Course syllabus

Drama 301: Themes and Topics. Semester 1, 2018

 

Tom Bishop     

Arts 1 (Humanities), Rm 629 ext 87841

t.bishop@auckland.ac.nz

                                                       

Class time:    M 10-12, F 10-12

Workshop time: W 2-4                                                 

Location: Drama Studio, Arts 1 

                                                        

Overview:  Welcome to Drama 301 for 2018. This course is the most fun I have in my job. I hope you will enjoy it also and that we will learn much from one another this semester. We all have different interests and expertise in theatre that we can successfully pool and develop. Please feel free to ask questions or open discussion on relevant topics at any time, in class or in person or over email.

This course focuses on several topics around working with an audience, especially in comic acting and comic forms. You should be prepared for extensive practical workshops and exercises on the material studied, both solo and in groups. Topics of exploration will include: laughter, the comic actor and the audience, clowning, styles of comedy and the comic, the social spaces of performance, and so on. We will look in particular at dramatic work in two major classic comedy traditions: the Italian (later Europe-wide) commedia dell’arte and Shakespeare. Our semester-length project will be a performance of Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, given in separate acts by workshop groups at the end of the semester.

Our first set of assignments will be around comedy masks and their use. After some introductory sessions on basic mask work, for which we will have the assistance of mask-teacher Pedro Ilgenfritz, you will each develop your own original masked character, and present him/her to the class. Your character will then appear in a short skit devised by your workshop group. After the semester break, we will deploy our characters in some pieces of Street Theatre, and then work, finally, on the Shakespeare play.

Readings for workshop sessions will be provided over Canvas in weekly modules, and you are also expected to work on group projects for a further two hours a week, on Wednesday afternoons. Assessment is based on work in class, both individually and in groups, plus occasional written reflective assessments of your creative exploration and development. There is no examination. 

A detailed week-by-week syllabus and description appears below.

Contact: I can be contacted at any time for questions or discussions of course concerns at the above addresses. Email is by far the most efficient way to reach me.

 

Readings:

Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (get your own hardcopy)

Additional readings will be posted on Canvas for you to read online and/or print out.

 

Schedule

 

 Week by week

(readings listed are to be done IN ADVANCE OF that class)

 

Week 1:

M:      Intro and beginning mask 1                           Tom Bishop

 

W workshop: Play around with the masks and movement

 

F:      Beginning mask  2                             TB and Pedro Ilgenfritz

 

Week 2:

M:      Mask 3 (Neutral Mask )                                         TB

 

W workshop: Assisting each other with trying out individual masks and developing characters, esp in peer pairs.

 

F:      Mask 4 (Neutral Mask)                                TB and Pedro

 

Week 3:

M:      Mask 5 (Character Mask)                                      TB

Reading:     none

 

W workshop: Continued work with individual masks and developing characters

 

F:      Mask character performances (individual) 1              TB

Reading:     none

 

 

Week 4:

M:      Mask character performances (individual) 2              TB

 

T:      Report #1 (individual Mask) due Tuesday MARCH 20^TH noon          (800-1000 words)

 

W workshop: Begin work on group skit

 

F:      Mask Groups 1                                                    (Murray)            

 

Week 5:

M:      Mask Groups 2                                                    (Murray)

 

W workshop: Continue work on group skit.

 

F:      GOOD FRIDAY – NO CLASS                      

 

 

MID-SEMESTER BREAK (meet for mask group work during break)

 

 

Week 6:

M:      Masks (group performances)                        TB (and Murray)

        

T:      Report #2 (Group Mask) due Tuesday APRIL 17^th noon. (800-1000 words)

 

W workshop: Looking at Street Theatre clips

 

F:      Street Theatre 1                                                    TB

                          

 

Week 7:

M:      Street Theatre 2     (walking tour)                          TB

 

W:     ANZAC DAY (no workshop)

 

F:      Street Theatre 3                                                  TB

 

Week 8:

M:      Street Theatre 4                                                  TB

 

W workshop: Street Theatre planning (continued)

 

F:      Street Theatre 5                                                    TB

 

 

Week 9:

M:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 1   (and final prep for St Thtr)      TB

 

W workshop: Street Theatre Group presentations -- compulsory

 

F:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 2                                   TB

 

 

Week 10:

M:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 3                                   TB

 

W workshop: Planning TGV work

 

F:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 4                                   TB

        

Week 11:

M:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 5                                      TB

 

W workshop: Rehearsing TGV work

 

F:      Two Gentlemen of Verona 6                                    TB 

 

 

Week 12:

M:      Final rehearsals TGV                                            TB

 

W workshop: Final rehearsals TGV

 

F:      Final presentations of Two Gentlemen of Verona    TB/RK/EW

 

M:      Report #3 (Shakespeare) due Tuesday June 5^th noon  (800-1000 words)

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSESSMENT in this course will be apportioned as follows:

 

Actor performance “reading” (2-3 pp; 800-1000 words) 5%

 

Mask work, incl: Solo character mark                          20%

                       Group mark                                              15%

                       Written reports x 2 (800-1000 words)    5%

                                                                        

Street Theatre work (group mark):                               15%

                                                                                         

TGV work, incl: Individual performance                       20%

                       Group mark                                             15%

                       Written report (800-1000 words)           5%

                                                                                     100%

 

 

There will be no examination in this class.

There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class.

Further details about these various assignments see below and forthcoming.

 

General course notes and policies:

 

Extensions:  These are always possible, but only in advance for proper cause. If you have a problem, you need to SEE ME. Extensions for solo performance work are extremely difficult to organise and will only be granted for medical or other documented emergency. There can, obviously, be no extensions for group performance work.

 

Excuses: Excuses for late written work will only be accepted in cases of documented medical or family emergency, of which I must be notified as soon as is practicable.

 

Work completion: Students must complete all assigned work in order to merit a passing grade in the course. Failure to do required work by the end of the course will result in a grade of DNC for the course. You cannot do only part of the work.

 

Group assignments (logistics): For some of the work in the class you will be placed in a group of six or seven to develop joint projects. Each group will attend the two-hour Wednesday workshop session every week for preparing projects. We will rotate the Studio space to make it available for all work to in, but space constraint means we will also have to use the dressing rooms. Groups are expected to work efficiently on their own, building on class exercises but using their own skills and expertise. Instructors may visit group workshops from time to time, and are available to visit by invitation. As all workshops are at the same time, there will be opportunities to rotate membership during the semester. For each of three assignments, you will be with a different group.

 

Group assignments (assessment): Group projects will be graded collectively. For the Shakespeare assignment, there will also be an individual performance assessment, separate from the group mark. There will be opportunity for each group member to comment on and assess internal group dynamics (this rewards the committed and detects the slacker). Peer assessments can affect individual grades in extreme cases (up or down).

 

Reports (individual):  After the two major assessment units (Mask, Shakespeare), you will submit a short (2-3 page; 800-1000 words), but cogent and reflective report on the assignment. Questions to be addressed may include: what did you do, what challenges did you face, what did you learn, what was difficult, how did you face problems, what further questions has the assignment raised for you as a performer, or in your understanding of drama? These reports are due for Individual Mask (March 20^th), Group Mask (April 17^th) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (June 5^th).

 

Attendance:  Regular attendance is expected. Necessary absences should be cleared in advance, or formally excused afterwards by doctor’s note or other documentation. Repeated absences (more than three) will reduce the final grade. Really. Lots of unexcused absences may result in a grade even further reduced, possibly even failure.

 

Plagiarism:  Plagiarism is the deliberate, unacknowledged use of other people’s words, work or ideas as your own.  In a formal academic context, it constitutes dishonesty.  It is especially important in the case of Website information to document your sources. Defaulters will face failure in part or all of the course and may be reported to the University. Be warned! If you are in any doubt, ASK ME. (Fortunately, plagiarism in this class is almost impossible, but I give the warning just to make things clear).

 

 

SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS

 

1. Actor performance “reading”

 

One of the skills we need to develop as actors and drama observers is the skill of NOTICING. This exercise tests the clarity and perspicacity of your ability to “read” a performance.

 

• Choose one 2-3 minute video clip of an actor you like giving what you consider an outstanding performance. For this purpose, a live stage performance is better than a film one, since you are studying the stage, not the screen. Watch it repeatedly and make notes about what you think makes it an outstanding performance as a piece of acting craft. What techniques does the actor bring to bear on the task? How does s/he shape the scene? What aspects of it strike you as particularly effective in projecting character, mood, or feeling? Write up these observations as a 2-3 page report (800-1000 words) for submission.

 

 

2. Mask Work (individual and group)

 

• You will use one of the various masks provided to invent and flesh out a “character” of your own imagining, including developing an “environment” for that character, and presenting him or her to the class in a ten-minute performance and discussion.
  • Grade will be based on:
    • Vividness of the individuality crafted using the mask
    • Concision, range and impact of the monologue
    • Physicality and effectiveness of the “sell” to the audience
    • Effective choice of setting, scenario and props, as appropriate

 

• Each of you will be assigned a PEER masker to work on your characters with. The object of this relationship is to give specific and detailed feedback on the development of someone else’s character, and use their feedback in developing your own. It should be like having a mirror that can talk! Your written report on this assignment should include discussion of you work with and for your peer masker as well as on your own character.

 

• Once your individual characters are developed, you will work together with your group to devise a short performance together based on an assigned scenario. The piece must include some or all the characters from your group.
  • Grade will be based on:
    • Completeness and originality of response to the scenario prompt
    • Creativity of solution to the problems presented by the scenario
    • Effective deployment of the (selected) character masks in the scene

 

3. Street Theatre (group)

 

• In your workshop groups, you will devise and then perform a piece of street theatre somewhere on campus or in the surrounding city. You will together be responsible for choosing the venue, devising and “scripting” the piece, resourcing and performing it. More information will be forthcoming during the project. You may (but need not) use your commedia characters for this assignment. 
  • Grade will be based on:
    • Creativity and effectiveness of the location appropriated
    • Effective beginning, middle and end of the devised scene
    • Clarity and concision of the presentation
    • Effective use of properties and characters
    • “Pull” of the scenario for the temporary audience
    • Effective presentation of a “point”, “message” or “idea” as appropriate.

 

• PLEASE NOTE: Street theatre performances will be given in the WEDNESDAY WORKSHOP period of Week 9, May 9th: 2-4 pm. This is a MUCH BETTER timeslot for Street Theatre than either Monday or Friday morning. Attendance is compulsory (as it is for all workshops, of course!)

 

 

4. Shakespeare project (individual and group)

 

• Groups will be assigned one of the first four Acts of Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona to work on as a semester project. You are at liberty to adapt the text to your needs and strengths, and are encouraged discuss your ideas with me throughout the semester. You would be well advised to start thinking and working together on this early, though more intensive time will be set aside in the last weeks of semester. The play contains many issues and problems of interpretation and staging, which can be informed by your work in comic performance through the semester. It should also be a fun and exciting challenge.

 

• Shakespeare performances will have both an individual and a group component to the grade, as follows:

 

• The individual component will assess aspects of the performance that are down to you as an individual actor, such as:
  • Knowing your lines and cues
  • Clear understanding of the meaning of your part
  • Physicalisation of the character
  • Prompt and effective interaction with other actors
  • Individual contribution to the successful presentation of the material
• Where a group member is not an ACTOR in the scene, but is assigned a production role (director, design, stage management) the individual assessment will be based on that aspect of the presentation.

 

• The group component will assess aspects of the performance that are down to you your group as a whole, such as:
  • Creative conception of the whole act
  • Clear understanding of the style and direction of the action
  • Set, costume and lighting design and implementation
  • Ensemble playing and overall performance arc