2023/24 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PECI1112 Studio Practices

20 creditsClass Size: 60

Module manager: Dr Tony Gardner
Email: t.p.gardner@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2023/24

Pre-requisite qualifications

N/A

Module replaces

N/A

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

In this studio-based module you will be introduced to and experiment with key creative skills of performance, including body awareness and effort, voice and sounding, proxemics and performer relationships, explorations of stage space & place, response to and integration of music, narrative understanding and development, improvisation and devising. These skills are introduced through a series of weekly workshops organised into themes. You will be encouraged to develop critical and practical tools, shared languages and working processes that will form the foundations to underpin your future creative practice across all levels of the programme. Studio Practices will encompass diverse approaches to creative work and may include: movement, speech, writing, use of digital tools, and socially-engaged and design-led approaches to performance-making. You will work collaboratively in small groups to create a devised piece of performance work.

Objectives

This module will:

- introduce you to the different forms of creativity practised by theatre practitioners globally, across a selected range of performance themes and contexts, as well as key aspects of the theoretical perspectives that inform this range;

- enable you to relate the key disciplines that are encompassed by the terms ‘theatre’ and ‘performance’ through a firm grasp of the significant concepts, practical competencies, creative processes and techniques associated with them;

- allow you to collaborate creatively with others in a programme of studio-based practical work, including taught workshop sessions, self-directed group work and/or rehearsals, and critical showings of work followed by detailed discussions.

- enable you to experiment practically and take creative risks with working processes, methods and techniques in the realisation of specific creative tasks for different performance contexts to an agreed form, timescale and schedule;

- introduce you to collaborative working, personal responsibility, ambition and alignment and creative problem solving skills in practical work.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate how key components of performance making are used within a devised piece.

2. Discuss the creative process they have engaged with for assessment and articulate creative decisions and approaches in a Q&A session.

3. Reflect on their contribution to the creative process.

4. Demonstrate an iterative creative process, drafting and re-drafting their work, in light of feedback from their tutor and based on their own critical engagement with their practice.

5. Apply ethical practice to the development and presentation of their creative format and content, with an awareness of the need for professionalism in managing the relationship between performers, audience, content, and space(s) of presentation.

Skills outcomes
On this module you will have the opportunity to develop:

- Communication skills;

- Collaborative skills;

- Skills associated with independent learning, planning and organisation;

- Time management skills;

- Performance skills;

- Production management skills;

- Health and safety procedures and safe working practices;

Syllabus

Studio Practices is an introductory module delivered through a combination of workshops, self-directed and private study time. Primarily studio-based, it aims to familiarise students with the key creative elements of performance, including body awareness and effort, voice and sounding, proxemics and performer relationships, explorations of stage space & place, response to and integration of music, narrative understanding and development, improvisation and devising.

Through practical workshop exploration, a programme of individual reading and research, as well as self-directed group work and rehearsals, students are introduced to the critical and practical tools, shared languages and working processes that will form the foundation of their creative practice to be developed during subsequent modules.

Studio Practices will explore central themes of the discipline of Theatre & Performance. These may include: Performing the Self, Self and Other, Space, Materials & Environment, Image, Music & Text, Narrative, Writing, Audience, Performer. Experiments in the studio will encourage students to take creative risks within these over-arching themes.

For assessment, students will form small groups and, with close tutor supervision, work collaboratively to create performance pieces involving a selected key theme and creative skills.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
seminars	4	1.00	4.00
Group learning	11	3.00	33.00
Practical	22	2.00	44.00
Private study hours			119.00
Total Contact hours			81.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Students will receive formative feedback in the workshop stage of the module through their participation in and contribution to weekly practical sessions, and their engagement with weekly tasks and exercises.

- In week 5, there will be a mid-semester formative assessment that will introduce students to how practical work is assessed in the school. We will take this opportunity to reflect also on how to present work demonstrations with commentary and analysis, and on the nature of critical feedback. 

- In the weeks leading up to their assessment, students will have verbal in-session feedback on drafts of their work, allowing a space for the tutor to witness the students’ demonstration of an iterative creative process.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Group Project	20 mins group Studio Performance + 10 min Q&A	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

The group performance is typically defined so that students select a theme they wish to explore through their creative practice, and that they focus on exploring two creative skills in their work. Alternative assessment is the delivery of a 5 min presentation (followed by Q&A) that outlines the student’s idea for a devised performance, with details of performers, creative content, location, performance components and style, themes explored, etc. The presentation can incorporate images, short demonstrations of movement or text (in person or filmed), indicative scripts, descriptions, sketches, staging design ideas and so on. In common with other semester 1 modules on this programme this module will be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis requiring students to pass all tasks.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 27/03/2023

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