| Unit name | Performing the Archive |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THTR20028 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Mrs. Diamond |
| 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?
More and more museums, heritage buildings and sites are using theatre, exhibitions or installations, visitor experiences and digital interpretation to engage people with history. This presents a significant opportunity for you as theatre-makers. Documents from archives are used by researchers when writing histories of performance and past events, but they can also be inspirations for creative practice and on this unit we’ll explore ways in which performance can bring history to life. Taught collaboratively with Bristol Old Vic’s engagement team and the Theatre Collection, you work towards presenting a performance, historical guided tour, heritage interpretation, exhibition or installation at Bristol Old Vic, the oldest continuously working theatre in the country. You will gain the skills to engage with this professional environment, understand and be able to position your practice in the museums and heritage context, and reflect critically on your work in relation to theories of performance and archives, and issues around staging histories.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study:
This unit develops the practical performance and critical skills you gained in Year 1, developing and applying them in a professional theatre and heritage context. It builds on your archival research on Performance Histories, your practical work on Making Theatre, and the understanding of Bristol, its culture, and the theatre industry context of Bristol Old Vic that you gained on Pitching Productions. The unit provides an authentic learning experience in that you will learn in the professional environment of Bristol Old Vic and engage with real theatre/heritage industry challenges. This will prepare you for Professional Development in Year 3 and for a career in the cultural or creative industries after your studies. The unit also develops skills for working with archives and practices-as-research methodologies that you can apply further in H/6.
Overview:
This unit will be based on documents and objects connected to the history of Bristol Old Vic and we will think about how performance can interpret and animate archival materials and stage the stories that they tell. Seminar discussion and activities explore relationships between performance and documentation, between the archive and history; including oral histories, personal and cultural memory, intangible heritage and embodied repertoire. These ideas will be applied to a range of professional examples of ways of performing history, museum and heritage interpretation/engagement, living history, visitor experiences and/or practice-as-research projects. Practical workshops will introduce different approaches to working creatively with documents and engaging different audiences with histories; ways of re-making and re-enacting historical events or past performances in the present.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit:
You will know about a range of examples of ways of reviving/re-constructing/recreating theatre performances, staging history, heritage interpretation, engagement activities, and visitor experiences for different contexts and audiences. You will have the theoretical tools to think critically and reflect effectively on your own and others’ practices in these theatres, museums, historical buildings or sites. You will have developed your confidence in engaging with and making work for professional theatre or heritage contexts, and working to creative or cultural industry briefs.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course a successful student will be able to:
A series of weekly seminars will introduce a range of inspiring practical examples of artist/performance-makers’ responses to archives, and creative heritage interpretation, which you can draw on and adapt approaches from, and will enable you to position your work in this field. Seminar discussions will also introduce and let you apply the theoretical tools you require to think critically about and reflect on your own and others’ practice. Weekly, hands-on, interactive workshops will explore different methods of working creatively with archives, documents, museum objects, and historical performances, techniques which you can use when making your Creative Presentations. You will be taught in collaboration with the engagement team at Bristol Old Vic and Theatre Collection archivists. Activities in the workshops and your practical assessment will be problem-based and authentic, as you will respond to real heritage and theatre industry challenges, and be assessed in the professional environment of Bristol Old Vic. The latter part of the unit will be focused on student-centred R&D and group rehearsals, with unit teachers, archivists and professionals at Bristol Old Vic providing support on research 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 teachers and your peers. During the process of researching and developing the Creative Portfolio, groups will get feedback on initial ideas and have regular opportunities to share their plans and work-in-progress to receive feedforward from the unit director, Theatre Collection archivists and staff at Bristol Old Vic.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Creative Portfolio (70%) (Group, 5 minutes/person) [ILOs 1 - 4]
Critical Analysis (30%) (Individual, 1000 words or equivalent [ILOs 1 - 3]
When assessment does not go to plan:
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
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. THTR20028).
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.
