DRAM30120 Beckett in Performance

Academic Year 2021/2022

This online course offers students an opportunity to examine practically selected plays by Samuel Beckett with special emphasis on the challenges they pose to directors, and on how they work in performance particularly in site-specific settings. Students will learn about the role of the director, the aesthetic of Beckett's theatre, the impact of site-specific staging, and will, through practical and theoretical engagement, develop a director's notebook detailing their own proposed production of a Beckett play.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

This course aims to introduce students to the role of the director, through the context of Beckett's plays in practice.
Students will have the opportunity to study selected plays by Beckett in detail in practice and to explore the process of conceiving and planning a production and with reference to site-specific staging.
On completion of the course, students will be familiar with issues concerning Beckett's plays in performance, be confident in their understanding of the role of the director in theatre, and be capable of creating a production plan in the form of a Director's Notebook

Indicative Module Content:


• 1: Language Part One
• 2: Language Part Two
• 3: Meaning / Stage Directions
• 4: Site Specific Staging Part One
• 5 Site Specific Staging
• READING WEEK
• 6: Mid Term Presentations
• 7: Physicality
• 8: Director’s Approaches
• 9: Beckett Characters and Actors
• 10: Director’s Notebook Preparation
• 11: Course Overview & Feedback & Assignment preparation.



Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Studio

22
Autonomous Student Learning

80
Total

102
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module examines selected playtexts of Samuel Beckett from perspectives of both theory and practice.
Weekly sessions require that students examine precedence of seminal productions and performances of Beckett's work of significant directors, actors and designs.
Students test a range of approaches to staging of Beckett's work using theories of Anne Bogart among others.
The approach throughout is to support students' individual responses to Beckett's work imaginatively and creatively through solid theoretical and contextual frames.
The Mid-term assessment comprises a presentation of a site specific extract of Beckett’s work and asks students to record their work in a director’s notebook document focusing in particular on the impact of the site on Beckett's work.
The End of term assessment is a Director's Notebook focusing on a full Beckett play imagined site-specifically in which students present their production concept in a portfolio that encompasses selected aspects required in the staging of a production of Beckett.
Due to the nature of this practice-based module, attendance at all classes is expected and required. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Pre-requisite:
DRAM20030 - Staging Performance, DRAM20090 - Contemporary British Theatre, DRAM20110 - Contemporary Ireland On Stage, DRAM20160 - Queer Theatre and Performance, DRAM20170 - Introduction to Acting, DRAM20190 - Playwriting, ENG20250 - Modern Drama

Required:
DRAM20180 - 20thCentury AvantGarde Theatre

Additional Information:
Before registering for this module, students must have: passed DRAM20110, attempted DRAM20010 and DRAM20180, AND students must have passed ONE of the following modules: DRAM20030 or DRAM20160 or DRAM20090 or ENG20250 or DRAM20170 or DRAM20190.

Equivalents:
Beckett in Performance (DRAM30210)


 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Contribution and submission at the beginning of each class of 3 written points in response to a set task in relation to the class topic(s).
 Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

20
Presentation: Power-Point presentation that introduces student concept for a site-specific staging of a selected work of Samuel Beckett Week 8 n/a Graded No

20
Portfolio: Director's notebook Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

60

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
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

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Students receive Feedback during preparation of the mid-term Assignment (week 7). Feedback is given on the Director's Notebook end -of -term assignment after the assessment process.

Name Role
Dr Emma Bennett Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Ms Andrea Scott Lecturer / Co-Lecturer