Bachelor of Theatre

Theatre Making Major

The Theatre Making major introduces students to the rigorous theory, history, and practice of generating original work in theatrical forms; in adapting theatre skills and processes to community and education participatory practice, and to identifying, designing and delivering sustainable community-participatory creative arts projects. Fundamental to this major are the ‘soft skills’ of collaboration, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, project planning and management within an ethical and local/global political, historical and cultural awareness. This major culminates in real world community-engaged creative projects, students’ progress through iterative learning activities that develop the acumen to promote agency and advocacy in communities.

Duration

3-years Full Time

6-years Part Time

Campus

Toowoomba

Online

QTAC Code

909981

909985

ATAR

60

Credit Points

24

What You Study!

You will rigorously explore the established processes of interpretative performance for live and digital modes of delivery. The industry wants you to generate and sustain original performance material and outcomes, and so you will innovate traditional live performance through online product-share for digital promotion, delivery and audience reach.

Foundation Skills of the Working Actor

Making Theatre History 1: Classic Plays in Context

Theatre in Communities

Making Theatre History 2

Acting and Interpretation

Educational Drama

Acting for the Digital Medium

Theatre and Adaptation

Dramaturgy and Dramatic Responsibility

The Creative Actor

Theatre Making Project

Body as Story

THT1004 Acting and Interpretation

Working in a television studio requires the mastery of key concepts and awareness of the production and technical skills required to work in the industry. This course builds upon  foundational skills developed in TVR 1001, allowing students to  take on more senior roles. Students will be working on a television production that will be seen on a network television channel.  Working on a program means that you build skills, confidence and awareness of audience, scripting, producing, directing and a range of other roles.

This course engages students with the language and terminology used in the industry. It will build further competencies utilised in other courses in the degree.  Students will continue to build skills in a single camera, location environment, developed sophisticated production elements and be made aware of the value of media management. You will be producing a program under industry standards and practice.  Other skills will be developed including critical thinking, effective communication skills and team work, vital for employment in the industry.

THT2003 Educational Drama

This course introduces students to practice in educational drama so they may apply deliver workshops to and in collaboration with a wide variety of participants. Students will undertake reflexivity and ambiguity as ways to experiment with  how drama is used as a pedagogic tool to teach about the human condition The learning in this course is dynamic and aims to build on already-practiced skills from first year in order to increase the capacity for employability in the cultural or educational sectors.

THT2004 Theatre and Adaptation

From the moment they were first written, performed, and printed, classical plays (from the Greeks to the Renaissance) have been subjected to almost constant contestation and adaptation. Perhaps more than any other set of creative texts, these dramatic works have been cut, edited, abridged, modernised, and re-written for stage and screen, turned into novels, comics, games, and apps, and transformed for use in classrooms, prisons, and digital media. The study of the variety of ways in which classic dramatic texts have been adapted and re-written provides students with a crucial engagement with theories of text and performance that can be applied in their own project and creative work, and furthers develops the scholarly, critical and writing skills attained in THT1001 and THT1002.

THT2001 The Creative Actor

Contemporary theatre workers need the knowledge and skills to apply the principles of story generation, structure, development and production as a foundation to wide ranging professional practice. Concomitant to that capability are the organisational, communication, problem-solving, reflective practice and collaborative skills fundamental to independent models of practice. This course introduces students to the principles of screenplay story structure, and the broad precepts of comedy. Through weekly cumulative workshops, students acquire and apply the principles of story and comedy to the generation of original and adapted work. Weekly supervised workshop processes enable students to acquire and apply skills and knowledge for evaluating and developing work-in-progress towards final performance outcomes. Students negotiating this course gain a formative understanding of the architecture of story and story construction and the processes involved in developing professional performance product. In the performance of work generated, students further their understanding and application of interpretive and performance skills in the live and digital mediums.

THT3004 The Body as Story

The body is central to the lived experience of all human beings , both actual and fictional. The interrogation of race and gender representation are essential to knowing how the body is interpreted and perceived in Western cultural dramatic artefacts reveals how it may be constructed, exploited, exonerated or erased. Theatre-makers will be introduced to theoretical contexts that explore the ethical and critical considerations around how a body might be consumed by a paying public audience. The plays and films considered in the course are designed to challenge the readers’ assumptions about the body throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

THT3003 Dramaturgy and Dramatic Responsibility

Dramaturgical and textual analysis are essential for all theatre-makers in order to ground their practice in the ways in which dramatic text might create a fictional world on stage, or on film.  This course provides advanced exploration of the role of dramaturgy at the service of the dramatic text.  Dramatic responsibility refers to how theatre-makers create the fictional “world of the play” according to the playwright’s instructions, or not.  Historical performance theory, from Aristotle to Peta Tait will be used to align students to dramaturgical processes and the dramatic responsibility of translating written text into performance text.

THT3005 Theatre Making Project

As emerging theatre artists, students need to explore the intersection between theory and practice in theatre to an advanced level of practice, resulting in a range of community-based theatre products. The aim of this course is for final-year students to proactively and professionally work with a community group, school, or club to apply advanced processes and skills in the creative development and realisation of a significant theatre outcome.  This may form the basis of career opportunities for the student, beyond university.

Why Choose Theatre Making?

The theatre making major is for those who want to make original performance. Whether you’re curious about writing, directing, performing, teaching (or maybe Drama is just your favourite subject at school), this program offers students a diverse range of experience and the foundations for a sustainable career in the creative arts. Graduates from theatre making programs at UniSQ have gone on to be award-winning playwrights, nationally acclaimed directors, expert academics, celebrated comedians, speciality drama teachers, arts therapists and much more.

Your Career

Depending on your areas of specialisation and choice of electives, your career options could include roles in mainstream theatre, the education sector, international arts events and more including:

Directors

Producers

Administrators

Actors, performers and comedians

Playwrights

Drama teachers

Your Career

Depending on your areas of specialisation and choice of electives, your career options could include roles in mainstream theatre, the education sector, international arts events and more including:

Directors

Producers

Administrators

Actors, performers and comedians

Playwrights

Drama teachers

Your Career

Depending on your areas of specialisation and choice of electives, your career options could include roles in mainstream theatre, the education sector, international arts events and more including:

Directors

Producers

Administrators

Actors, performers and comedians

Playwrights

Drama teachers

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