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Extended Practical Writing Project - TFT00069M

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  • Department: Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Lisa Peschel
  • Credit value: 100 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2021-22
    • See module specification for other years: 2022-23
  • Notes: This is an independent study module

Module summary

This module provides you with an opportunity to undertake an independent writing project based on your particular interests and your own choice of topic, style, genre and medium. You will produce a play which is of a professional standard and a reflective essay that demonstrates your understanding of your own writing process, including practical and scholarly research you carried out and how you position your own work in relation to the works of other playwrights who have influenced you.

Professional requirements

N/A

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Summer Term 2021-22 to Summer Vacation 2021-22

Module aims

The aims of the module are:

  • to provide you with the opportunity to write a full-length play

  • to give you the opportunity to design and execute an ambitious independent scriptwriting project

  • to test and enhance your command of the knowledge, skills, and techniques acquired during previous scriptwriting modules in a context where, although supported by supervisorial guidance, you have the chance to create your own agendas and devise methods to carry them out

  • to enable you  to understand and participate actively in the process of script development

  • to develop your analytical capacity to reflect on the function, scope and effectiveness of your own research and writing process.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module you will be expected:

  • to have written a 15,000-20,000 word script and a careful analysis of your research and writing process

  • to have applied and extended the understanding, skills, and knowledge acquired through your work on earlier scriptwriting modules

  • to have demonstrated a working knowledge of structure, and to have chosen an appropriate narrative structure for the story you are telling in your play

  • to demonstrate an understanding of how characters and dialogue are created and developed, and of the interplay between character, dialogue and action

  • to present a script professionally, with flawless editing and using industry-standard layout and formatting

  • to be able to write a critical analysis of your own research and writing process with insight and self-awareness

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
20000n word play		 N/A 70
Essay/coursework
4000 word reflective essay		 N/A 30

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
4000 word reflective essay		 N/A 30

Module feedback

These projects will be supervised by a member of the theatre team. Students are entitled to up to four supervisions meetings of an hour each in duration, and may submit work-in-progress for feedback and discussion ahead of supervision meetings.

Indicative reading

Adiseshiah, Siân, and Louise Lepage (eds.) Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Ball, David.  Backwards and Forwards:  A Technical Manual for Reading Plays.  Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.

Castagno, Paul C. New Playwriting Strategies. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.

Catron, Louis E. The Elements of Playwriting. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2018.

Cole, Toby. Playwrights on Playwriting: The Making of Modern Drama from Ibsen to Ionesco. New York: Hill & Wang, 1961.

Edgar, David. How Plays Work. London: Nick Hern, 2009.

Egri, Lajos.  The Art of Dramatic Writing.  New York:  Simon & Schuster, 2003.  

Fliotsos, Anne. Interpreting the Play Script: Contemplation and Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Grace, Fraser, and Clare Bayley. Playwriting. London: Bloomsbury, 2015.

Grochala, Sarah. The Contemporary Political Play: Rethinking Dramaturgical Structure. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Jarcho, Julia. Writing and the Modern Stage: Theater Beyond Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Jester, Caroline, and Caridad Svich (eds.). Fifty Playwrights on their Craft. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Kiely, Damon. How to Read a Play. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.

Knopf, Robert. Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.

Neipris, Janet. To Be A Playwright. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Radosavljevic, Duska. Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Smiley, Sam. Playwriting: The Structure of Action. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Storm, William. Dramaturgy and Dramatic Character: A Long View. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Sweet, Jeffrey. What Playwrights Talk About When They Talk About Writing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

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.  

 


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.