This unit examines the history, development and theoretical influences on contemporary performance genres, with a specific focus on what is happening in Sydney at venues such as Performance Space and Artspace. We will take advantage of the department's artists-in-residence program to develop analyses, and a practical understanding of how new work is developed.

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.

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, we read and apply key texts on participant-observation fieldwork to rehearsal observation and workshop exercises.

This unit is structured around a rehearsal process occurring in the mid-year break (July) and involving performing artists in residence at the Department's Rex Cramphorn Studio. Students attend rehearsals full time for two weeks, documenting the process and writing up their observations as ethnographic fieldnotes. Seminars during semester provide an opportunity for students to 'unpack' this experience and to develop strategies for turning fieldnotes into a more detailed, coherent and analytical casebook.