Term 1

Core module MA Drama and Theatre Education and MA Drama Education and ELT

This introductory module focuses on drama and theatre as means of artistic communication. How does drama/theatre communicate its meanings? How do we read a wide range of performance genres? What are the alternative historical and avant-garde connections between communicating in theatre and in drama education? The module explores, through study and practice, the use of signs and symbols in theatre and drama and semiotic and anthropological approaches to drama as a cultural system. The module also provides a knowledge base of periods, styles and genres for teachers who do not have an undergraduate degree in Drama or Theatre, or who wish to update their knowledge of theatre histories and codes. For the more experienced there is the chance to extend this knowledge base into the new areas of understanding informed by post-structuralist and critical theory perspectives. The module introduces sociological theories of artistic and social performance as a basis for suggesting that drama in schools should offer a complimentary mix of the oral/communal aesthetic tradition and the private/literary. The module, therefore, offers opportunities for considering participatory process drama, devised forms of theatre and text in performance.