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

Performance making is inherently collaborative. Skills in group work and devising are essential to the performance maker of the 21st century. This unit builds upon work undertaken in Production 1 by providing opportunities to contribute to the group devising of a new performance work.

Aims

This unit aims to build your understanding of the theory and practice of collaborative creativity in the intense environment of a group devised process which culminates in a fully realised performance.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to:

1. Contribute constructively to the creation of a new performance work in one or more roles

2. Integrate and apply relvant theories of group work and collaboration to a creative process

3. Identify and compare a range of approaches to narrative structure in group devised performance

4. Employ reflective practice as a key element of a collaborative process.

Content

In the lecture series you will be introduced to principles of group work and models of collaborative performance making, including theories of collaboration, historical antecedents of group-devised theatre, and its unique implications for narrative structure. In your tutorial/workshop you will actively participate in one particular creative process, experiencing it in practical detail. From these foundations you will be guided by a professional teacher/director to create an original performance. While a starting point for the project may be provided by your tutor, they will transparently facilitate your groups artistic process, ensuring a level of autonomy in determining key concerns of content and form. You will contribute to the performance season of the work in one or more roles, and analyse the narrative structure of your own work, and the work of your peers.

In addition, you will undertake research, personal reflection and documentation of the process. Depending on availability, you may also have the opportunity to audition for a special performance project, or elect to take a production/management role.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

In the highly charged environment of a devised process, your artistry will be augmented by theoretical and practical exploration of the power of collaborative creativity. Theory will be introduced in the short lecture series, and embodied in the workshops under the guidance of your tutor. You will actively participate in the development of the artwork (often in multiple roles) while developing the critical ability to stand outside the process as a reflective practitioner.

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
Collaboration in and contribution to the group devised process, including attendance and participation in the workshops, work in progress showing and performance. You are required to keep a journal in which you record and reflect upon in-class activities. You may draw from this journal to substantiate your summative assessment tasks. Your tutor will sight this journal at least once during the semester.
Weight: 0%

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Performance making requires group collaboration therefore attendance at all rehearsals and performances for which you are called, is compulsory. If you are required to attend lectures or tutorials for other units you are enrolled in, you will be given permission to negotiate absence from rehearsals in order to attend those sessions where they clash with rehearsal times. No other permission to be absent from rehearsals should be sought except on strong medical or compassionate grounds. The unit coordinator reserves the right to withdraw all your roles if you absent yourself from rehearsals; in such a case, you will be unable to meet the unit objectives and therefore will be deemed to have failed the unit, assessment items notwithstanding.

Assessment name: Performance
Description: (Summative) You will actively participate in the development, work in progress showing, production and performance of a substantially formed new work, in one or more roles. You will record elements of the experience in a journal.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: End semester

Assessment name: Essay
Description: (Summative) Utilising the theory and practice you have experienced in the unit, you will identify three key turning points that were integral to the collaborative process of making of your group's performance, and analyse their contributing factors and overall significance. Drawing on your journal, this case study will centre on a single 'map' of the creative process which you will design yourself.
Relates to objectives: 2,4
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: End Semester

Assessment name: Essay
Description: (Summative) Drawing on the theory and practice you have experienced in the unit to date, you will identify and compare two approaches to narrative structure in group devised performance, and comment on their relevance to your emerging performance concept and work in progress.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: External
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Mid-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 Texts
Online resources as provided on the Blackboard site for the unit.

Recommended References
Bicat, T and Baldwin, C (2002) Devised And Collaborative Theatre: A Practical Guide Marlborough: Crowood.

Callery, C. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre, Nick Hern Books, London.

Cooper, M. and Sjostrom, L. (2006) Making art together : how collaborative art-making can transform kids, classrooms, and communities, Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press.

Govan, Emma et al. (2007) Making a performance : devising histories and contemporary practices, New York: Routledge.

Heddon, D and Milling, Jane. (2006). Devising performance :a critical history, New York: Palgrave.

Kerrigan, S. (2001) The Performer?s Guide to the Collaborative Process, Heinemann, Portsmouth.

Meill, D and Littleton, K (2004) Collaborative Creativity: Contemporary Perspectives Free Association Press, London.

Oddey, A. (1994) Devising: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook, Routledge, London.

Oddey, A. and White, C. A. (2006) The potentials of spaces : the theory and practice of scenography & performance, Bristol: Intellect Books.

Sawyer, R. Keith (2007) Group genius : the creative power of collaboration Basic Books New York

Schrage, Michael. (1995) No more teams! : mastering the dynamics of creative collaboration New York : Currency/Doubleday.

Risk assessment statement

As all performance-makers know, making a performance always carries with it certain physical risks, both in the rehearsal room and in the theatre. Indeed taking risks is an integral component of the art form's processes. Some rehearsal warm ups and exercises may include physically or emotionally strenuous activities. You should inform your tutor if you are aware of personal, physical or emotional vulnerabilities, or if you are feeling unsafe or at risk in any way.

Theatres are also potentially dangerous places, particularly backstage during performances when lowlight conditions prevail. You will receive specific safety warnings by the stage manager, the Theatre Technician or the director relating to any specific risks that you will need to be aware of, when your project team first moves in to the theatre.

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 fulfilment 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: 21-Sep-2012