begin in Ancient Greece and Rome before moving to Shakespeare’s England.
From there, we encounter the great comic dramatists of the English dramatic
tradition (many of which were written by Irish writers), before exploring
comedy in the last century. Each week, we’ll meet to discuss and work with a
play using physical exercises, improvisation, and rhythm. We will explore major
themes in comedy, including such issues as gender politics, national stereotyping,
the relationship between comic performance and movement, and the audience.
The class will conclude with the public performance of scenes from some of the
plays studied during the semester.
Core textbook:
John Wright, Why Is That So Funny? (Nick Hern Books).
Plays (*available to read through Drama Online/accessible through
Blackboard):
*Aristophanes, Lysistrata
*Plautus, The Haunted House
*William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
*Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops To Conquer
*Oscar Wilde, The Importance Of Being Earnest
*Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano
Building Skills for the Actor
Mary McPartlan
“The Awakening”
Michael Chekhov, (1891-1955) was one of Russia’s most outstanding actors and
directors. He developed a renowned technique in acting which is now pioneered
all over the world. This acting technique is a “psycho-physical approach” in
which transformation, working with impulse, imagination and inner and outer
gesture are central. The aim of the module is to explore at a foundation level the
relationship between the inner life and the outer world through the senses,
movement and space to include gestures, qualities and centre.
We will use material from a series of scripts, applied in a simple and practical
manner, to demonstrate the working of the techniques and to build confidence in
improvisation and performance in solo and group projects throughout the
semester. We will experiment with music and song to assist in text analysis and
performance and we will work from a specially prepared Course Handbook (all
students must purchase) which will be mainly the scripts that are allocated to
this course outlined below:
Reading List
Anderson, Hans Christian, The Mother, (available online and class Handbook)
Brecht, Bertolt. Mother Courage. N.p.: Penguin Classics, 2007. Print.
Chekhov, Michael, To the Actor. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Church Hill, Carl, Seven Jewish Children, (an online source and available in class
Handbook)
Euripides. Medea. London: Vintage, 2008. Print.
Friel, Brian. Translations. London: Faber and Faber, 1981. Print.
The Body in Performance
Aisling Smith
This is a practical course that focuses on developing the skills of the actor in
performance: language, interpreting a script, movement, working in space, and
devising. Classes will be given in workshop format, incorporating warm-up exercises
and games, discussion and rehearsal techniques. Students will work towards an end of
year performance in the Bank of Ireland Theatre for a live audience. This course is
designed to give students a greater understanding and appreciation of theatrical
performance through direct experience. Students will engage with and enjoy the
process of taking a play from the page to the stage.
Reading
Major Barbara, by G.B. Shaw
The Playboy of the Western World, By J.M Synge
Excerpts of the following will be made available
Aristotle, Poetics
Diderot, Paradox of the Actor
Richard Eyre, Talking Theatre
Phillip. B. Zarrilli (ed), Acting (Re)Considered: A theoretical and practical Guide