Logo UAB

Directors and Stage Designers Laboratory II

Code: 44824 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
4318300 Theatre Studies OT 0

Contact

Name:
Jordi Jane Llige
Email:
jordi.jane@uab.cat

Teachers

(External) Ramon Simó Viñes

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

This subject presupposes a certain level of knowledge and previous experience (see requirements for access to the Master).


Objectives and Contextualisation

The general objective of the subject is to provide students with advanced conceptual and methodological references that serve for research

and creative practice linked to the direction of performers and theatrical staging.


Learning Outcomes

  1. CA16 (Competence) Distinguish the use of diverse languages depending on the speaker (scenographer, actor, lighting technician, costume designer) without losing sight of the overall definition of mise-en-scène.
  2. KA26 (Knowledge) Determine and define the main methodolgoies and techniques involved in directing actors and their relationship with the aesthetic definition of mise-en-scène.
  3. KA27 (Knowledge) Identify practical research methods in the field of directing actors according to the conceptual paradigms typical of this field.
  4. SA24 (Skill) Experience various methodologies related to mise-en-scène and directing actors, comparing results based on style.

Content

  1. Staging.  Theater as a Communication System. Communicative value of languages and scenic elements. Internal and external communication system. The language of staging:technique, ethics and aesthetics of stage direction.
  2. Direction of performers. Recognition of the main methodologies and techniques of directing performers and their relationship with the aesthetic definition of staging.
  3. Methods of analysis and knowledge: deduction and induction. Review of the basic concepts of dramatic text analysis. Documentation and contextualization. Dramatic circumstances, situation, action. Analysis and decomposition of the action: from the general to the particular. Approach to the study of the character in the text. The concept of action as a bridge between dramaturgy and staging. Dramatic action and stage action.
  4. The action analysis process. Verbal action, physical action and psychophysical action. Internal action and external action. Text and subtext: the invisible work of the actor. Introduction to the basic concepts for the analysis of elementary communicative action: circumstances, situation, stimulus, affect, goal, psychophysical action.
  5. Action induction through the text: from the particular to the general. Creative analysis. Definition of the stage situation: determination of space and imagination of movement for a physical understanding of the text. The Method of Physical Actions (MAF) as an analytical-creative tool and stage research.
  6. Site definition. Dramatic space, scenic space and scenography. Study of proportions. Analysis of the movement impulse. Establishing the sense of physical action in a given space. Meaning of movement and distance. Logical actions and creative actions: the role of imagination and improvisation in the construction of the scene with the performers.
  7. Expressiveness of the performer. Static elements and dynamic elements. Expressive use of voice and body. plasticity tempo-rhythm Aesthetics of acting expression in relation to staging.
  8. The direction of the actors as a working hypothesis and as a process. Project definition and practical experimentation. How the work of the performers alters the project and the meaning of the staging: the stage director’s capacity for observation, discernment and modification.

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures; resolution of exercises; practical exercices in class 30 1.2
Type: Supervised      
Cooperative, individual and group learning 60 2.4
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of exercicses, readings, viewing of references 60 2.4

The dynamics of the laboratory is based on the recognition of the role of reflection on practice.

The course is structured as follows:

1. Theoretical-practical introduction: journey through the various systems and theories in order to specify a proper use of the language of the performers' direction based on the consideration of the show as a communication system. Discussion of the evolution of the concepts of stage direction and the direction of performers, paying attention to their historical evolution and stylistic determination. Each heading will be accompanied by practical recognition exercises.

At the beginning of the year, students will receive a detailed schedule of the development of the program and the exercises it entails.

2. Study of the text and interpreters' direction project: work will be based on a short text, common to all students, proposed by the teacher. This project work will be done in groups: active analysis of the text and outline of the main lines (technical, ethical and aesthetic) of a general staging project that should allow the work to be contextualized with the performers.

3. Practical work with actors: the process of practical work, which will involve a professional actress and actor, will begin with a practical demonstration by the teacher of the use of the concepts and techniques studied with special emphasis on the establishment of 'an effective, collaborative and creative relationship with the performers. In a second phase, each group will have a certain amount of time to work with the interpreters, established according to the number of groups, which will allow them to experience how their project should be communicated to them, to check if it is sufficiently defined and if the desired creative result in the dynamics of the beginning of a research and essay process. In this second phase of the work, the teacher will supervise the process and relate it to the concepts, tools and methodologies studied.

Within the schedule set bythe 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.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Attendance and participation in the class 30% 0 0
Attendance to mentoring activities 30% 0 0
Presentations in class and submission of reports and papers 40% 0 0 CA16, KA26, KA27, SA24

This subject has no single assessemnet

Continuous assessment consists on:

A. Practical exercises:

1. Group preparation of an actor's direction project, based on the material provided by the teacher, which will have to be corroborated, corrected and improved on the scene.

2. Personal reworking of the project based on the result obtained in the essay process: formulation of hypotheses for research and future development of the creative process.

 B. General aspects: continuous assessment. It will take into account:

-   Attendance (minimum to be evaluated: 80%), monitoring and participation in the course.

-   Analysis, performer direction project and essay.

- Delivery of the group project and its personal reworking: hypothesis of creative development and staging. Presentation and expression will be assessed, as well as the relevant use of the concepts, methodologies and techniques worked on in the course.

Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items.

 


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.

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

Mitchell, Katie (2018): L'ofici de dirigir. Barcelona: Institut del teatre, Angle.Fischer-Lichte, Fischer-Lichte, Erika (2017): Estética de lo performativo. Madrid: Abada editores.

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

Pidoux, Jean_Yves (1986): Acteurs et personnages. Montreux: Éditions de l’Aire.

Pfister, Manfred (1988): The Theory and Analysis of Drama. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Simó Vinyes, Ramon (1987): Stanislvaski. La tècnica de l’actor. Barcelona: Institut del Teatre.

Watzlawick, Paul  et alt (1983) Teoría de la Comunicación Humana. Barcelona: Editorial Herder.


Software

-


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 1 Catalan/Spanish second semester afternoon