Critical Reflections explores a number of key interdisciplinary philosophical and cultural concepts which will enable you to analyse, engage with, and reflect upon artworks in your own discipline. It also allows you to establish a common set of concepts which can be shared by students from all LICA subjects.

The structure of the module consists of six three-week blocks as follows:

1. Aesthetics
2. Experience
3. Post-structuralism
4. Marx and Post-Marx
5. Waves of Feminism
6. Thinking with the Earth (new materialism)

Regular plenary lectures make connections across the arts, and are supplemented by seminars/workshops which allow students to work in their subject groups (art, film, theatre, design) on ideas and examples specifically tailored towards these disciplines.

This practical module is designed to allow you to work collectively to produce an original performance piece informed by material studied in the second year as a whole. Students are supported by a supervisor who will provide feedback on progress throughout the module.

This module combines theoretical and practical approaches to provide an introduction to American and German modern dance pioneers of the twentieth century. It compares their systems of technical training, choreographic methods, signature dance works, and considers the relationship of those systems, methods and works to the social context and philosophical ideas of their time. Assessment is through the choreography and performance of a short trio, and an essay. The module prepares students for more advanced dance and physical theatre projects in later modules.

This practical module provides a comprehensive understanding of compositional strategies and methodologies used in making theatre and performance, whether as a performer or as a director, writer or designer. Particular emphasis will be placed on investigating notions of form and structure and on how performance material can be generated through creative strategies of sourcing, developing and editing material towards a completed work. Assessment is through the production of a performance score and a group practical project.

This module will equip students with a critical understanding of twentieth and twenty-first century performance practices that respond to anthropogenic climate change. Students will explore a range of theories and practices relating to ecocriticism and environmentalism.

In this module students will interrogate and critically respond to discourses of national identity in Britain, with an emphasis on de-centring and questioning who frames British identities and shared histories. By engaging with a range of plays and performances staged in the British Isles between 1980 and the present, alongside key postcolonial theory and readings on nationalism and globalization, students will develop an understanding of the different ways in which theatre has played a part in the national conversation about place and identity.

This module develops analytical and practical skills in performing texts, particularly in dramaturgy and composition and vocal and physical performance techniques. Taking into account the respective political, social and aesthetic contexts from which the works emerged, it focuses on modern and contemporary European play texts that are marked by their formal experimentations associated with two major theoretical paradigms: The Theatre of the Absurd and Postdramatic Theatre.

The module explores the playwrights’ formal experimentations with time and space; plot, story and narration; character, persona and ‘text bearer’; language and breakdown of language; rhythm and musicality; as well as the relationship between performer and audience.

Assessment is by group practical project and an essay.

This module introduces you to community and applied theatre practices that seek to create social, cultural, or political change. You will have the opportunity to explore key theoretical concepts alongside practical skills in facilitation, appropriate to a variety of contexts. You will study examples of applied theatre practice, with an emphasis on techniques that seek to empower marginalised communities and increase political and social dialogue. The syllabus will cover influential practices from around the globe, taking heed of the diversity of approaches and their applicability to contemporary contexts. Core topics may include theatre in education, theatre for development and disability theatre. Assessment is by group practical work and essay.

This module introduces practical approaches in visual and image-based theatre and methods of analysing visual theatre and investigating its key histories and models of practice. The module focuses on key approaches to image-based theatre that are central to understanding contemporary visual performance. Each approach interrogates the work of an existing company, which in turn is related to historically important practice from twentieth-century dramatic and/or postdramatic theatre.

The module will practically explore key skills in lighting, sound, digital technologies and scenography with reference to specific practitioners and companies. Assessment of skills and knowledge acquired will be by a practical group project and an essay.

Drawing on tendencies from both visual art and theatrical fields, contemporary performance has generated multiple approaches to the dynamic relation between text, language and performance. Eschewing the conventional dramaturgical structures of literary theatre, ‘text’ in this parallel history is an unruly, generative force – a writing for performance (and writing as performance) that is by turns highly performative, precise, nonsensical, philosophical and playful.

The module aims to explore a variety of contemporary and historical approaches to writing and performance through both key readings and workshop/seminars as well as practical tasks for you as creative writers and performance makers, establishing a conceptual ground, highlighting and developing strategies for your own work.

In this practical module you will work in groups on an intensive practical project that will lead to public performances. Groups work is supported by the module convener and with a supervisor.

This module allows you to undertake a major independent research project on a topic of your choice, presented in the form of a dissertation or a practice-based project and an essay. The module is taught through lectures focused on research skills and one-to-one supervision. Upon completion, you will be able to demonstrate your ability to undertake a major project that includes conducting research, engaging in a sustained critical analysis of relevant texts, building an argument and applying this to practice.

This module addresses applied performance projects that are co-created in collaboration with community groups. This may include people living within specific geographic areas, but it might also encompass shared identity traits, experiences, or interests. Students will explore a range of practices that facilitate collaboratively-designed theatre as a means of bringing about positive changes within these communities, and their broader social and cultural settings. Through a consideration of contemporary practitioners from a range of global contexts, students will learn techniques to develop effective community-based projects and to ensure equitable participation and accessibility. Practices studied might cover topics such as intergenerational theatre, street theatre, staged readings, puppetry, participatory arts, storytelling, environmental performance and more. Students will engage with the theories and practices of the module through a combination of lectures, seminar discussions and workshops, culminating in a short community performance project.

The module has two aims. Firstly, it aims to explore methods of improvising or choreographing movement from the practice and study of drawing, and, reciprocally, approaches to drawing that emerge from the experience of movement and the analysis of motion. This is assessed through either a staff-supervised, student-led group choreographic project with documentation or, alternatively, a portfolio of drawings presented at the end of the module. Secondly, the module examines twentieth and twenty-first century works in which choreographers have collaborated with visual artists. This part of the module is assessed through an essay. Teaching is through lecture, seminar and practical compositional exercises in movement and drawing.

This module combines theoretical and practical approaches to explore important European writers, directors and companies by studying their innovative dramaturgies, scenographies, uses of ‘no longer dramatic’ text, and new acting/performing styles. These aesthetic forms are also discussed in relation to the performances’ thematic and political concerns with developments such as globalization and late capitalism, increasing mediatisation, (anti-)immigration, terrorism and the war on terror and ecological concerns, as well as with the enduring memories of the Second World War and a European history of colonialism. Teaching is through lecture, seminar and practical workshop and assessment is by practical presentation and by seen examination.

This module provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of the ways in which creative practitioners produce and deliver their work. It will provide an overview of the challenges faced by freelance practitioners, producers and small cultural companies within the creative industries. You will also develop a working understanding of the key management and enterprise skills involved in delivering creative projects. Working in groups you will put your learning into practice through the delivery of your own live creative arts project. This will enable you to understand the skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours relevant for employment in the arts and creative industries.

This module combines theoretical and practical approaches to explore new scenographic approaches to contemporary performance. The module is structured to introduce you to the theories and histories of scenography and then progresses to locate scenography through the theatre, through technology and finally in relation to site. The module is focused around four cutting edge contemporary theatre companies (previous examples include The Wooster Group, Need Company, Imitating the Dog) used as paradigms to introduce you to the ways in which text, the body, light, visual/spatial organization, technology and choreography are used as scenographic tools to create specific and unique instances of contemporary performance. Teaching is through lecture, seminar and practical workshop and assessment is by practical workshop and seen exam.