TH206-6-FY-CO:
Interactive Performance-making: Shaping Audience Participation
2022/23
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 06 October 2022
Friday 30 June 2023
30
18 February 2022
Requisites for this module
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(none)
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This module for third-year undergraduate students enables BA Drama and BA Drama and Literature students to explore contemporary trends in British and international interactive theatre and performance-making.
Students will develop an understanding of a range of participatory performance forms through examination and discussion of the recent work of key contemporary practitioners, and through practical work exploring emerging approaches and concerns.
Themes for exploration will include examining the ethics of participation and the face-to-face encounter, engagement with technologies that prompt interaction, interrogating the techniques of the invitation to the audience and analysing different descriptors/conceptualisations of the theatre spectator and the value judgements that they introduce (e.g. 'audience', 'spectator', 'spect-actor', 'beholder, 'voyeur', 'witness', 're-enactor', 'player', 'immersant', 'mob' etc.).
Adjacent to an exploration of these themes in practice, this course will cultivate a theoretical awareness of the politics of audience participation, agency and labour. This interdisciplinary area of enquiry will overlap with key debates that have emerged in fine art, installations and 'relational /antagonistic aesthetics' concerning the shaping of live experiences that are completed by the involvement of unrehearsed participants.
The course is divided into two main parts: In the first half of term, the students will examine different case studies and encounter a range of approaches to interactive theatre making. In the second half of the module students will devise – independently but with supervision and support – a 15-20 minute performance inspired by their research and performed for their peers.
The aims of the module are:
1. To develop a knowledge of a range of creative and critical methods and approaches to interactive performance-making.
2. To develop an understanding of relevant theories concerning the politics, agency, and ethics of participatory spectatorship.
3. To gain an understanding of the relationships between process and product in different performance work.
4. To develop organisational, improvisational, workshop and group skills.
By the end of this module, students will have had opportunities to gain
1. the ability to appreciate, engage critically, and develop work creatively, in a variety of theatre and performance modes, forms, and genres.
2. an understanding of processes by which performances are created.
3. an understanding of how different participatory forms engage with theory in audience reception and spectatorship.
4. experience of engaging in performance-making, based on an acquisition and understanding of appropriate creative vocabularies, skills, structures, and working methods.
5. ability to work collaboratively, sharing responsibility, delegating, and where appropriate leading teams.
6. skills in project management.
No additional information available.
Weekly 2-hour seminars/practical workshops
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Seminar Presentation - In class in week 7 (formative) |
|
0% |
| Coursework |
Participation |
|
5% |
| Coursework |
Essay Plan: 1-2 pages (formative) |
|
0% |
| Coursework |
Essay (3,000 words) |
|
45% |
| Coursework |
Creative Portfolio (Practical to take place during class time in Week 24) |
|
50% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Liam Jarvis, email: ljarvis@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Liam Jarvis
LiFTS General Office - email: liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 872626
No
No
Yes
Dr Christina Papagiannouli
University of South Wales
Research Fellow
Available via Moodle
Of 67 hours, 57 (85.1%) hours available to students:
5 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
5 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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