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DRAM40530

Academic Year 2024/2025

Adaptations (DRAM40530)

Subject:
Drama Studies
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
English, Drama & Film
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Professor Eamonn Jordan
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This is a more a creativity rather than theory-led module that examines the instincts and inducements of writers to adapt, revise, alter, amend, supplement, and transform original works, cultural narratives and person-al testimonies into different genres. The module is not inclined to focus on the adaptations of novels of which there are numerous examples in thea-tre, television and film, but includes many examples of the adaptation of other media to theatre and theatre to other media.
Adaptation will be seen in light of feminist revisions of Greek tragedy and classic realism, theatrical mashups/re-mediations devised by companies like Britain’s Punchdrunk and Ireland’s Pan Pan or Loose Canon theatre companies, textual deconstruction and re-orientation evident in in Thom-as Ostermeir’s Hamlet or She She Pop’s King Lear-inspired Testament, Katie Mitchell’s version of Woolf’s novel Waves through an approach titled “live cinema,” Complicité’s highly technological adaptation of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, the various versions of The Birds – initially du Maurier(novella), then Hitchcock (film), later McPherson (play) –, and McPherson’s incorporation of Bob Dylan’s songs in Girl from the North Country.
Such adapted works will be seen as a creative, critical and interventionist process, and variously viewed in terms of inspiration, interrogation, transportation, creative questioning, exchange or appropriation and not about faithfulness to the original text. Languages, cultures, epochs, points of view, genres, attitudes towards time, space, focalisation and ideological differentials will be considered. Workshops, seminars and masterclasses by academics and professionals from the cultural industry will inform this laboratory-style module.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module students will have
• Analysed and critiqued a range of written, broadcast and performance texts that have been variously adapted
• Embarked on the necessary research for creative writing projects
• Reflected on the various technical and performance requirements of different media
• Experienced various techniques, styles and processes through the practice of adaptation
• Written creative work inspired by an original source – by way of adaptation, modification, transposition, or interrogation
• Partaken and collaborated with peers in effective reflections on the texts/productions engaged over the module and on student generated work
• Found a voice, viewpoint and the confidence to assert opinions creatively
• Evolved critical evaluative skills and cogently communicated this analysis in verbal and written forms
• Considered issues of exchange and appropriation in relation to approaching/encountering stories and forms from diverse cultures
• Questioned the role of culture in the challenging and reinforcement of dominant ideology
• Evolved arguments cognisant of the current critical debates about adaptation
• Pinpointed professional opportunities for their work.

Indicative Module Content:

Seminars- Provisional
WK 1- (20/01) Introduction: Adaptation, Interrogation and Inspiration: Nora: After A Doll’s House, Steff Smith (EJ)
WK 2- (27/01) Wooster Group’s Hamlet (EB)
• Arfara, Katia. "Review Essay: The Wooster Group: Hamlet, Or the Tragic of the Sur-face." Performance Research, vol. 13, no. 1, 2008, pp. 134-137.
• LeCompte, E., Valk, K., Fliakos, A., & Shevtsova, M. A Conversation on The Wooster Group's Hamlet. New Theatre Quarterly, 29(2), 2013, pp. 121-131.
• Worthen, W.B. Hamlet at Ground Zero: The Wooster Group and the Archive of Perfor-mance, Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, 2008, pp. 303–322.
Wk3 (03/02) Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love - Performance as Adaptation (JB)
WK4- (10/02) Autobiographical Adaptation: Processes and Collaborations Manning and O’Brien’s Striking Back: The Untold Story of an Ant-Apartheid Striker 1984 Dunnes Stores Apartheid and Kellie Hughes and Matthew Spangler Adaptation (KH)
WK5 – (17/02) Idea to Concept Devising Theatre:- Pan Pan and Doll House (NR) TBC
WK 6: (24/02) Idea to Concept/Devising Theatre: Performance Corporation’s (NR) TBC
WK 7 (03/03) Sally Rooney’s Normal People From Novel/Television (M O’H)
(Spring Break)
Wk 8 (24/03)Autobiography/Performance Mary Coughlan/Brokentalker’s A Woman Undone (FC)
Wk 9 (31/03) From Song to Play: Girl from the North Country by Bob Dylan/Conor McPherson (EJ)
Wk 10 (07/04) Bisi Adigun’s Paddies of Parnell Street/ Jimmy Murphy’s The Kings of the Kilburn High Road (BA)
Wk 11: (14/04) Love and a Bottle/ A radical re-working of George Farquhar's 1698 Restoration comedy (DH)
Wk 12: (21/04) From Monologue to Television: Fleabag, Phoebe Waller Bridge by way of a Conclusion (EJ)
Please Note: No tutor will take scripts away to read during the semester.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24
Autonomous Student Learning

176
Total

200

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
These sessions are seminars. Students must do required readings for each session and prepare creative work when scheduled.
Guests from industry will also lead sessions

The use of AI is prohibited.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: Portfolio of Weekly exercises Week 14 Graded Yes

40

 Yes
Assignment(Including Essay): Essay on Adaptation process Week 14 Graded Yes

30

 Yes
Individual Project: Writing Exercise inspired by the notion of Adaptation Week 14 Graded Yes

30

 Yes

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students will receive ongoing feedback during the module, will avail of peer feedback and will receive feedback on their overall work

Name Role
Dr Emma Bennett Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Ms Kellie Hughes Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Ashley Taggart Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Jeanne Tiehen Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
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