Accessibility statement

Business for Performance (BCI) - TFT00033C

« Back to module search

  • Department: Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Emma Pett
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: C
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module will introduce students to the key business models that drive live performance in the theatre and live cultural and mass audience events. It will also introduce students to some of the leadership issues in managing performance when it comes to working with creative teams, and creative individuals, in the development and delivery of creative projects. You will explore the stage business from the subsidised to the commercial, from the local rep' to the West End, from the local cultural venue to the national, or international, arena. And students will start to analyse, and engage with, what it is about the creative industries that distinguishes them from more traditional industrial forms: the emphasis on individual and collective creativity that drives live events, as well as producing innovative films, programmes and games on screen.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to:

Acquaint you the core business models that drive the financing and production of live performances on stage, and in public events.

Acquaint you with how business models adapt to different performance spaces, institutional conditions, and audiences.

Explore some of the key distinctions between the subsidised and the commercial, in both live theatre and in the making and promotion of live cultural events.

Explore the degree to which working with creative talent - individually or in teams - impacts on business, development and production workflows.

Investigate some of the leadership skills involved in managing the performance of creative talent through production cycles.

Module learning outcomes

And the end of this module students  will be:

Familiar with the key business models and structures that condition live performance on the stage, and inspire the creation of live public cultural events.

Able to begin adapting essential business ideas to different performance contexts: the commercial and the subsidised, the small venue and the large arena, the local and the national.

Familiar with the distinctive role creative talent - whether individual or collective - plays in the performance of creative businesses.

Able to apply some leadership techniques to the management of talent,. and to the co-ordination of teams - in developing and producing work for both live performance and the screen.

 

Module content

This module will combine formal lectures and seminars in delivering core business information with a series of practical sessions in which leadership and inter-personal skills are explore in group scenario work.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay on Live Performance topic		 N/A 70
Oral presentation/seminar/exam
Presentation: Exercise in managing performance		 N/A 30

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Formative feedback is embedded in all seminars and practicals. 

 

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay on Live Performance topic		 N/A 70
Essay/coursework
Leadership presentation essay		 N/A 30

Module feedback

Feedback will be delivered no later than four working weeks after submission, as per university regulations. Formative feedback will be delivered at each seminar. And the practicals will be designed to feedback formatively in direct alignment with the Spring Week 10 presentation exercise.

Indicative reading

Robert J Sutherland, Introduction to Production: Creating Theatre Onstage, Backstage and Offstage (London: Routledge, 2017)

Julius Green, How to Produce a West End Show (London: Oberon Books, 2012)

Mark Sonder, Event Entertainment and Production (London: John Wiley and Sons, 2004)

James Seabright,So You Want to be a Theatre Producer (London: Nick Hern, 2010)

David M Conte, Theatre Management: Producing and Managing the Performing Arts (London: Quite Specific Media, 2007)

Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, (San Francisco; Jossey Bass, 2002)

Keith Sawyer,Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration (London: Basic Books, 2008)

 

 

 


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.