·        To introduce students to the concept of dramaturgy as a practical framework for the creation of stage work. 

·        To engage with current theories and practices of generating stage work for the theatre. 

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

·        To further students’ experience in directing for the stage.

Knowledge and Understanding:

·        An understanding of the role of dramaturgy in the creation of stage performance.

·        An enhanced awareness of criticism and scholarship that specifically addresses the practices directing. 

·        An broadened knowledge of varying types and processes of theatrical direction.

Cognitive/Intellectual Skills:

·        Ability to analyse a play text or theatrical performance 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 performed outcomes.

·        Ability to understand and articulate the complex relationships between text, concept, 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, rehearse, and revise theatrical work.

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

·        The ability to create performance that investigates advanced concepts and practice and evidences intellectual rigour.

The module offers the opportunity to engage with critical ideas about theatrical directing and to put some of those ideas into practice.  It further offers the opportunity, if DANM0036 Theatrical Dramaturgy: The Text, 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, writings by and about theatre directors, and live performances.   The study of this content will inform the creation of a live performance originated and directed by the student, which will constitute the summative assessment for the module; formative assessment will be included in terms of a proposal for the performance and feedback on one or more rehearsals.

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.

Bogart, Anne.  A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre.  London : Routledge, 2001.

Braun, Edward.  The Director and the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski.  London: Methuen Drama, 1982.

Brown, John Russell (ed).  The Routledge Companion to Directors’ Shakespeare. London and New York : Routledge, 2008. 

Cody, Gabrielle, and Rebecca Schneider (eds).  Re-Direction: A Theoretical and Practical Guide.  London : Routledge, 2001.

Cole, Toby, and Helen Krich Chinoy (eds).  Directors on directing: A Source Book of the Modern Theater.  New York : Macmillan Publishing Company, 1985.

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

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.

Mitchell, Katie.  The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre.  London : Routledge, 2008.

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.

Swain, Rob.   Directing – A Handbook for Emerging Theatre Directors.  London: Methuen , 2011.