Download Information for First Year Performing Arts Students

BA Connect IN Performing Arts Studies First Year 2016 2017
Semester 1
KEY DATES for 1BA DTP STUDENTS
Introductions to Years

1BA PS – Thursday 1 September 2-4 (BOI)
Other Important Dates











Start of semester 1 teaching – 5 September
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
LAYOUT
All students take Theatre Histories.
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
TP108: Theatre Histories
DT1102: Comedy in
performance
DT1107: The Body in
Performance
DT1101: Building Skills for
the Actor
Tuesday 11-1 Room 101
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
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 continues
Options: Improvisation, Devising, Staging text; Theatre Production
(full timetable and details will be released in November)
Theatre History Module
Nelson Barre
The class is designed to introduce you to the study of modern theatre history. Through
reading plays, in-class discussion and practical projects, we will explore script
analysis, practical interpretation, and dramaturgical research. Over the course of the
semester, you will be introduced to several major works of theatre, their historical
context, and production histories. Along with the weekly readings and discussions,
there will be weekly engagement with the practical application and staging of these
texts.
Texts:
Antigone by Sophocles
Everyman by Anonymous
A Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Tartuffe by Moliere
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