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Director, Actor and Text (DRAM90021)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 25On Campus (Southbank)
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 2
Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 |
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Fees | Look up fees |
Director, Actor and Text builds on the knowledge and techniques specific to the discipline of directing for theatre introduced in Directing Methodologies and Dramaturgy, Text and Performance and Cross-Disciplinary Laboratory in Semester 1, with a particular focus on the direction of actors with text. Through group-based skills classes, seminars, individual supervision and workshops, the subject explores the role of the director as part of a creative team, defining the skills, qualities and processes that are essential to the practising professional director.
The subject comprises three distinct, but inter-related modules – an intensive focused on approaches to text analysis and interpretation with actors; a workshop series in which text is explored on the floor in a
scene study context and a program of engagement with new writing in development. Underpinning these modules is a series of seminars conducted throughout the semester. The subjectwill examine text through a variety of lenses, each elucidating a particular aspect of directorial practice.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- articulate an individual directing philosophy that has at its base the qualities of creative curiosity and experimentation;
- engage rigorously with dramatic texts, through private analysis and collaborative processes with writers, dramaturgs and actors;
- direct with confidence a text-based theatre scene and a rehearsed reading of a piece of new writing in development, applying methods of background research, dramaturgical analysis and direction of actors;
- work ethically within a rehearsal room context;
- work productively and respectfully with writers and actors in new play development;
- engage in rigorous self-critique and self-reflection, confidently evaluating their own and others' creative processes and outcomes.
Generic skills
Upon completion of this subject students should be able to:
- Create and organise aesthetic material
- Use a range of research tools and methodologies
- Solve problems
- Lead others in the skills of problem solving
- Interpret and analyse
- Develop the capacity for critical thinking
- Work as a leader showing initiative and openness
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Scene Study Presentation – (1000 words equivalent) and accompanying Process Journal (3000 words) - 4000 words equivalent in total
| Week 6 | N/A |
Written Work – Essay
| Week 8 | N/A |
Rehearsed Reading Presentation (equivalent 2000 words) and accompanying Process Journal (2000 words) - 4000 words equivalent in total
| End of semester | N/A |
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Chris Kohn Mode of delivery On Campus (Southbank) Contact hours 70 hours (16 x 3 hour seminars, 6 x 1 hour individual supervisor meetings and 4 x 4 hour rehearsals) Total time commitment 320 hours Teaching period 3 August 2020 to 1 November 2020 Last self-enrol date 14 August 2020 Census date 21 September 2020 Last date to withdraw without fail 16 October 2020 Assessment period ends 27 November 2020 Semester 2 contact information
Time commitment details
320 hours total time commitment
Additional delivery details
This subject is delivered either partially or fully in-person in Second Half Year 2020. Please ensure you are able to attend any essential in-person requirements or speak to Stop 1 about alternative subject options.
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
Barba, E. (2010) On Directing and Dramaturgy: Burning the house. Abingdon: Routledge.
Barba, E. (2000) ‘The Deep Order called Turbulence: The Three Faces of Dramaturgy,’ in The Drama Review, 44 (4), pp. 56- 66.
Bogart, A. (2001) A Director Prepares. London and New York: Routledge.
Brook, P. 1968, (1990). The Empty Space. Harmondsworth: Penguin. (Original work published 1968).
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Master of Directing for Performance
Last updated: 3 November 2022