To introduce students to the concept of dramaturgy as a practical framework for the study and creation of dramatic writing.  

To engage with current theories and practices of generating texts for the theatre. 

     
To further students’ understanding of the differences between, and the relationships connecting, the arts of writing and performance.

    
To further students’ experience in writing for the stage.

Knowledge and Understanding:

·        An understanding of the role of dramaturgy in the creation of writing for the stage.

·        An enhanced awareness of criticism and scholarship that specifically addresses the practice of playwriting. 

·        A knowledge of varying types and processes of dramatic writing.

Cognitive/Intellectual Skills:

·        Ability to analyse a play text for its dramaturgical underpinnings.

·        Ability to engage critically with and synthesise complex theories, practical methodologies and independent research, and to articulate this engagement orally and in written outcomes.

·        Ability to understand and articulate the complex relationships between text and performance in theatrical practice. 

Practical/Key Skills:

·        Ability to interrogate ideas and concepts through practical projects, interpret them through theoretical constructs, and debate the implications for practice.

·        Ability to effectively originate, draft, and revise theatrical work in textual form.

·        Ability to critique one’s own and others’ work in a constructive and incisive way.

·        The ability to create writing that investigates advanced concepts and practice and is evidence of intellectual rigour.

The module offers the opportunity to engage with critical ideas about playwriting and to put some of those ideas into practice.  It further offers the opportunity, if DANM0037 Theatrical Dramaturgy: The Stage, is taken concurrently, to investigate the linkages between these two distinct but related arms of the art of the theatre: writing and directing.  The module’s content is composed of selected play texts, live performances, and scholarship focused on writing for the theatre.   The study of this content will lead to the creation a short script for the stage, which will constitute the summative assessment for the module; formative assessment will be included in terms of a complete draft of the script to be reviewed and work-shopped by peers and the module tutor.

Aristotle. The Poetics.  London : Penguin Classics, 1996.

Barba, Eugenio.  “Dramaturgy.”  In A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology – the Secret Art of the Performer.  London : Routledge, 1991.

Bly, Mark.  “Bristling with Multiple Possibilities.”  Dramaturgy in American Theater: a Sourcebook.  Eds Susan Jonas, Geoff Proehl, Michael Lupu.  Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997, pp 48-55.

Drukman, Steven.  “ Suzan-Lori Parks and Liz Diamond: Doo-a-diddly-dit-dit”. The Drama Review 39:3 (Fall 1995), pp 56-75

Dunne, Will.  The Dramatic Writer’s Companion: Tools to Develop Characters, Cause Scenes, and Build Stories.  Chicago, University of Chicago Press , 2009.

Edgar, David.  How Plays Work: A Practical Guide to Playwriting.  London : Nick Hern Books, 2009.

Jonas, Susan.  ‘Aiming the Canon at Now: Strategies for Adaptation’.  Dramaturgy in American Theater: a Sourcebook.  Eds Susan Jonas, Geoff Proehl, Michael Lupu.  Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997, pp244-265.

McKee, Robert.  Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting.  London: Methuen , 1999.

Proehl, Geoffrey.  “Rehearsing Dramaturgy: Time is Passing.”  Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. 13:1 (1998 Fall), pp. 103-112.

States, Bert O.  The Pleasure of the Play. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Volger, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Third Edition, Michael Wiese Productions, 2007.