| Unit name | Site-Specific Performance |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THTR20025 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Paul Clarke |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of Theatre |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important:
Not all performance happens in theatres and this unit will explore site-specific theatre, choreography and other forms of performance that take place outside conventional venues and made in response to sites. Site-specific performance has become increasingly prevalent in recent years and you will be introduced to a wide range of inspiring examples, develop your understanding of the role of space and place with regard to performance, and be equipped with strategies for responding to specific physical places and social spaces as theatre-makers. You will have the opportunity to choose a site that interests you to engage with and make work for, researching who uses it and how, its histories, meanings and untold stories. Then you’ll devise and develop a group performance specifically for this place.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study:
This unit develops the practical performance and research skills you gained in Year 1 through investigating forms of place-specific theatre and a chosen site. It builds on the practical and collaborative expertise in performance and design you gained on Making Theatre and applies the critical/archival/interpretative skills from Analysing Performance and Performance Histories to specific sites and example site-specific performances. The unit provides you with an authentic learning experience as the brief set and expectations will relate closely to the challenge of making a professional performance commission for a specific place. This unit will prepare you for H/6 Performance, PAR and Staff-led Projects, and you could choose to deepen your research or practice in site-specific performance through an Extended Essay or Dissertation, Independent Performance Project or PAR Project.
Overview:
In this unit, site-specificity will be explored by engaging with practical approaches, relevant theoretical tools, and a range of professional examples. You will encounter forms of site-specific performance, such as environmental responses to landscape; community-focused urban interventions; locative audio storytelling or flash mobs; and the staging of existing plays within found spaces. You will develop understanding of concepts of space and place, which will inform your investigation of site-specific performance practices beyond traditional indoor theatre venues. Locations could range from the university campus itself to heritage buildings or sites, local parks or green spaces, shopping streets or housing estates. You will explore writing over the city, using text and technologies to reveal new meanings, ways that bodies and movement can transform spaces, and making work with and for place-based communities.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will think of other places than theatres as sites for performance and be able to see their opportunities and challenges. You will know about the field of site-specific performance, be able to position your work within it, and reflect critically through relevant theories. You will understand how to research sites and be able to create collaborative theatre or choreography in response to them, for a range of audiences. Whilst the focus will be on making work for sites and buildings beyond the conventional theatre, the unit will develop transferrable skills in research, ideation, creative decision-making, collaboration, and reflective practice.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
At the start of the unit, presentations will introduce a range of inspiring examples of site-specific works by artists, choreographers and theatre-makers, which you can draw on and adapt approaches from, and will enable you to position your work in this field. These will also introduce relevant theories of space and place, which you can use to reflect critically on your own and others’ practice. Weekly, hands-on workshops in a range of sites will explore different approaches to researching, writing and devising with and for particular places; responding to the environment/physical architecture and conventional uses/social behaviours you observe there. Workshop discussion will build the analytical skills needed for you to reflect critically on your creative decision making. The practical assessment brief will be problem-based and authentic, modelled on and enabling you to prepare for the kind of public art/theatre commission for a place you could apply for after your studies. The latter part of the unit will be focused on student-centred R&D and group rehearsals, with unit and production/design teachers providing support and feed-forward on work-in-progress creative practice.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
There is no formal formative assessment for this unit. Weekly formative feedback will be given on practical exercises and activities, both by unit teacher(s) and your peers. During the process of making performances, groups will get regular feedback on work-in-progress in their sites, receiving feedforward from the unit director and relevant production/design teachers.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Performance (70%) (groups, 5 minutes per person) [ILOs 1, 2]
Individual 15-minute viva (30%) [ILOs 2, 3] (5-minute presentation & 10-minute discussion, contextualising and reflecting critically on Performance project and process)
When assessment does not go to plan:
Reassessment
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. THTR20025).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
