This module will explore a range of analytical and practical skills that will be useful to you in your study of playwriting, and will extend and deepen the knowledge you already have. We will analyse live theatre productions and dramatic texts, alongside contextual historical and theoretical material. Using discussion, writing, spectatorship, analysis and independent work as methodologies for learning, this module will lay the foundations for the rest of your MA studies, and will equip you for the exciting challenges ahead. This module is designed to lay the theoretical and practical foundations for your studies.
N/A
Occurrence | Teaching cycle |
---|---|
A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
The aims of the module are:
to introduce you to the fundamental elements of the playwriting craft
to give you a wide range of writers’ work to draw on
To develop your ability to reflect and analyse your own process in relation to other practitioner’s work
The aims of the module are:
to introduce you to the fundamental elements of the playwriting craft
to give you a wide range of writers’ work to draw on
To develop your ability to reflect and analyse your own process in relation to other practitioner’s work
By the end of the module you will be expected:
to understand the key aspects of the playwright’s craft and how to address them in your writing
to have developed your workshop and collaboration skills
to have established a supportive, safe, critically reflective community of writers
to have engaged with playwriting manuals, other writers’ creative works as well as traditional academic sources to enhance your own writing
to have reflected upon, and written about, aspects of your own writing process
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Multiple-scene Script |
N/A | 70 |
Essay/coursework Reflective essay |
N/A | 30 |
None
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Multiple-scene Script |
N/A | 70 |
Essay/coursework Reflective essay |
N/A | 30 |
Students will receive written feedback on their summative work within the 20-working day University feedback policy, and will receive written feedback on their formative work within 20 working days or sooner, with an option of an individual follow-up meeting if any aspect of the feedback is unclear to the student or if more guidance on interpreting the feedback is requested.
Adiseshiah, Siân, and Louise Lepage (eds.) Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Bentley, Gerald Eades, The Profession of Dramatist in Shakespeare's Time, 1590-1642 (Princeton: princeton University Press, 1972.
Castagno, Paul C. New Playwriting Strategies. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.
Catron, Louis E. The Elements of Playwriting. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2018.
Edgar, David. How Plays Work. London: Nick Hern, 2009.
Egri, Lajos. The Art of Dramatic Writing. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Kiely, Damon. How to Read a Play. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
Smiley, Sam. Playwriting: The Structure of Action. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Stephens, John Russell. The Profession of the Playwright: British Theatre, 1800–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Taylor, Val. Stage Writing: A Practical Guide. Marlborough: Crowood Press, 2002.
Tichler, Rosemarie, and Barry Jay Kaplan. The Playwright at Work. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2012.
Waters, Steve. The Secret Life of Plays. London: Nick Hern 2010.
Wright, Michael. Playwriting in Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2010.