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2021/2022

Directors and Stage Designers Laboratory

Code: 43152 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
4313879 Theatre Studies OT 0 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Rossend Arqués Corominas
Email:
Rossend.Arques@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)

External teachers

Ramon Simó

Prerequisites

ET

Objectives and Contextualisation

The module consists of the preparation of an actor-directing project that will be tested through various practical work sessions with professional actors. The objective is to provide the student with advanced references relative to the methodologies with which to realise researches and practical works in the field of the creative processes connected to theatre performance. The module will start with an introduction on staging theory and its creative processes. From this ground, the module will develop a stage-directing laboratory with a special focus on the key relation between the actor’s craft and the defining of the staging of performance. The work will revolve around the investigation and reflection on efficient methodologies. The teacher will give support in the class, providing possible theoretical and practical tools.

Competences

  • Apply research methods in the different study disciplines of the performing arts according to the relevant conceptual frameworks.
  • Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Follow the codes of practice that govern research activity.
  • Plan and design an original, personal research project on an aspect of the performing arts.
  • Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  • Transfer pragmatic knowledge of theatre processes on to the conceptual level so as to bring practice into research. (Specialisation B).
  • Work in interdisciplinary teams in varying contexts.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply conceptual tools that help to decode and intervene effectively in a process of direction of actors.
  2. Apply practical research methods in the field of direction of actors, according to contemporary paradigms.
  3. Communicate and justify conclusions clearly and unambiguously to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  4. Conceptually formulate the problems, achievements and the implicit internal logic in practical research into the direction of actors.
  5. Create links between the research work with the actors and the overall construction of the performance.
  6. Follow the codes of practice that govern research activity.
  7. Objectify the creative processes of direction of actors and the different interventions that help to place them on the level of practical research.
  8. Plan and design a research project in the field of direction of actors, accounting for the methodology used on the basis of the technical, ethical and aesthetic variables of the process.
  9. Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  10. Work in interdisciplinary teams in varying contexts.

Content

  1. Staging. Theatre as a system of communication. Communicative value of the languages and the stage elements. Internal and external communication system. The language of staging: technique, ethics and aesthetics of stage directing.
  2. Actor directing. Recognition of the main methodologies and techniques relative to directing actors and their relation to the aesthetics in regards to staging a performance. Some references: C. Stanislavsky, M. Chejov, B. Brecht, D. Donellan, K. Mitchell, I. van Hove amongst others.
  3. Analytical methods: deduction and induction. Revision of the basic concepts for the analysis of a dramatic text. Analysis and dramaturgical decomposition: from the general to the particular. Documentation and contextualization. Dramatic action. Approaching the study of the character and the text. Dramatic situation and action. The concept of action as a bridge between dramaturgy and the staging: applying this to the work of the actor.
  4. The process and the analysis of the action. In regards to the concept of action: verbal action, physical action and psychophysical action. The concepts of internal action and of external action. Text and subtext: the invisible work of the actor. Basic concepts for the analysis of the action: circumstances, stimuli, affects, objectives and actions.
  5. Inductive analysis of the action in the text: from the particular to the general. Creative analysis. Definition of the scenic situation: space determinations and the beginning of the movement for a physical analysis of the text. The method of physical actions as a creative-analytic method.
  6. Definition of place. Study of the proportions. Analysis of the impulse of the movement. Physical action:  the sense of a physical action in a specific place. The meaning of movement and distance. Logical actions and creative actions: the role of imagination in the creation of scenes with the actors.
  7. The expressivity of the actor. Static and dynamic elements. Expressive use ofthe voice and the body. Plasticity. Tempo-rhythm. The aesthetics of actor expression applied to a staging.
  8. Actor directing as a working hypothesis and as a process. Definition of the project and practical experimentation. On how the response of the performers modifies the project and the meaning of a staging: the observation and the discerning capabilities of the director.

Methodology

The laboratory dynamic is eminently theoretical, although there will be a focus on some practical elements. Students will be challenged with many exercises that will enable the teacher to respond to many theoretical aspects that may arise throughout the course.

The course is structured as follows:

The professor will propose a short theatre text that will be analysed deeply by the students. The objective is that students learn the process of investigation starting from a text and leading eventually to staging a performance and more specifically to directing actors: scene analysis, relation of characters, space, action, conflict, etc.  

Students will work in groups (number dependant on the amount of enrolled students). Each working group will analyse the text and will outline the main lines (technical, ethical and aesthetical) for a general staging project. This draft should allow to contextualise the realisation of a specific actor-directing project for a brief staging of a scene of the text that is object of study.

The working process with professional actors will begin with a practical demonstration carried out by the professor, focusing on the usage of concepts and techniques studied earlier, as well as the founding of an effective and creative relation between director and actors. In this first practical phase, the professor will gather, as working elements and practical elaboration to move forward, the contributions from student’s projects that he/she considers more thought-provoking and appropriate, always with an experiential and verification aim.

In a second practical phase, each group will dispose of a certain amount of time (established according to the number of participants) with professional actors, that will allow them to experiment with ways to communicate the project to the actors, to verify that the project is sufficiently clear and established and to probe that it effectively produces a creative and effective outcome in the initial dynamics of a rehearsal process. This second phase will develop always with the support of the professor, who will supervise the process and will connect the practical work to the theoretical concepts and to the technical tools studied prior to the practice.

Finally, the professor will ask students for an individual reflection on the process of elaboration of an actor-directing project, the results of the first steps of their practical verification and an assessment of its possible development in a future creative project. 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master classes/exhibitions, resolution of exercises, classroom practices 30 1.2 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10
Type: Supervised      
Cooperative learning, debates, presentation of practical work, tutorials 60 2.4 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Reading articles or texts of interest, personal study 60 2.4 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10

Assessment

A. Practical exercises to be realized by students.

1. Staging project in groups according to the material that the teacher provides.

2. Personal re-elaboration of the actor-directing and staging projects, following the analysis and projection criteria studied throughout the course and its practical applicability: hypothesis for the research and the future development of the creative process.

B. General Aspects

Parting from the principal that it is a continued evaluation, certain aspects will be taken into account:

-          Attendance (80% minimum in order to be evaluated), following-up and participation in the course.

-          Actor-directing project in-group and practical work (40%)

-          Individual contributions to the conceptual reflection on the different methodologies concerning actor directing during class (20%)

-          Delivery of the individual actor-directing project (40%), and the hypothesis for the development of the creative process concerning the staging of the project. Presentation. Expression. Comprehension and correct use of the concepts worked upon. Suitability and comprehension of the used processes and analysis methods. Internal coherency of the presented staging and analysis proposals.

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

  1. At the time of each evaluation activity, the teacher will inform the students of the procedure and the date for reviewing the grades.
  2. In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
  3. In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Attendance and participation in the classroom 40 % 0 0 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10
Attendance at tutorials 30 % 0 0 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10
Delivery of reports and works 30 % 0 0 1, 2, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 3, 10

Bibliography

Abirached, Robert (1994): La crisis del personaje en el teatro moderno del teatro. Madrid: Publicaciones de la ADE.

Bogart, Anne (2007): Los puntos de vista escénicos. Madrid: Publicaciones de la ADE.

Brecht, Bertolt (1986): Quatre converses sobre teatre. La compra del llautó. Barcelona: Edicions 62.

Chéjov, Michael (1999): Sobre la técnica de la actuación. Barcelona: Alba.

Donnellan, Declan (2004) El actor y la diana. Madrid: Fundamentos.

Mitchell, Katie (2018): L'ofici de dirigir. Barcelona: Institut del teatre, Angle.

Software

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