University of Galway

Course Module Information

Course Modules

Semester 2 | Credits: 10

This course explores the relationship between theory and practice in a laboratory format that combines making and staging work with critical investigation. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a critical vocabulary for approaching practice as research that will result in the creation of new devised or staged work guided by student's shared intellectual and artistic interests. The first part of the semester will be focused on a survey of divergent approaches to the creative process in contemporary performance practice by way of artist accounts, film viewings and performance outings, and engagement with critical theory focused in theatre and performance studies. In the second half of the semester, students will work in groups with instructor supervision to create or stage a collective work that engages a research problem or question resulting in public performance of these works. Students will also complete a final research paper locating their performance project and its desired interventions in genealogies of theatre and performance practice. Assessment: Weekly written assignments, practical classroom exercises, group performance project and final research paper.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes
  1. Compare and contrast varying methods of contemporary theatre making
  2. Experiment actively with contemporary physical theatre and devising techniques in a collaborative workshop format
  3. Create an original performance or stage an original interpretation of a piece for performance
  4. Demonstrate advanced skills of group collaboration
Assessments
  • Continuous Assessment (100%)
Teachers
Reading List
  1. "Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre" by Frantic Assembly
    ISBN: 978-113877701.
  2. "A Director Prepares" by Anne Bogart
    ISBN: 978-041523832.
  3. "Postdramatic theatre" by Hans-Thies Lehmann; translated and with an introduction by Karen J?urs-Munby
    ISBN: 0415268133.
    Publisher: London ; Routledge, 2006.
The above information outlines module EN611: "Performance Lab" and is valid from 2016 onwards.
Note: Module offerings and details may be subject to change.