EL6059 - The Craft of the Playwright

You will learn through two weekly 90-minute seminars, individual tutorials, and independent learning. Working in a small tutorial groups, Students will be focusing on a number of plays of varying form and size. Along with conducting appropriate contextual research, they will be carrying out a literary analysis of form, style, structure, language and thematic ideas. Each play will be examined in terms of the very specific challenges it poses in practical production. You will discuss and analyse these texts in order to develop your understanding, and carry out writing activities in order to produce your own work.

At Level 6 the main impetus of your work must come from you: independent writing and study will form the main learning activity, and you must conceive, plan and drive forward your own writing project for this module. It is your opportunity to design and carry out your own piece of creative writing, putting into practice the techniques you have acquired on the degree so far. Your independent learning will be focused on reading and on producing your own writing for the stage. Tutorials will enable you to gain one-to-one tutor feedback and to talk to your tutor about the development of your work.

Support will come from tutors through seminars and individual tutorials. We will help you engage with a range of literary, theoretical, critical and reflective texts and provide writing exercises to help you produce your own writing for the stage. We will provide tutor feedback and enable you to receive peer feedback on your draft work, to help you make your writing as good as it can be.

Tutors will make module information, learning materials and details of assessment available on the University’s eLearning Portal. We will help you to understand what is required in assessments and how your work will be measured against the assessment criteria.
The module tutor will be available in seminars, as well as during office hours, to discuss any queries or concerns you have.
You will also have access to a Guidance Tutor to support you on academic matters and provides to links for support on other matters. You will be invited to meet your Guidance Tutor regularly to review your progress. The Guidance Booklet, which you receive at the start of your first year, includes structured materials designed to help you develop your self-reflection skills. These materials underpin the academic side of the regular Guidance meetings, helping you to learn how to best use the feedback you receive on your assignments, how to build on your strengths, and improve in the areas where you could perform better.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
• A critical understanding of a range of theories and concepts in the analysis of dramatic playwriting and the context in which plays are produced and received

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Ability to demonstrate originality in articulating a point of view with confidence, clarity and vision
• Ability to Identify and solve creative problems in play structure, content or story
• Ability to demonstrate a detailed and critical understanding of the relationship between the various parts of dramatic story-telling, including character, dialogue, plot, theme and visual/aural elements
• Ability to Evaluate current research and scholarship in dramatic literary theory.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• How will I be assessed? (SRS 0006)
Please give details of all formative and summative assessment process indicating which MLOs will be addressed and how feedback will be provided.

Through the module there will be two projects to complete – one will be formative and purely analytical. A series of script reports) assessing the relationships between language, character and narrative; and in which a number of challenges are identified, along with a series of proposed practical solutions in production. Their weekly presentation and resultant peer exchange will form a significant part of the learning and will ideally simulate the dynamics of a lively literary department script meeting

The second project will be summative. This will involve the writing of a short script accompanied by a reflective commentary - that asks students to reflect on the decisions they have made in their writing and how their choices have been impacted by the plays they have critically read during the module.

Formative

Peer and tutor feedback will be provided on script reports in seminar sessions.

Summative

A portfolio made up of:

• 15pp script
• with a 500-word critical commentary positioning the work in relation to other texts

A single mark is given, based on the literary merit of the creative component, and on the extent to which it applies ideas learned in the module, as evidenced by the commentary. Programme (Level) Learning Outcomes that this module contributes to:
[Please insert PLO number as listed on the programme specification]

Knowledge & Understanding:
•

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
•

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
•

Through the module there will be two projects to complete – one will be formative and purely analytical. A series of script reports) assessing the relationships between language, character and narrative; and in which a number of challenges are identified, along with a series of proposed practical solutions in production. Their weekly presentation and resultant peer exchange will form a significant part of the learning and will ideally simulate the dynamics of a lively literary department script meeting

The second project will be summative. This will involve the writing of a short script accompanied by a reflective commentary - that asks students to reflect on the decisions they have made in their writing and how their choices have been impacted by the plays they have critically read during the module.

Formative

Peer and tutor feedback will be provided on script reports in seminar sessions.

Summative

A portfolio made up of:

• 15pp script
• with a 500-word critical commentary positioning the work in relation to other texts

A single mark is given, based on the literary merit of the creative component, and on the extent to which it applies ideas learned in the module, as evidenced by the commentary.

N/A

N/A

Led by award-winning playwright and dramaturge May Sumbwanyambe, this module offers a high level of contact with the theatre industry. Something that will appeal to emerging playwrights, directors, dramaturges, performance artists and critics, equally. The Module focuses not only on the craft of writing for performance, but also on how a script plays out in real space and time, and in front of an audience. You will be taught through a dynamic combination of seminars, workshops, and one-to-one supervision.