Aims
This course aims to:
● develop and understand how different modern dramatic texts are structured and can be performed
● explore shifting notions of realism in drama and theatre
● investigate a play script and its language for acting and directing cues
● explore how modern plays can have contemporary relevance when performed today
Content
In this course you will look at three modern dramatic texts as both great works of literature but, more importantly, as blueprints for action and performance. We will look at the roots of realism in drama and theatre and how this genre changes. In each class session you will always be asking the fundamental questions: How does this play translate from the page onto the stage? How do I bring this character and her/his words to life for an audience? You will explore the structure and impulses of dramatic language in monologues, dialogue and scenes from each of the plays and also investigate different styles of basic acting and directing techniques that might be appropriate to the individual texts. The course will include group and partner work and end with a public performance as an ensemble of short scenes and monologues. However, no previous acting, directing or theatre experience is required. These basic skills are what the course will help you creatively uncover. But if you do have previous theatre experience the course certainly will help you enhance your ongoing practice.
Presentation of the course
This course will be taught as a studio workshop where together we will be investigating texts and applying different directing and acting techniques. You will explore each of three plays in turn, looking at its dramatic structure and historical context, then we will take the play onstage to uncover how it works as theatre and as a set of actions to be brought to life by actors and a director. You will explore basic acting techniques suitable for each play. Some extra work outside of class work preparing scenes and speeches as rehearsal preparation will be required of you as well as your commitment to be part of an ensemble.
Course sessions
1. Reading a Script: Uncovering the dramaturgy or dramatic structure of a script to see how any play works as a series of actions involving characters and driving towards an end point. But also investigating what gives a play multidimensional life as a work to be acted, directed and visually realised in a theatre space before an audience. All three plays will be summarised and discussed in this introductory overview session and work over the two weeks laid out. Also explored are notions of realism in drama and theatre.
2. Ibsen and a Dramatic Revolution: Ibsen (1828-1906) was one of the key founders of modernism in theatre and drama. His plays continued to be performed today and are a cornerstone of the modern realistic repertoire. This session will explore why his plays were so revolutionary and where he stands with other modern dramatists like Chekhov and Strindberg, plus the influence he had on other world dramatists to follow, like George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller.
3. A Revolution in Staging and Acting: Critical to the performance of modern drama are the ways in which approaches to acting, directing and staging a play changed at the turn of the 20th century and then continued to change, modifying notions of stage realism. This session will engage in group realistic acting work to uncover ways of encountering and mastering character onstage.
4. Rehearsing a Play: Using Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, the group will define approaches in acting, style and direction that will suit and be modified in all three plays we are looking at.
5. The Lorca play: This final session of the week will explore the suppressed passion and closed female world of Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. We will be looking for ways that it resembles the world of Ibsen but also how it is very different in terms of poetry, symbolism and style. We will also look at how Lorca’s Spanish play has been adapted in the 21st century by Scottish dramatist Rona Munroe and set in contemporary Glasgow’s East End.
6. Ensemble as a Key in Lorca: We will start this second week by reviewing the progress we have made so far during the first week. Now we will explore how ensemble works as part of a group. The House of Bernarda Alba allows us to explore a text full of both psychological and primitive impulses, gender nuances, and passions with mixed and conflicting desires. How does the text draw the ensemble together and make sense for an audience?
7. Modern British Drama: Since the 1950s British drama made a radical shift towards drama and a reality that was more political and oblique, more socially nuanced, abstract and fragmented. Caryl Churchill stands out as a dramatist who both looks back to the recent past and forwards to the future where plays lose their realistic bearings and markers. History and the present are in dialogue. Top Girls extends our idea of ensemble but also returns us to some of the ideas introduced by Ibsen and the passions aroused by Lorca.
8. Building a Character, Building a Performance: In this session you begin to build characters, picking and choosing scenes and speeches that have been previously explored in the three plays to create a final studio performance in session 10. The class will come together into a working ensemble to play together in different mixed scenes and speeches. Out of all the work done so far, the class will start to create a performance. At the close of this week, you will need to commit extra time to rehearse outside of class. The instructor is happy to look in on these rehearsals and give feedback.
9. Preparing to Perform: For this penultimate session you will work together and bring life to your final performance by running through scenes and speeches and taking ownership of your creative work. But also looking at what extra scenic or technical support might be needed for the final Friday performance. This is a chance to still explore texts by fine tuning and giving attention to details.
10. Final Presentation: You will perform to an invited audience. This will be followed by a feedback session with the Course Director.
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
● understanding how modern dramatic texts emerge out of historical and cultural contexts and are structured as literature but also how they work theatrically as performance scripts
● to engage with performance and directing techniques that extend the individual’s creative capacity
● shaping a final ensemble piece of creative work and presenting it to an audience and ending the course with feedback
Required reading
Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls, in Methuen Student Edition (London: Methuen, 2018)
Ibsen, Henrik, Hedda Gabler, in Methuen Student Edition translated by Michael Meyer (London: Methuen 2022, second edition) ISBN: 9781350110069
Lorca, Federico Garcia, The House of Bernarda Alba, translated by Gwynne Edwards (London: Methuen 1998) ISBN: 9780413724700
Lorca, Federico Garcia, The House of Bernarda Alba, a modern adaptation by Rona Munro (London: Methuen 2009) ISBN: 9781408126967
