Dramaturgy, Text and Performance

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 Hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject focuses on high level close reading and analysis of existing plays and scenarios drawn from a range of pre-dramatic, dramatic, postdramatic and other performance contexts, including Greek, Shakespearean, nineteenth and twentieth century realist and anti-realist movements, non-narrative forms, and contemporary developments such as the postdramatic. Drawing on international and Australian examples, the subject will focus on such aspects as dramatic structure, story, plot, dialogue, monologue, character, conflict, dramatic action, facts and imagination, language and subtext, space and time. Theories of dramaturgy from Aristotle through Lessing to Brecht, Lehmann and the ‘new dramaturgies’ of the postdramatic, as well as other forms of ‘script’ (e.g. choreographic, film script and treatment, digital media, live art, ritual) will be examined.

On completing this subject students will be able to:
• demonstrate an ability to interpret and analyse writing for performance in the context of professional practice, and within both a broader cultural field and a body of contemporary and classical ideas;
• demonstrate the capacity to analyse diverse texts for performance from a range of historical periods including the present
• demonstrate an advanced understanding of the building blocks of dramatic and other forms of writing for performance
• demonstrate an understanding and ability to articulate dramaturgical theory and practice in relation to writing for performance and in relation to theatre and performance more generally
• demonstrate skills in the gathering and organisation of research materials;
• effectively document the creative process.

Individual oral presentation of 10 minutes duration followed by submission in written form (1,000 words) 25%

2 x written tasks (one of 1500 words, one of 2500 words) 25% and 50%

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completing this subject students will be able to:

• demonstrate the capacity to evaluate and synthesise data and other information;
• demonstrate an ability to access data and other information from a range of sources;
• demonstrate an advanced ability to discourse on artistic practice in the context of wider aesthetic, social and historical domains;
• demonstrate an ability to apply relevant research processes to specific cultural practice;
• demonstrate the ability to communicate in oral and written form;
• demonstrate a capacity for critical thinking.