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DRAM30370

Academic Year 2026/2027

Performance Festival (DRAM30370)

Subject:
Drama Studies
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
English, Drama & Film
Level:
3 (Degree)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Emma Bennett
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Performance Festival is a collaborative production module enabling students to work together to conceptualise, programme, develop, and organise a public performance festival. Taking as its cue major theatre festivals like the longstanding Dublin Theatre Festival or eclectic Dublin Fringe Festival, this is a module about festival making, audience engagement, and understanding how to get your work ready to meet a public audience.

This is an intensive module focused on practical, professional and creative skills in theatre practice. It is an opportunity to further develop existing creative projects, and students are encouraged to come to the module with work already in progress (especially work developed in other Drama and/or creative modules in the School of English, Drama and Film) which can then be revised and restaged, adapted, and curated for the festival.

The creative challenge of the module is to work collaboratively to develop a diverse assortment of works into a cohesive and impactful festival with a clear identity. Organized, produced, designed, promoted, and performed by students, Performance Festival is facilitated by a professional theatre director in consultation with Drama faculty. The aim is to guide, support and empower students as emerging practitioners in performance and related fields.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of the module, students should have:
• Enhanced their teamworking skills and self-awareness through the collaborative creation and production of a public programme of theatre work
• Deepened their understanding of the role of feedback in a creative process, and honed their ability to both give and receive/integrate constructive feedback
• Gained experience of the demands of a professional production process including but not limited to promotion, rehearsal techniques, technical design, event organising, stage management, and performing
• Developed their skills in oral and written communication skills for professional contexts in the arts

The United Nations identified seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as core to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and UCD contributes in general to SDG 4 Quality Education. Further SDGs explored within this module if relevant are listed below. A scale of 1 - 5 indicates the extent to which the SDG is covered.


 

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Autonomous Student Learning

150
Practical

50
Total

200

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Collaborative workshops, peer-to-peer mentoring, group discussion and decision making, individual feedback in class, technical instruction where relevant, instruction as to professional theatre production processes, independent learning and self-organised learning via independent writing, rehearsal and administrative tasks,, and learning through doing via the production of a public festival.

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: Contribution to group work and project overall, recorded in a 200-300 words process log. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8 Graded No
10
 No
Individual Project: Festival Submission Application, 1,250-1,750 words Week 3 Graded No
20
 No
Group Work Assignment: Production and Delivery of Performance Festival - in whatever roles (creative, technical, administrative) have been agreed with the module tutor and the rest of the group Week 7 Graded No
40
 No
Portfolio: Final Portfolio, collating process and creative materials 1,500-2,000 words Week 10 Graded No
30
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Small Group Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Fri 10:00 - 15:50
Spring Small Group Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29 Mon 10:00 - 11:50
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