Dramatic Arts

Drawing on influences from theater and the visual arts, Live Art does not conform to any single form of making but is rather wildly interdisciplinary, experimental and provocative. Concerned with experience and the potential of live encounter for public intervention, radical politics and formal innovation, this course introduces the Idea of Live Art and its artistic, social and political ambitions. Exploring examples of experimental practice by key practitioners –  indicatively Marina Abramović, Franko B, Chris Burden, Song Dong, Tehching Hsieh, Yves Klein, Santiago Sierra, Valie Export and others – this course also engages with contemporary events happening in London simultaneously with seminars. Students explore institutions, including the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and the Institute for Contemporary Arts (London), which have framed, supported and made space for Live Art, and make the most of opportunities offered by the Department’s three-year partnership with Tate Modern. Students explore key ideas for theater and performance to do with liveness, embodiment, spectatorship, duration, ephemerality and documentation, and investigate how live art has embraced, challenged, and extended debates regarding the representation of ideas and identities, as well as what might count as performance.

This course aims to study Japanese culture by emphasizing the continuing tradition of classical culture with the key images and ideas of waka poetry through theater and visual arts.

This course examines a range of live productions to explore strategies for reading live performance that recognize the importance of where performances take place. Students visit the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Barbican as well as "fringe" or alternative venues in examining how they read the performance event. Students are expected to engage with critical reviews of performances, examine the role of press and marketing, and explore the targeting of specific productions to particular audience groups.

This course introduces the origin and evolution of traditional puppet theatre; the front stage and use of props in traditional puppet theatre; the musical notation and gong and drum scriptures in the backstage of traditional puppet theatre; the introduction and application of traditional puppet theatre sets, and the appreciation of traditional puppet theatre script.

This course provides a study of the basics of costume design for the theatre with a focus on the panoramic view of historic costumes, elements of design, fabric science, costume design and construction, and accessories. Students participate in workshops that offer the opportunity to demonstrate the applications of costume in theatre practice.

Has contemporary culture taken a funny turn? This course offers you the chance to find out. Students look at the recent proliferation of comic novels and short stories, as well as stand-up comedy, sitcoms, and film, in order to ask questions such as: why is this funny? how is this funny? should we be laughing at this? and what does this type of comedy say about the contemporary moment? You will also study the theory and philosophy of comedy, using this to inform our understanding of what comedy and laughter do, culturally, psychologically, ethically, and politically.