This practice-based module exposes course participants to the process of producing a student theatre performance in a collective and integrated manner. Through practice-based lectures, it will cover three focal phases of performance-making: a) Preparation, b) Devising, and c) Montage. In the ‘Preparation’ phase, course participants will experience conducting research and development as well as theme-generation techniques. The module will then go onto the ‘Devising’ phase, introducing performance-generation techniques towards a diversity of theatre styles/genres – an approach that can also be adopted when working on an extant script by a playwright. In both these phases, the candidates will have the role of workshop facilitators.

The module will move onto the ‘Montage’ phase, where, bringing together performance content that would have been created in the previous phases, participants will take the role of artistic directors while also providing their students with a high percentage of agency. The module closes with revisiting the organisational structure of a student performance: overseeing text, music, costumes, props, sets and scenography, make-up, special effects, auditions, rehearsals, production week, media coverage, documentation, and how to bring all these aspects together within a structured timeline. Along the module, course participants will also be guided in keeping a reflective journal of their work to complement and enhance the practice.

By the end of this programme, participants should be able to: