Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 2 2013

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

Rationale

It is important for students of performance to push beyond the walls of the designated theatre space and examine performance in a range of forms and contexts for its transformative powers and as it is applied to social action. To consider performance as it is applied within diverse communities for a range of purposes is key to a full understanding of contemporary performance in the twenty-first century.

Aims

Applied Theatre will introduce you to a range of principles, practices and forms that turn focus from the individual to the community, from product to the process, from helping oneself to helping others, from closed notions of high art to a more open understanding of how culture and learning is collaboratively created. This unit asks you to interrogate and make connections between creative practice, community and purpose: Why this action/form/practice for these people/communities for this reason? This unit equips you with the ability to ask appropriate questions in a given set of circumstances and conceptualise/design a project that is responsive to those circumstances.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to:
1. Develop a broad and coherent understanding of the philosophies, principles and practices of applied theatre?
2. Explain the technical, ethical and aesthetic issues involved in creating an applied theatre program for a specific client group?
3. Employ appropriate forms, materials and technologies to plan and present an applied theatre performance for a specific client group?
4. Build and implement a collaborative team to plan and present an applied performance

Content

The unit provides you with core understandings related to Applied Performance, and opportunities to observe or apply those understandings in practical project-based work. Driving principles such as social justice, cultural democracy, critical pedagogy, cultural development, community and self-determination, sustainability and ethical practice will be unpacked and examined. These broad principles will translate into strategies for planning and action in a range of sectors, capturing several forms and models of cultural practice, including community cultural development and the work of Augusto Boal.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The lecture and tutorial series will introduce you to the philosophical placement and driving principles of Applied Performance, and introduce you to key projects and practitioners. In planning and teaching this unit the curriculum designers aim to promote collaborative student learning through discussion, through demonstration teaching, a series of concurrent practical workshops and key readings.

Assessment

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
An assignment submitted after the due date without an approved extension will not be marked. If you are unable to complete your assignment on time, you should submit on time whatever work you have done.

Faculty Assessment Information
To access the Creative Industries Faculty Assessment Information see the Blackboard site for this unit.FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Your tutor will provide feedback on your participation and progress in workshops, together with in-class and online feedback to assist you in preparing for your summative assessment items. One week before your first summative assessment item, in which you propose, design and deliver an applied performance workshop for your tutorial group, you will Road Test the participatory component of your performance with members of another tutorial group.

Assessment name: Demonstration
Description: You will, in groups, propose and design and deliver an Applied Theatre workshop with a participatory forum component.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3, 4
Weight: 50%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group with Individual Component
Due date: Week 9 or 10

Assessment name: Project (applied)
Description: You will, individually, design a program of Applied Theatre workshops for a specific client group, which work to achieve transformation within either a Corporate or Education setting.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2
Weight: 50%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Late 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

Required Text

KTB209 Book of Key Readings available from KG QUT Bookshop.

Boal, A. (1992) Games for Actors and Non-Actors, Routledge, London.

Recommended References

Applied Theatre Researcher (www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cpci/atr)

Research in Drama Education (available via the Library databases)

Boal, Augusto (1995) The Rainbow of Desire, London: Routledge.

Boal, Augusto (1998) Legislative Theatre, London: Routledge.

Boal, Augusto (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed, London: Pluto.

Boal, Augusto (2001) Hamlet and the Baker's Son, London: Routledge.

Cohen-Cruz, Jan Schutzman, Mady, (1994) Playing Boal, London: Routledge.

Freire, Paulo (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum.

Frances Babbage, Frances (2004), Augusto Boal, Routledge, London, pp. 67-106.

Prentki, T. & Preston, S. (2009) The Applied Theatre Reader, London & New York: Routledge.

Prendergast, M. and Saxon, J. (2009) Applied Theatre: International Case Studies and Challenges for Practice, Brisol: Intellect.

Taylor, P. (2003) Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community, Portsmouth: Heineman

Hargrove, R.A. (1998). Close Encounters of the Creative Kind : Launching Your Collaboration in Hargrove, Robert A, Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration (1998), New York: McGraw-Hill, pp.127-148.

Nemeth, CJ. & Nemeth-Brown, B. (2003). Chapter 4 : Better than Individuals? The Potential Benefits of Dissent and Diversity for Group Creativity in Paulus, Paul B & Nijstad, Bernard A (eds), Group creativity : innovation through collaboration, New York: Oxford University Press, pp.63-84.

Risk assessment statement

As all performance-makers understand, creating a performance potentially carries with it certain physical and/or emotional risks, both in the rehearsal room and in the theatre. Indeed taking risks is an integral component of the art forms processes. Some rehearsal warm ups and exercises, 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 production 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 or director or stage manager, so that your situation can be evaluated and appropriate rectifying action can be taken. Theatres and other performance spaces are also potentially dangerous places, particularly backstage during performances when lowlight conditions prevail. You will be warned by the stage manager, the production manager or the director of any specific risks that you will need to be aware of, when your project team first moves in to the theatre. Whenever moving into a new performance space, you should always conduct your own risk assessment, and notify your team or director of any hazards you have personally identified. Every effort is made by Performance Studies staff at QUT to ensure that you work in a safe environment. Conversely you are absolutely 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, or of the highest artistic fulfillment of the project in any way.

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: 26-Mar-2013