106-421 Advanced Theatre/Performance Writing

Usually admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in English and successful completion of either 106-027 Writing Scripts or 106-091 Writing for Performance.

In this subject, students will produce a 4,000 word script for theatre/performance with a view to professional workshopping standard. All aspects of this will be discussed and workshopped each week. You will achieve this through development of crafting, writing and creative/critical thinking skills developed through discussions, lectures, guest speakers and feedback from teachers and students presenting to each other in small groups or to the whole group. You will, in this way, develop and extend cooperation and collaboration abilities through attention to active listening, learning how to give, receive and use feedback. Each week you will discuss readings from the Subject Reader and Recommended Reading List in either lecture, guest speaker, video or student-led tutorial format. The subject will include: studying theories and strategies on craft from writings of Egri, McKee, Hatcher, etc.; the history of theatre and performance both locally (eg. Pram Factory, La Mama, Melbourne Women's Theatre Group), nationally (eg. Nimrod, New Wave) and internationally (Stanislavsky, Brook, development of performance art); regular student presentation of short excerpts from classic theatre or performance texts eg. Death of a Salesman, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Vagina Monologues etc. This familiarity with plays and playwrights will be extended through the requirement that students attend at least two live performances and write a 500 word review of each as part of their assessment. Each week students will bring material to share with the group for a professional file eg. funding opportunities, grant applications etc. Invited guest speakers from Arts Victoria and/or Australia Council will discuss funding and grant application procedures. We will also have invited guests from theatre companies eg. Melbourne Worker's Theatre, Ilbijerri Indigenous Theatre.

Attendance at two live theatre performances followed by the submission of two 500-word critical reviews (one for each performance) submitted during the semester 10% each, and a 4000-word script crafted and formatted to professional production standard 70% due at end of semester, and attendance and participation 10%.

A subject reader will be available.