World Theatres

Module Provider: Film, Theatre and TV
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Module version for: 2016/7

Summary module description:
World Theatres engages with theatre and performance practices from different parts of the world. With advances in technology, the rise of industry and, latterly, neo-liberal economics, our relationship to the world, and other people and theatres within that world, has changed. Significantly, theatre and performance practices have changed with it. Some examples of this change include, but are not limited to:

? Movements of people and populations around the world, in the forms of tourism (which has implications for national theatres, for example), as well as migration and asylum-seeking;
? Communities are differently forged and/or maintained via digital communications (for example, blogs for people who love hippopotami through to online sites for so-called Islamic State proponents);
? National identity, which faces acute pressure as unions come under the spotlight and are contested (for example, the E.U. and the UK);
? Colonialist and postcolonialist issues and politics bound to the rise of multinational corporations;
? Climate change: a global challenge that faces all nations;

Students will have the opportunity to investigate a variety of forms, texts, and performance practitioners from different parts of the world. Students may, for example, engage with plays by playwrights from all around the world; national theatres; West End musicals; performance and installation art; verbatim practices; refugee theatre; multimedia performance; and so on. In short, the work of students may engage with any of the topics that pertain to living in a world context, and the theatre and performance that engages with such a world, including: the politics of identity, nations and states, the nature of art and theatre, time, space, technology, and even our very bodies and selves.

Students will engage with theories pertaining to the topics listed above, which may include globalization, nation, interculturalism, cosmopolitanism, migration, posthumanism, and the politics of identity, amongst others. The module will draw on play texts and documented/recorded performance practices. It will also be informed by performance work that is available for viewing during the period of the module, both in the context of theatre visits and visiting practitioners. In addition, students may have the opportunity to explore the concepts that they encounter through practice.
Aims:
- To introduce students to a range of formally contrasting texts from diverse cultural and national contexts
- To introduce students to key critical contexts and theoretical concepts necessary for the analysis of these texts
- To consider and explore the relationship between contextual research and examples of representation and practice
- To explore and examine representations of identity and culture as they relate to globalization
- To develop a series of methodologies and vocabularies for the analysis of such representations in a range of forms and media
- To build on core modules taken by students at Part 2
Assessable learning outcomes:
Assessable outcomes
- Students will be assessed for their ability to analyse, compare and contextualize a range of texts that represent issues relating to the key themes of the course.
- Students will be assessed for their ability to draw upon, understand, and engage critically with varying modes of contextual, theoretical, and subject-specific research in order to inform and situate their textual analyses.
- Students will be assessed for their ability to engage creatively with issues throughout the module, alongside their skills of critical reflection and analysis, which will be assessed in the form of supporting written documentation
- Students will be assessed for their ability to respond to module-related tasks that take a variety of practical and written formats.
Additional outcomes:
The module plays a significant role in the continuing development of other skills and competencies, which are central to the course. It is expected that the level of skills and competencies achieved in the following will be appropriate to the level of study: oral communication and argument in group situations; deployment of research using printed and electronic resources; critical analysis and coherent argument; undertaking self-directed, independent work; presentation of written work using IT; identifying and addressing problems in the analysis of performance.

Outline content:
The module will introduce students to ways in which a range of theatre- and performance-makers have engaged, in and through their practice, with concepts of globalization, culture, nation, interculturalism, cosmopolitanism, migration, the posthuman, and identity politics. Students will also discuss and theorise these practices in the context of relevant critical and historical debates. For example, discussion may involve consideration of questions concerning: the relationships between representation, power, and responsibility that the processes of globalization are rendering more acute; the contemporarily pressing phenomena of migration, immigration, and refugees; the ways in which new technologies are transforming how theatre is created, distributed and received in the global age. Precise theatrical examples, themes, and forms will be selected and organised according to the research interests of staff, the scheduling of theatre performances and the availability of relevant practitioners. Teaching methods will be mainly by seminar and workshop, and supported by screenings, theatre visits, and contributions by practitioners.

Global context:
A central aim of the module is to theorise relationships between local, national and global contexts, and to consider how theatre and performance practice navigates, mediates, challenges, creates and/or reinforces these relationships.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
Case studies will be explored in seminars and workshops, supplemented by reading, and by analysing primary and contextual screenings and performances. The module will include usually a restricted number (usually three) theatre visits, incurring ticket and travel costs.

Contact hours
Seminars- 18
Supervised time in studion/workshop- 18
External visits- 9
Guided independent study- 155
Total hours by term- 200
Total hours for module- 200

Summative Assessment Methods:
Written assignment including essay- 50%
Report- 20%
Project output other than dissertation- 30%

Other information on summative assessment:
Essay: 2500 words - 50%.
Performance-presentation in groups of 2-3 ? 50%
Students will prepare a performance-presentation that engages with globalization, supported by reference to the various theories of globalization, and examples of practice, encountered on the module. The performance-lecture should last 15 minutes and be supported by moderating documentation (1000 words).
Formative assessment methods:

Length of examination:
Requirements for a pass:
A mark of 40% overall

Reassessment arrangements:
Resubmission of failed coursework