British Drama and the London Stage Course Descriptor

Course Overview

British Drama and the London Stage is a course that studies drama as a living form which has been at the heart of artistic expression in London for more than six centuries. It combines literary criticism and history with theatre studies and performance analysis in order to illuminate the life of the stage. Attention is given to major playwrights, movements, styles and themes and their historical, critical and performance contexts. A central concern across the whole course is the relationship between page and stage: between the dramatic text as it appears in written form, and its life in performance. This course goes beyond literary critical and historical approaches in encouraging students not just to study but also to creatively experience drama, offering the opportunity to try out some acting and directing, and reflect on that experience (note that no previous experience is required). 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies. The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1: all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Formative

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

The presentation requires students to review a theatrical performance seen while in London. The portfolio includes both a critical essay on a play or plays, and a reflection on the performances of a play that have taken place in workshops on the course. The project is a creative task which asks students to produce an annotated script from the perspective of either an actor or a director, and to comment on the choices made. In these ways students become literary critics of the theatre whilst gaining insight into the creative processes at the heart of the theatrical profession.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Books

Benedetti, Jean, Stanislavski: An Introduction (London: Methuen, 2008)

Bennett, Susan, Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception (London: Routledge, 1997)

Brook, Peter, The Empty Space (London: Penguin, 2008)

Eyre, Richard, Talking Theatre: Interviews with Theatre People (London: Nick Hern Books, 2013)

Lennard, John, and Mary Luckhurst, The Drama Handbook: A Guide to Reading Plays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Mitchell, Katie, The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre (London: Routledge, 2009)

Orton, Joe, Loot (London: Methuen, 2006)

Russell Taylor, John, The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play (London: Routledge, 2015)

Shakespeare, William, Richard III, ed. Jonathan Bate and Eris Rasmussen (New York: Macmillan, 2008)

Sierz, Aleks, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (London: Faber, 2001)

Journals

Journal of Contemporary Drama in English

Modern Drama

Electronic Resources

V&A: Theatre and Performance. Available on:  https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre-performance

British Library: Theatre and Entertainment. Available on: https://www.bl.uk/restoration-18th-century-literature/themes/theatre-and-entertainment

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Approaches to Acting
• Approaches to Directing
• Renaissance Drama
• The Victorian Theatre
• Rehearsing a Play
• The Modern Stage