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Directing Methodologies (DRAM90020)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Southbank)
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Overview
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Directing Methodologies addresses knowledge and techniques specific to the discipline of directing for performance. Through skills classes and seminars 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 involves a series of practical workshops and seminar sessions with guest industry speakers concerned with different aspects of the role of the director, particularly in relation to the performer and to dramatic text. Areas of skill development include poetic research, creative exploration from text, journaling, text selection and analysis and the early stages of preparation for rehearsal and production. Directing Methodologies in semester 1 leads directly onto Applied Directing in semester 2. It will include:
1. Introduction to Directing (9 hours)
A seminar-based introduction to Directing considering the role and position of the director in contemporary theatre practice and students’ current thinking and creative aims for the coming year.
2. Nexus of Creative Practice and Research (50 hours)
Taking a text as a provocation, a series of workshops will explore practical creative approaches to researching and generating a vision for a project. This intensive introduction looks at the nexus between the director and actor in creative methods and leadership roles. It involves traditional Asian and contemporary practices and kinaesthetic states and processes.
3. Seminars – Directing Methodologies and Reflective Practice (18 hours)
A series of practical seminars involving guest speakers and existing staff looking at major 20th Century directing methodologies. It will focus on the role of critical reflection, processes with performers, dramaturgical analysis and compositional ideas in contemporary practice.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- begin to articulate a directing philosophy that has at its base the qualities of creativity and experimentation;
- understand the role of the director within the construct of a theatrical text, particularly the preparatory research and creative development stages;
- explore ways of connecting imaginatively with dramatic texts;
- articulate a vision for a production for different audiences (such as funding bodies, potential collaborators);
- create and maintain a creative research journal;
- demonstrate a practical and theoretical understanding of ways of generating performance from text;
- develop a productive working method for the process of creative collaboration;
- identify creative potential in a playtext;
- actively participate in creative and pragmatic discussions;
- document, reflect upon and evaluate their own and others' creative process;
- exhibit willingness and ability to engage in constructive peer discourse;
- reflect on their own work through processes of discussion, journal-keeping and reflective writing.
Generic skills
On 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: 31 January 2024