What is involved in creating a work of theatre? This unit introduces students to the craft of directing theatre, both through a study of the historical emergence of the director and the practices involved, and participation in practical workshops in which key skills, involving creative leadership and collaboration, are developed and put to work. Students will then reflect upon this work, applying theoretical and methodological approaches in theatre and performance studies, including embodiment theory, ethnography, and dramaturgy. No theatre-making experience is required.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We'll be exploring how performing artists make 'political' work but also how political processes themselves, from election campaigns to street protests, are becoming increasingly theatricalised. The unit involves practical workshops, analysis of performances and closely supervised group research.

Can we investigate and understand historical moments and social movements through a study of dancing bodies? In this unit we will be looking at popular dance practices in western cultures over time. From the Charleston, the Lindy and Jive, through musical comedy and jazz, to gogo, disco and hip hop we will develop an understanding of the relationship between movement, music, time and place. This will be done through a combination of observation and practical participation. No previous dance training is required.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Art is created in a complex cultural field, the effects of which influence and shape the work itself. This unit develops an understanding of theatrical production in Australia, using Bourdieu's sociological theory, and practically, as students create viable performing arts companies, covering production management, budgeting and programming.

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.

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'.

This interdisciplinary unit provides students with the opportunity to address complex problems identified by industry, community, and government organisations, and gain valuable experience in working across disciplinary boundaries. In collaboration with a major industry partner and an academic lead, students integrate their academic skills and knowledge by working in teams with students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. This experience allows students to research, analyse and present solutions to a real¿world problem, and to build on their interpersonal and transferable skills by engaging with and learning from industry experts and presenting their ideas and solutions to the industry partner.