2BA DTP Modules Semester 1 2016 2017

Semester 1

KEY DATES for 2BA PS STUDENTS

Introductions to Second Year

2BA PS Monday 5 September 2.00-2.30 BOI
2BA Options for PS and DT students Monday 5 September 2.30-3.00 BOI

Other Important Dates

Start of semester 1 teaching 5 September
Auditions for 1BA and 2BA play, to be directed by Ian Walsh in semester 2,
will take place this month.
Monday 31 October bank holiday (no classes)
End of semester 1 teaching 25 November
Study week 28 Nov 5 December
Semester 1 exam/essay submission period : 5-16 December
Start of teaching semester 2 9 January
Friday 17 March bank holiday (no classes)
End of teaching 30 March
Study week 3-8 April
Exams 24 April-10 May

LAYOUT
All students take the BA Connect Tutorial on Monday 2-3, then
choose ONE module from the list below:

DT2108: Voice and Shakespeare

DT3101: Dance and Movement
DT208: Introduction to Directing

Seminar Ciara Murphy Monday 2-3,
IT203
DT2108: Voice and Max Hafler Wednesday 12-2
Shakespeare BOI (1)
DT3101: Dance and Rachel Parry Tuesday 1-3
Movement BOI/Cube
DT208: Introduction Thomas Friday 12-2 Room
to Directing 101

Semester 2 modules
CORE: Seminar
OPTIONS: Playwriting; Intermediate performance; Production
(full details will be released in November)

2BA Connect Drama Seminar

Ciara Murphy
Mondays 2-3
IT203

Throughout the autumn and spring semesters, students registered to the

second year BA Connect in Performing Arts will attend a weekly one-hour
tutorial. During this time, they will have the opportunity to discuss any
aspect of their engagement with drama, theatre and performance studies
at NUI Galway, including queries and concerns regarding coursework,
assessment and theatre visits. The tutorial will provide time for students to
consider the ideas and practices they are engaging with on their core
theatre modules.

Week by week, students will be guided through The Cambridge

Introduction to Theatre Studies (2008) by Christopher Balme. Selected
plays will also be critiqued in class (all available through Drama Online),
and through theatre visits, resulting in an assessed report and
comparative analysis essay, analysing text and performance.

Core Plays:

Beckett, Samuel. Endgame. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. Available on

Drama Online.

Brecht, Bertolt. The Life of Galileo. London: Metheun, 1986. Available on

Drama Online.

Churchill, Caryl. Cloud Nine in Caryl Churchill: Plays 1. London: Metheun,

1985. Available on Drama Online.

Ibsen, Henrik. Ghosts in Henrik Ibsen: Four Major Plays. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2008. Available on Drama Online.

Critical Reading:

Balme, Christopher. The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Allain, Paul and Harvie, Jen. The Routledge Companion to Theatre and
Performance. London: Routledge, 2005.

OPTIONS

VOICE AND SHAKESPEARE

Max Hafler

The aim of this structured course is to give the student some basic
training in Voice for Actors through voice workshops. When you go
onstage you have only yourself ; voice; body; feelings; imagination.
If any of these aspects are not as sensitive and expressive as they
might be, you will not reach your potential as a performer. It
requires technical and imaginative work.

This work will benefit you whether you pursue a career in theatre
or not. Voice work is something that is important for many
professions, and indeed for your own wellbeing.

The student will explore traditional voice exercises [Berry and

Linklater] with Chekhov Technique work to open and further
develop the voice in a holistic and imaginative way, to make the
voice open, free and able to express the character and herself more
fully.

Between classes, the student will need to use the regular warm up
sheet provided in week 2. Each week the student will delivera short
paragraph of 150 words on the voice class and development
of her practise each week, how often it was done, and what the
progress and challenges were. The student will also keep records of
these short pieces for reference for their self assessment journal to
be provided in week 12.

For the other strand of this course to develop the voice, we will be
working on MACBETH. Part of your assessment will be the
performance of a 25 line speech from the play. You need not be
gender specific. Additional work will focus on the role of language in
Shakespeare, story and imagery; the form of the language and how
it affects the acting; and explore through discussion and exercises
how the very buildings and audiences had a direct and fundamental
effect on why the plays were written as they were.

Please note:
the class will be quite physical so you will need to come in
comfortable loose clothing. Do not come in anything you would feel
uneasy about lying down on the floor in.
If you have any physical issues you will need to mind yourself and
be aware of your limits. It would be good to let me know about it
too.

Preparatory Reading:

VOICE AND THE ACTOR by Cicely Berry .Wiley Press This is quite a
formal book but explores the technicalities of the voice effectively.
MACBETH Shakespeare [Arden preferably] Definitely get a text with
a good index. Be familiar with the story. Try reading some of the text
aloud over the summer, and get a sense of the language.

Dance and Movement

Rachel Parry
This ten-week module will investigate the influence of Western
dance history on current Irish and international dance and
choreographic practice. The course will begin with an exploration of
prominent dance practitioners and their ideas, and will conclude
with students choreographing and performing their own short dance
solo. Each class will comprise a basic dance technique class, a
choreography lab, and group discussion of process and practice.

This course is suitable for both beginners and students with some
dance experience. No previous dance experience is required.

Recommended Reading

Adshead-Lansdale, Janet and June Layson. Dance History: An Introduction.

Routledge, 1994
Banes, Sally. Terpsichore in Sneakers. Wesleyan University Press, 1980
Mulrooney, Dierdre. Irish Moves. Liffey Press, 2006

Introduction to Theatre Directing

Thomas Conway

For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. T.S.
Eliot

In this foundational module, students gain first-hand experience of

the specific challenges and rewards of theatre directing. Each
student works individually on a contemporary scene or one-act play.
The module references the practices of exemplary contemporary
theatre directors, including Katie Mitchel, Cicely Berry, Declan
Donnellan and Anne Bogart. It isolates key phases to directing
plays: script preparation, auditioning, first read-through, and
rehearsal. It further looks at exemplary rehearsal techniques from
displacement techniques, improvisations, working with intentions
and targets, directing counter-intuitively and configuring the space.
It culminates with a showcase rehearsal where each student shows
a run-through of his or her work with actors, notes the actors, and
runs again the sections to which the notes refer.

Each student makes a self-evaluation presentation at the end of the

module, which is immediately followed by an evaluation on his or
her showcase from the teacher.

Reading to be advised.