Theatre and Performance Studies
Theatre and Performance Studies
Major
A major in Theatre and Performance Studies requires 48 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 1000-level core units
(ii) 12 credit points of 2000-level core units
(iii) 6 credit points of 3000-level core units
(iv) 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units
(v) 6 credit points of 3000-level Interdisciplinary Project units
Minor
A minor in Theatre and Performance Studies requires 36 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 1000-level core units
(ii) 12 credit points of 2000-level core units
(iii) 12 credit points of 3000-level selective units
1000 level units of study
PRFM1601 Making Theatre: Process and Collaboration
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr workshop/week Assessment: 1x1000wd short essay (25%), 1x1000wd workshop description and analysis (25%),1x group work documentation (1500wd per student)(25%), 1x1000wd account of rehearsal (25%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
A guided rehearsal of a play by Bertolt Brecht introduces you to key approaches to theatre and performance studies, including embodiment theory, ethnography, and dramaturgy. You will reflect upon and analyse performance-making processes, debating, testing and documenting decisions as you work. No theatre-making experience required.
PRFM1602 Dangerous Performances
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial-workshop/week Assessment: 1x1000wd short essay (20%), 1x Group Exercise (1000wd per student) (25%), 1x1000wd Class Presentation (1000wd per student) (25%), 1x1500wd Final Essay (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Performance has long been associated with risk: in the popular imagination, among performers, writers and theorists. From breathless narratives of courageous actors taking on risky roles, to the extremes of performance art, contemporary performance and political action, you will explore and understand performance pushed to the limits.
2000 level units of study
Core
PRFM2601 Being There: Theories of Performance
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Summer Main Classes: 1x1hr lectures/week, 1x2hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 Junior credit points from subject areas listed in Table A or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM2001 Assessment: Short responses to set readings (1200wd total)(30%), 1x800wd research proposal (20%), 1x2500wd research essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
What if all the world really is a stage? In this unit, you will learn key theories and conceptual tools for analysing the broad spectrum of performance events that lie beyond what is conventionally associated with the term `theatre¿. You will conduct original research, focusing on how performance (re)constitutes identity and (re)forms a culture.
PRFM2602 Performance: Production and Interpretation
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2,Summer Main Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 Junior credit points from subject areas listed in Table A or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM2002 Assessment: 1x600wd short response to performance (10%), 1x1200wd tutorial paper (30%), 1x500wd raw notes (10%), 1x2200wd performance analysis essay (50%) Practical field work: Students will undertake some workshop exercises in their tutorials and will attend professional theatre productions outside class times Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How do we make meaning from our experience of text, movement, spatial design, costuming, lighting, sound and other elements of theatrical performance? Through practical workshops and theatre excursions, you will learn some basic production techniques and develop a critical language for analysing live performance.
Elective in Table A
PRFM2603 Between Improvisation and Text
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 18 Junior credit points from subject areas listed in Table A or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM3005 or PRFM3014 or PRFM3016 Assessment: 1x500wd equivalent group performance (10%), 1x1500wd tutorial paper (40%), 1x500wd equiv group seminar (10%), 1x2000wd research essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
All performances exist at the interface of oral and literate culture, involving combinations of 'fixed' and 'free' elements. In this unit, you will explore, through practical workshops and group research, the flexibility of traditional genres like Commedia dell'Arte as well as contemporary forms of performance where improvisation can occur.
PRFM2605 Rehearsing Shakespeare
This unit of study is not available in 2018
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr workshop/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points from Performance Studies units Assessment: 1x1500wd Analytical Rehearsal Log (30%), 3x In Class Scene-work (equiv to 500wd) (20%), 1x2500wd Essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
How did actors in Shakespeare's time rehearse a play? In this unit students will explore rehearsal in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre: from part playing, cueing and exploring the relationship between voice and gesture through to the general rehearsal. Students will have the opportunity to workshop selected scenes from plays by Shakespeare or his contemporaries in order to understand how a Renaissance English actor embodied his part.
3000 level units of study
Core
PRFM3961 Rehearsal Studies
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x3hr seminar/week Prerequisites: PRFM2601 and PRFM2602 or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Assessment: 5x400wd draft journal entries (10%), 1x2000wd final journal (rework of 5 x draft journal entries) (30%), 1x2500wd essay (60%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The 'hidden world' of rehearsal is typically off-limits to outsiders but the exceptional creativity of performance-makers makes it a compelling focus for research. Approaching the study of rehearsal through ethnographic theory, you will read and apply key texts on participant-observation fieldwork to rehearsal observation and workshop exercises.
Selective
PRFM3602 Performance Histories
This unit of study is not available in 2018
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x3-hr seminar/week Prerequisites: (PRFM2601 and PRFM2602) or (PRFM2001 and PRFM2002) Assessment: 1x group presentation, 1x1000wd essay, 1x3000wd essay Practical field work: Group projects, researching a history of an Australian performing arts company, institution or individual, will be conducted at State Library of NSW. Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit of study reflects on the issues and methods that constitute theatre history and its relationship to Performance Studies. We will consider the source materials on which histories of performance are based and some of the genres of historical scholarship that are useful for such historians. We will also study how descriptions and theorisations of creative practices from the past are influential in the work of contemporary theatre and performance practitioners.
Textbooks
Selected readings available through the University Copy Centre
PRFM3606 Approaches to Acting
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr workshop/week Prerequisites: PRFM2601 and PRFM2602 or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM3022 Assessment: 1x3000wd Essay (40%), 1x500wd equivalent group presentation (20%), 5x100wd online interlocutions (20%), 1x500wd reading summary (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit you will survey a range of acting practices from the seventeenth century to the present, and interrogate their truth claims in order to reveal the social, cultural and historical contingency of each approach. The unit invites you to examine how these different approaches to acting have been influenced by implicit theories of the human self.
PRFM3607 Production Strategies for Performance
This unit of study is not available in 2018
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week for seven weeks, 1x4hr workshop/week for seven weeks Prerequisites: PRFM2601 and PRFM2602 Assessment: 1x20min WHS simulation (350wd equiv) (10%), 1x40min Technical Installation Test (650wd equiv)(20%), 1x2000wd Production Analysis (30%), 1x30min Production Design Presentation (500wd equiv) (20%), 1x1000wd Production Design Rationale (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
This unit offers an introduction to theatre lighting, sound design and audiovisual projection. Through practical workshops and site visits, students will develop some basic technical skills as well as an understanding of the creative contribution that production personnel can bring to the realisation of performance concepts.
PRFM3611 Dramaturgy
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x3hr seminar/week Prerequisites: PRFM2601 and PRFM2602 or 12 credit points at 2000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM3010 Assessment: 1x500wd performance analysis (20%), 1x1500wd group project (30%), 1x2500wd script assessment (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
What is a dramaturg? How do you read a play? Write a non-text based performance? Prepare a production of a classic play? This unit of study will investigate the various roles of the dramaturg, focusing on new play dramaturgy, background research for historical texts, translation and the role of the dramaturg as co-creator in non-text-based work. This unit will include practical exercises in analysing and workshopping a new Australian play or text for performance.
PRFM3621 Ritual, Play and Performance
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Theatre and Performance Studies Prohibitions: PRFM2606 Assessment: 1x 1000wd Research proposal (15%), 1x 1000wd Book review (15%), 1x 1000wd equivalent Presentation (20%), 1x 3000wd Ethnographic essay (50%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Setting out from a distinction between special events and everyday life, you will investigate fundamental kinds of performative events, including play, ritual, work and carnival, developing an understanding of culture as performance. You will learn and apply ethnographic approaches to a range of contemporary case studies.
CHNS3651 Chinese Drama and Theatre
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week. Prerequisites: 12 credit points from one of (CHNS1303 and CHNS1304) or (CHNS2611 and CHNS2612) or 12 credit points at 2000 level in International Comparative Literature and Translation Studies or Theatre and Performance Studies. Students with a prior grounding in classical Chinese may have prerequisites waived. Assessment: Tutorial participation (10%), 1x equivalent to 500wds oral presentation (20%), 2x equivalent to 2000wds 1 hr in-class test (30%), 1x 2000wd essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The unit studies key aspects of Chinese performance art and performance literature. It explores the development of Chinese theatre from ritual to ritual drama to literary drama and examines how ritual/theatrical elements are integrated into musical drama, the dominant form of Chinese theatre known as xiqu as represented by Kun opera and Beijing opera.
Interdisciplinary project unit of study
FASS3999 Interdisciplinary Impact
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 1hr lecture/performance event week for 5 weeks 2hr workshop per week for 10 weeks 2hr online learning modules for 5 weeks Prerequisites: 18 credit points at 2000 level Assessment: 1x 2000 wds equivalent Mapping knowledge exercise (30%), 1x 10 minutes Collaborative Presentation (30%), 1x 2000 wds equivalent Critical reflection essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.
Honours
Honours in Theatre and Performance Studies requires 48 credit points including
(i) 18 credit points of 4000-level Honours seminar units
(ii) 30 credit points of 4000-level Honours thesis and casebook units
Honours thesis and casebook unit
PRFM4111 Theatre and Performance St. Honours Thesis
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 7 x 0.5hr supervision meetings/semester on average Assessment: 1x 15000wd thesis (100%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day, Supervision
In this unit you will research, write and submit your substantial, independent research project in Theatre and Performance Studies. Regular meetings with a supervisor approved by the Theatre and Performance Studies Honours Coordinator will guide your progress. You will submit drafts at agreed times, and develop your expertise in relevant research methods and analytical skills as well as in the subject matter of your specialist topic.
PRFM4112 Theatre and Performance Studies Casebook
Credit points: 24 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: 7 x0.5hr supervision meetings/semester on average Assessment: 1x 15000wd Casebook (100%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this unit, you will produce a substantial casebook based on your fieldwork placement in PRFM4115 Inside Rehearsal. Grounded in principles of 'thick description' and rehearsal ethnography, the casebook will provide you with the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of writing that reflects and reports on the work of professional performance makers.
Honours seminar units
PRFM4113 Research Methodologies 1
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1x 3500wd equivalent human ethics application pertine (70%), 1x 1500wd annotated bibliography re (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
In this seminar you will be introduced to the principles of Human Ethics in research and write and submit an ethics application in preparation for your semester 2 research. You will also be given additional training in using research databases, bibliographic software, referencing, and quantitative and qualitative data collection. You will also revise key theoretical principles used in theatre and performance analysis.
PRFM4116 Critical Theory and Performance
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1x 600wd Performance Analysis (25%), 1x 4400wd Essay (75%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
The discipline of Performance Studies has drawn upon a wide range of theoretical positions and resources, from semiotics to New Historicism, cultural studies, feminism, psychoanalysis, discourse theory, deconstruction, phenomenology and hermeneutics. This unit functions as an advanced reading seminar in which you will consider some key theoretical texts and examine how they have been applied to the analysis of performance.
PRFM4117 Embodiment
Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1x 250wd Performance description (15%), 1x 250wd Essay structure (10%), 1x 4500wd Essay (75%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day
Ways of thinking about how you perceive and make sense of objects, time, place, space, yourselves and others, are pertinent to the study of all aspects of performance. Western thought has not always trusted either the body or experience as valid sources of knowledge about the world. In this unit of study you will explore how theories of embodiment affect research in/of performance and, as a result, question the continued prevalence of mind/body, theory/practice dichotomies.
Advanced cousework
The requirements for advanced coursework in Theatre and Performance Studies are described in the degree resolutions for the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Advanced Studies.
24-36 credit points of advanced study will be included in the table for 2019.