AustLit
Texts
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Playwriting: the structure of action!$!Smiley, S.!$! London and New Haven!$!Yale University Press!$!2005
Description
This unit will offer the student an opportunity to develop an existing strength in writing drama. The work of established writers in the genre will be the starting point for the workshops in which students will be encouraged to explore a range of subjects and styles in the development of their own writing. There will be an emphasis on twentieth century and contemporary, English-language drama, and, within that, on current Australian playwriting.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. express an understanding of the history of English-language drama and an awareness of contemporary playwriting;
2. discern and discuss the characteristics and conventions of various styles of drama, including structure, plot, characterisation, dialogue, stage-direction and relevant stage-craft and acting styles;
3. identify and employ the conventions of stage-script layout;
4. workshop with peers to develop scripts through reading, movement and role-play; and
5. write a stage play of at least one act (no less than 30 minutes).
UNIT CONTENT
1. Study of selected extracts from published plays and other relevant texts, with an emphasis on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
2. Writing drama which demonstrates skills gained through the workshops.
3. Writing an analytical text, exploring the limits and possibilities of the genre.
4. Role-playing and workshopping of students' plays.
Supplementary Texts
Allan, R., & Pearlman, K. (Eds.). (1999). Performing the unnameable: An anthology of Australian performance texts. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Artaud, A. (1999). The theatre and its double. London: Calder.
Bradley Smith, S. (2001). Griefbox and other plays. Cambridge, UK: Salt Publishing.
Brisbane, K. (Ed.). (1991). Entertaining Australia. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Brooks, P. (1990). The empty space. London: Penguin.
Eyre, R., & Wright, N. (2000). Changing stages: A view of British theatre in the twentieth century. London, UK.: Bloomsbury.
Filewod, A., & Watt, D. (2001). Workers' playtime: Theatre and the labour movement since 1970. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Meyrick, J. (2002). See how it runs: Nimrod and the new wave. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Parsons, P. (AM) (Ed.). (c1995). Companion to theatre in Australia. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Pfistere, S. (1999). Playing with ideas: Australian women playwrights from the suffragettes to the sixties. Sydney, NSW: Currency Press.
Vandenbourke, R. (Ed.). (2001). Contemporary Australian plays. London, UK: Methuen.
Wilmeth, D. B., & Bigsby, C. (2000). The Cambridge history of American theatre, Vols 1-3. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
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