Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

This unit is designed to be of benefit to anyone seeking an introduction to the skills and craft of acting. Specifically designed for non-actors and beginners, the unit will provide insights into key skills involved in film, theatre and all forms of public performance.

Aims

The unit aims to provide a set of skills and in-house performance opportunities in the fundamentals of acting and to build life skills related to confidence, presence and communication. For students interested in further developing acting skills for stage and screen, this unit provides a solid foundation.

Objectives

On completion of this Unit, students should be able to:
1. Create an impulsively expressive Being State.
2. Select and implement vocal, physical and emotional objectives
3. Demonstrate the fundamentals of an acting process.
4. Apply basic script/scene analysis to rehearsal and performance
5. Receive and respond to informed feedback to facilitate basic performance skills

Content

The Unit addresses content for an introduction to the fundamentals of acting such as:

• Trusting your impulses


• Sensory, physical and vocal awareness


• Active listening, watching and reflecting


• Exploring and analysing the script and scene


• Character, emotion and the rehearsal process


• Ensemble building


• Engaging your audience

This unit also addresses graduate capabilities related to effective communication through engagement in fictional, dramatic contexts; and the ability to work independently and collaboratively through participation in the series of acting studio experiences.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Through studio-based workshops, tutorials, directed rehearsals, autonomous rehearsal and presentations taught by professional teacher/practitioners, you will engage with the demands of individual and group-based work and rehearsals of text-based material and scenes that introduce the double responsibility of self-management as an individual and a member of an ensemble working towards performance. You will be expected to create a reflective document in the form of an actor's workbook and record workshop activities and the discoveries and challenges encountered in the studio/performance work, and as a resource for future performance endeavours. The studio-based practice will be supported by a required text-book and a Blackboard site for this unit.

Assessment

Performance is a cooperative activity, and you must be available to work towards assessment in pairs outside normal class time during Assessment Number 2.Throughout the process of workshops and rehearsals, tutors will provide feedback to you which will inform both assessments items. Summative Assessment Item 2 will be assessed by a panel of two examiners. Summative assessment feedback for assessment items will be provided on individual standard schemas with accompanying written comments.

Assessment name: Performance
Description: A studio performance of monologue/exercise that demonstrates an emerging competence in the principles involved in developing an available and responsive instrument.
Relates to objectives: 1,2,4,5
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Mid Semester

Assessment name: Performance
Description: Performance of a two-handed scene that demonstrates a developing competence in cultivating an available and responsive instrument and in your ability to be believable on stage.
Relates to objectives: 2,3,4,5
Weight: 60%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: End Semester

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Morris, Eric (1990). Being and doing: a workbook for actors. Ermor Enterprises. Hollywood, CA.

Risk assessment statement

Some acting workshops and rehearsal warm ups, exercises and activities and some performance events may include physically or emotionally strenuous activities. Managing this risk to ensure working conditions are safe, is always a high priority in the workshop, rehearsal and performance process. It is therefore extremely important that if you are aware of personal physical or emotional vulnerabilities that make you feel unsafe or at risk in any way, you should immediately inform your tutor, so that your situation can be evaluated and appropriate rectifying action can be taken.
Every effort is made by Drama staff at QUT to ensure that you work in a safe environment. Conversely you are expected to follow all safety rules, procedures and directions, and to ensure that you do not put at risk the safety of others, or yourself.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 01-May-2012