Writing in Performance

Tutor(s): various
Assessment: portfolio (2500 words) [80%], participation [20%]

This module introduce students to a range of styles and genres of writing for theatre and performance, at the same time as enabling them to develop their own creative writing for the stage. Focusing on 20th- and 21st-century texts, it offers a survey of modern drama and performance writing in which students will study uses of theatrical convention, language, character, dramatic form and structure as well as experimental approaches to creating texts for performance. Alongside a wide variety of plays, the module considers other kinds of performance text, including texts developed through workshopping and devising processes. Students are encouraged to understand the role of the writer within a collaborative art form, and therefore to appreciate performance writing in its larger theatrical context.
Throughout the module, explorations of key texts are used as prompts for the students’ own creative writing. Discussions of plays and other forms of writing are connected to creative strategies that enable the students to experiment with and evaluate a range of approaches to writing for performance. In relation to the programme aims, this module offers an opportunity for students to develop writing skills that differ from, but will usefully complement, the academic writing taught elsewhere on the programme. It also serves to lay the groundwork for the Playwriting module offered at level 6.