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Arts in London - DramaClick here to sign up to any of these courses>> Drama Sessions 1-5: 1960's - 2000's Each session is intended to follow the same structure, and to be seen in relation to the other 4 decades between 1960s-2000s. It is not however essential to have any previous knowledge of the other sessions to study for this session, although it would be the ideal situation, to start with session 1, the 60s and work through all five sessions to the 2000s. To study Theatre as part of an online course places a few requirements on the learner. Firstly it will be essential for the student to read and/or see the production being primarily studied in each decade. All but one of the plays is published in script form and these should be read before doing the session. The exception is the play from 2000s, Jerry Springer ? The Opera but this is available on video from most public libraries (or a retailer such as Amazon.co.uk) and this should be watched prior to studying the session. Please see the booklist for the publishing details of all five plays. The Theatre part of the Arts in London online course has been designed with certain concerns in mind. Theatre is a live art-form which takes place with real people in front of an audience. It is ephemeral and does not exist after the run of the production has finished, except in part texts, such as scripts, video, photographs etc. Also the course is primarily designed to be studied on-line via the internet. To discuss theatre a group would ordinarily read and then discuss a play. There is usually limited information about playwright, other plays, technical terms. The best way to study a play is to approach it as a director or an actor would. Ask yourself questions about how you would stage the play. Which scenes in the play do you think are saying something about a theme, historical context or statement etc. As a result the session of this course will not include a large amount of descriptive content about the writer, theatrical context etc. There will be some brief introductory paragraphs about this but the course is intended to guide the student towards asking the right questions when studying a play. Thus the course will be quite light on descriptive content, but heavy on student-based activities. There is plenty of information about the writers, the history and past productions of the plays already on the internet. A number of the activities will guide the student towards where to find their own answers and background content. Also the student will be encouraged to feedback on what information about the decade they have found. Some of the activities will ask students to try things like writing a few lines of dialogue or drawing a rough sketch of a set design. The focus of these activities is not on producing excellent speeches, nor fine drawings. The course is not trying to teach people playwrighting nor design. Once again the emphasis is on cultivating a good approach to reading a play, so that students will come away with the confidence to pick up a script and know how to read it and how to use research tools such as the internet in order to investigate and realise the Form and Context of any piece of theatre for themselves. Finally, it is intended that the Theatre sessions be seen in relation to the other courses, such as Art/ Architecture/ Film and Music. Students should feel encouraged to feedback in the Theatre activities and refer to the artworks and history that they have encountered elsewhere in the Pop to Present course. You cannot be wrong in what you feel about any theatrical play. You can like or dislike any play. It is however useful to be able to say why and to think about how you could improve upon whatever you dislike. Thus this course hopes to encourage a confidence and reliance in one?s own personal taste and to develop skills to be able to express the reasons behind each student?s personal taste of what they like and dislike in Theatre. Click here to sign up to this course>> |
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