Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE THS1201

 
TITLE Staging Skills and Practices 1

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 10

 
DEPARTMENT Theatre Studies

 
DESCRIPTION The study-unit enables students to acquire foundational skills in the staging and presentation of theatrical performance as the basis for complementing practical work later in the programme, where they will both apply and develop these skills. Through introductory lectures and information seminars that lead to and/or follow on practical work and demonstrations, this study-unit highlights a wide range of essential knowledge and basic skills necessary in staging practices. Areas covered by the study-unit may include aspects from the following: lighting; sound; stage design; scenography; prop-making; costumes; as well as risk assessment and health and safety awareness. Moreover, the study-unit will highlight the praxis of various aspects which students are exposed to in other study-units that focus on the more theoretical and historical dimensions of theatre-making.

Study-unit Aims:

The study-unit aims to:
(a) equip students with a wide range of basic skills for the staging of performance events;
(b) offer a foundational, practice-based study of technical aspects in performance production;
(c) facilitate student understanding of how different technologies contribute to the aesthetics of performance;
(d) make links between history and practice.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

(a) demonstrate a range of technical skills within practical demonstration outcomes;
(b) demonstrate basic competence in handling equipment within the disciplines studied paying due attention to the health and safety of themselves and others;
(c) begin to develop knowledge and understanding of the processes by which performance is created and realised in terms of such technical aspects as lighting, sound, costumes, and stage design;
(d) begin to analyse and integrate theatre technologies creatively, conceptually, and practically.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

(a) work independently and collaboratively on studio-based projects;
(b) manage practical assignments within specified resource and time constraints;
(c) identify basic health and safety issues;
(d) reflect on their own learning.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

MAIN TEXTS
C. Baugh, Theatre, Performance and Technology: The Development of Scenography in the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005).
J. McKinney, The Cambridge Introduction to Scenography (Cambridge: CUP, 2011).

SUPPLEMENTARY READING
R. Brown, Sound: A Reader in Theatre Practice (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010).
R. Corson, J. Glavan, and B. Gore Norcross, Stage Makeup (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001).
N. Fraser, Stage Lighting Design: A Practical Guide (Marlborough: Crowood, 1999).
P. Howard, What is Scenography?, second edition (London: Routledge, 2009).
D. A. Ionazzi, The Stage Management Handbook (Ohio: Betterway Books, 1992).
D. Kaye, and J. LeBrecht, Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design (New York: Focal Press, 2013).
J. A. Leonard, Theatre Sound (New York: Routledge 2001).
G. Pallin, Stage Management: The Essential Handbook, third revised edition (London: Nick Hern Books 2010).
F. Reid, The ABC of Stage Technology (London: A and C Black, 1995).
F. Reid, The Stage Lighting Handbook (London: A and C Black, 2001 and 2004).
S. Sadako Takeda, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 (New York and London: Prestel Publishing, 2010).
C. Willett Cunnington, and P. Cunnington, The History of Underclothes (New York: Dover Books, 1992).
Website: Costume (London: Victoria and Albert Museum), http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/c/costume/

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES This study-unit is offered to B. Theatre (Hons) students only.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Fieldwork, Lectures, Project & Seminar

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Classwork SEM1 No 50%
Project SEM1 Yes 50%

 
LECTURER/S

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit