ma devised performance leaflet 2010

7/31/2019 MA Devised Performance Leaflet 2010

1/12

MA Devised Performance


2/12

www.winchester.ac.uk2

Why study at Winchester?

The University o Winchester is a small

institution located just one hour away rom

London set in the rolling Hampshire hillside.

The University has occupied its main campus

since 1860, which is situated close to the city

centre.

Postgraduate study and research embraces

a wide range o opportunities within a riendly,

relaxed environment. Programmes range

rom PGCEs (Primary and Secondary) to a

wide selection o MA and MSc courses in

humanities, arts, social sciences, perorming

arts and business, as well as research MPhils

and PhDs. The majority o courses can either

be studied ull-time or part-time. There are

also a range o proessional and short courses

designed to enhance career development.

In the 2008 RAE (Research Assessment

Exercise) 75 per cent o the Universitys

research submitted was considered

internationally recognised, with some research

achieving the highest grade possible (4*) and a

rating o quality that is world-leading in terms

o originality, signicance and rigour.

For more details about courses on oer,

studying at Winchester, tuition ees and

nancial help please contact the Course

Enquiries and Applications team on

+44 (0) 1962 827234

or email [email protected]


3/12


Building on the substantial expertise of the

BA Performing Arts programme staff, along

with invited guest artists, the MA Devised

Performance provides an intensive,

advanced level immersion in the creative

processes of devising at the emerging

professional level, and allows for creative

practical and/or scholarly enquiry into

these processes to take place.

The programme integrates proessional

perormance making and academic refection

on perormance in ways that provoke dialogue

between the creative and the analytical,

and where refection eeds the perormance

making process. It welcomes candidates

who want to nourish, extend and rene their

interest in devising as a processes and in the

devised work as a product, as well as those

whose practical refection eeds scholarly

interests.

The programme supports group and solo

work in an innovative programme that

oers a commitment to in-depth process

and high quality work. Modules begin with

a ocus on the sel as resource (Devising

and the Perormer), moving outwards to an

examination o perormance texts (Advanced

Approaches to Text and Perormance

Writing), then on to work within public

contexts (Devising and Site). The Advanced

Perormance Project oers a chance to

develop perormance skills according to group

interests; alternatively Creative Production

provides a starting point or proessional

curation and production.

The culmination o the MA is a negotiated

Independent Research Project which will

refect your unique interest, practice and

exploration, building skills in scholarly and/or

practice-based research.

It is important to make clear that the

programme unctions at a competitive and

proessional level and that it demands both

practical and intellectual skill.

www.winchester.ac.uk 3

Full-time: 1 year

Part-time: 2 years

Start Date: September

Entry requirements: Normally a rst or

second class Honours degree in a related

subject or proessional experience in the

area o study.

Application process: By both

application and audition/interview. For this

exercise students will need to prepare and

show a devised solo perormance excerpt.

I English is not your frst language:

Students should have 600 TOEFL or IELTS

6.5 (including 6.5 in academic writing) or

equivalent. I your score is below this level

you may be required to attend a pre-

sessional course.

FACT FILE


4/12



Programme content

Making perormance is at the core o the MA

Devised Perormance. Students are asked to

refect upon, theorise and contextualise this

perormance making.

Modules

Semester 1:

Introductory module: Devising and the

Performer

This is a refective perormance project,

ocusing on the sel and autobiographical

material as a resource. The module begins

rom the premise that one inevitably devises

rom autobiography, in the sense that all o

our attitudes, opinions and creative impulses

emerge rom the constellation o corporeality,

personality and lie experience that we call the

sel. Aesthetic preerence is not neutral or

objective, it is deeply subjective. We explore

devising using this attitude as a starting point

and extend it into new realms o perormance

practice and refection.

Advanced Approaches to Text and

Performance Writing

This module addresses strategies or working

with text in devising as well as cultivating new

orms o writing or perormance. The module

introduces students to a range o adaptation

and deconstructive approaches enabling

them to develop innovative ways o working

with text or and in perormance. Interested

in addressing the perceived gap between

non-text and text-based practices, we look

at contemporary practices where classical

texts are explored in innovative and critical

ways as well as contemporary devising

practices that use writing and text as a key

element. Students are introduced to the

latest discussions and debates concerning

the use o text in contemporary perormance

and are subsequently asked to situate their

practice in relation to ongoing discussions

and developments. These questions and

issues are, or example, collaborative writing,

authorship, appropriation, ownership,

the impact o modern technologies on

perormance writing.

Research Methods

This module is designed to acilitate research

both or those students wishing to negotiate

an entirely written thesis and or those


5/12



ocusing on practice-led work, and thus

helps prepare students or their Independent

Study. Theoretical, practical and hybrid

methodological approaches in perormance

research are explored.

Semester 2:

Devising and Site

In this module students create a

perormance, event or installation in a public

space. They are encouraged to draw on a

widening eld o concern, as the student is

invited to consider not only the physical, but

also the socio-political environment within

which the work is situated. This environment

will be regarded as resource, provocation,

eld o resistance and site o collaborative

exchange. This module involves students in

an analysis and critique o contemporary site-

specic art, with a particular emphasis on its

socio-political commentary and unction. The

module investigates the ways in which site-

specic perormance and the critical writings

and creative practices that inorm it are

requently concerned with radical political,

social or indeed aesthetic intervention or

negotiation.

Students undertake two o the ollowing three

modules. Students intending to study to MA

level must take Gateway to Independent

Study.

Advanced Performance Project

This is a perormance project in which

students will create a perormance o an

appropriate standard or an emerging

company who may wish to tour proessionally.

The project will be negotiated and managed

by the student company. This project

responds to the pressures o proessional

practice in that the devising will take place

over a three week intensive rehearsal

period, although the planning o the project,

including practical planning, will have taken

place throughout the period o the MA. The

intensive devising period is ollowed by urther

rehearsals and perormance labs prior to

the nal perormance. Each company has a

tutor as supervisor and mentor, although the

student company is responsible or all aspects

o the project, including sound and lighting

design, scenography, text and direction.

Emphasis will be placed on the specic

audience or the perormance. The project


6/12



thus replicates the process that an individual

artist or emerging company goes through in

order to realise their rst proessional project.

Creative Production

This module is designed to introduce and

amiliarise the students with the roles and

unctions o creative production and the

actors that are involved in the relationship

between the perormance practitioner and

the creative producer. This module may be

o particular interest to students who wish to

prepare or proessional engagement with the

creative industries as part o their career plan,

as well as or those who might be interested

in the production role and its creative

possibilities.

Gateway to Independent Study

Students proceeding to the ull MA must take

this module, which builds on the Research

Methods module and will enable students

to develop their proposals or independent

study, identiying a topic under supervision.

They will produce a research plan including

key strategies and a list o perormance/

bibliographic resources, enabling them to

prepare or a practice-led or more traditionally

academic nal independent project.

Independent Study

A project negotiated between the student and

the programme leader, leading to a portolio

o work which could include a combination o

creative maniesto, dissertation, perormative

essay and independently devised perormance

with refection on the process and outcome.

It could also lead to a traditional academic

dissertation, or a combination o this with

practice-led research strategies, depending

on the nature o the project and the students

post-MA goals. This negotiated project can

be designed to be o relevance to the onward

career development o the graduating student.

Learning and teaching

The MA programme oers the opportunity

to ocus on creative practice as research,

so that the rehearsal space as perormance

laboratory is central to its pedagogy. Many

aspects o the learning experience revolve

around an experiential pedagogy that

seeks to develop creative skills within a

theoretical, historical, critical and analytical

ramework. However, learning and teaching

will be undertaken through a variety o

mechanisms, enabling students to establish

their own learning strategies and preerred

research methodologies as they inorm,

analyse and build on their practical experience

through lectures, debates, seminars and

assignments involving critical writing and

documentation. Since the course aims to

oer an understanding and knowledge o

proessional practice, the teaching includes

signicant input rom proessional perormance

makers, both visiting lecturers and permanent

members o sta, many o whom have their

own established practices.

Practical workshops and student labs are

the key teaching method since the subject

is a Perorming Arts degree. At MA level

these workshops are also an opportunity or

students to engage in more intensive modes

o learning. For example, in the Advanced

Perormance Project there is an intensive

devising process replicating a proessional one.

It is expected that work with practitioners will

take place during weekend workshops also.

The processes and outcomes o practices


7/12



will provide examples o work which students

can refect upon and reer to in the seminars,

lectures and tutorials. This refection leads

on to urther testing through perormance

making.

Tutorials or groups and individuals are a vital

part o Masters level study. They are used,

or example, to discuss issues in advance o

presentations and assignments, or eedback

on assignments, guidance on specic and

general issues relating to independent

study and/or discussion o the Independent

study. They acilitate specic and directed

guidance and eedback on both conceptual

and procedural matters, and seek actively

to develop student-centred independent

learning.

Student presentations require individual

students to deend beore their peers and

tutors argument that evaluates, assesses

and synthesises research-based evidence

pertaining to specic issues, concepts,

theories and practices. Presentations develop

the skills o independent research, which

include library and computer research,

inormation gathering and writing skills. They

develop in the student the ability to weigh

critical and theoretical positions, construct

argument and structure ideas. They develop

skills o discussion and argument; skills

o organisation, time management and

presentation; also oral and communication

skills.

Proessional practitioners provide vital

opportunities or students to bring real world

experience into the institution, working closely

with students and oering a range o specic

devising methods or specic audiences.

Assesment is usually by portolio, including,

but not limited to specic assignments, in

order to encourage an holistic approach.


8/12



Teaching team

The MA Devised Perormance has been

initiated by members o the Centre or

Research into Expanded Dramaturgies and

the Centre or Research into Negotiating

Perormance.

Sta profles

Synne Behrndt

Synne is the co-author oDramaturgy and

Perormance (Palgrave, 2008), with Cathy

Turner and joint editor o a special issue

oContemporary Theatre Review on new

dramaturgies. Other academic writing

includes a chapter on seminal company

The People Show or orthcoming Making

Theatre Happen: Documentation and

analysis o interactive devising processes, ed.

Jackie Smart and Alex Mermikides (2010).

Forthcoming publication includes Invisible

Things. Documentation rom a Devising

Process with David Harradine (2010).

Synne works as dramaturg and dramaturgical

advisor or various directors and companies.

Her recent UK dramaturgical collaborations

include collaboration with David Harradine/

Fevered Sleep on productions including

An Infnite Line: Brighton Festival, 2008;

dramaturg or Simon Plumridge/Platorm 4 on

R&D phase oThe Tempest (touring nationally

2009). Current projects include dramaturg or

Douglas Rintoul and choreographer Darren

Johnston on In a Dream dreamt by Another

(2010/11) and On Ageing with Fevered Sleep/

David Harradine (2010).

Yvon Bonenfant

Yvon Bonenant is a perormance maker

and practice-led researcher who works in

intermedia rom the perspective o extended

voice. In 2009, he was artist in residence at

the Experimental Music and Perorming Arts

Centre, Troy, NY USA where he created and

premired the voice-video work Beacons

(with video artist David Shearing). In 2007/8,

Yvon Bonenant received research-creation

unding rom the Arts and Humanities

Research Council and the British Academy.

With the ensemble the Galloping Cuckoos,

he made a movement-street intervention

work called The Opposite o Trauma

(2008) (showed Paris, London, Cardi).

With painter and videographer Ludivine

Allegue, he created the installation B(earth)

(2007) (shown Paris, Cardi, Alsager); the

videodance experimental lm Intimacies

(2008) (premiered 2e Mostra de Videodanza

de Sao Carlos, Brazil) and the video work

Beacons (2008) (exhibited at the Alsager

Gallery in 2009). His voice and text appear in

Micah Silvers installation The End o Saariat

the Massachusetts Museum o Contemporary

Art in 2009/10. His perormance or maximum

ve audience members at a time, Soie

Soyuse (2007) played in Paris, New York,

Wales and the video version in Tallinn. He has

published in Perormance Research, STP,

SCAN Journal, Body, Music and Dance in

Psychotherapyamong others and his artists

book Soie soyeuse was published by Editions

Talmart, Paris in 2009.

Richard Cuming

Richard is a perormer, deviser and director,

who has worked both nationally and

internationally. His interest is in the synthesis

o dierent perormance orms and the

space between the real and the ake. With

his company shproductions he created two

projects in unusual spaces, The Family Outing


9/12



Caravan Holiday(recipient o a Year o the

Artist Award in 2000) and Love Me Tender,

perormed in a lost property oce (1997).

With Fuse Perormance he created Ca

Lente (2006/7), an immersive perormance

event which combined sound, lm and live

perormance which played at Visual Arts

Festivals. In 2009 he was dramaturg or Fuse

Perormance on their perormance event

The Village Fete. He is Chair o the Board

o Platorm 4 Theatre Co and a member

o the editorial board oTotal Theatre

magazine. He is a Principal Lecturer and

Head o Perorming Arts at The University o

Winchester

Janet Lee

Janet Lee is a physical theatre perormer

and puppeteer whose specialist areas

are Physical and Visual Theatre. She has

directed or and perormed with Strange

Arrangements or the past 10 years as well

as collaborating with Australian puppetry

company Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Janet

is currently researching dance/puppetry

as interdisciplinary practice. She recently

co-created Dead Reckoning with Nigel Luck

and has published on dance and puppetry in

Animations Inprint. She is a Senior Lecturer

in Perorming Arts at the University o

Winchester.

Dr Millie Taylor

Millie Taylor graduated rom Birmingham

University with a degree in Music, Drama

and Dance. She worked as a reelance

musical director or almost twenty years and

completed an MA in Theatre Practice and a

PhD in Drama and Music at Exeter University.

Recent publications include British

Pantomime Perormance (Intellect 2007)

and Singing or Musicals: A Practical Guide

(Crowood Press 2008) as well as articles and

chapters on pantomime, musical theatre,

experimental music theatre and voice.

She is currently working on a monograph,

Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment

to be published by Ashgate Press. She is a

member o IFTR working groups on Popular

Entertainment and Music Theatre and

member o the editorial boards oStudies in

Musical Theatre and Popular Entertainment

Studies. She is a Reader in Perorming Arts

and Programme Leader or the MA in Popular

Perormances.

Dr Cathy Turner

Cathy Turner is a Reader in Perorming Arts

and convenor o the Centre or Research into

Expanded Dramaturgies. She gained her PhD

rom Exeter University Drama Department

in 1996. She is a core member o Wrights

& Sites, a group o refective practitioners

committed to creating and researching site-

specic work and authors oAn Exeter Mis-

Guide (2003) andA Mis-Guide to Anywhere

(2006). The company has also curated work

or the Vienna Festival/Tanzquartier Wien

(2007) and the Belluard Bollwerk International

Festival, Switzerland (2008). Cathy is joint

author, with Synne Behrndt, oDramaturgy

and Perormance (Palgrave 2008) and has

written articles or Perormance Research, STP,

New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Writing or

Creative Practice and Contemporary Theatre

Review. In 2008, she was awarded research

unding rom AHRC to support Writing Space,

a project investigating new approaches to

dramaturgical work with writers across an

expanded eld.


10/12



Assessment

Assessment on the programme is by

a variety o means. Some modules are

assessed by portolio. As in a ne art portolio,

examples o arts practice are included in the

portolio. While live perormances cannot be

physically incorporated into a portolio, their

documentation can, and the perormances

themselves are considered as contributing to

the overall portolio mark. It is important that

students should be equipped to elect to submit

a dissertation or their Independent Study and

the portolios will thereore include extended

critical writing in response to assignments and

relevant criteria will be applied to the portolio

contents (or example demonstration o the

ability to analyse and debate contemporary

perormance through critical writing).

The portolio oers some fexibility so

that students can develop its contents as

appropriate to specic projects and concerns;

on the other hand, parity will be maintained in

that each will contain specied elements (or

example, a piece o critical writing; a journal;

creative documentation o work), and there will

be clearly dened expectations o the whole.

The portolio thus serves two purposes. Firstly,

it is an assessed document with specic

assessments required by the module, but

secondly it provides an archive or the student

practitioner enabling them to refect upon

their process, and acts as a resource or

the planning o uture projects. Methods o

documentation o live perormance practice are

increasingly being discussed in proessional

practice, and the portolio will also serve as an

arteact or debate around the documentation

o practice.

Essay and presentation-based assessments

are also used in some modules.

Assessment o the independent project is

negotiated in relation to each project, yet with

reerence to fexible models appropriate to

dierent research methodologies. Again, this

refects the programmes strategy o balancing

fexibility with clearly dened expectations and

criteria.

Career opportunities

The course might act as a bridge towards

developing a proessional practice: it aims

to create strong, independent perormance

makers, who have knowledge o the

proessional perorming arts sector and are

creative and critically refective practitioners.

Alternatively, it could be a rst step towards a

PhD and would be particularly appropriate as a

step towards a practice-as-research PhD.

Contact us

Yvon Bonenfant

Programme Leader

Telephone: +44 (0) 1962 854485

Email: [email protected]

Course Enquiries and Applications

Telephone: +44 (0) 1962 827234



11/12


Martial RoseLibrary

The Library oers study places or more than

450 readers, including 150 computers linked

to Winchesters network. The library has a

collection o more than 250,000 books, videos,

DVDs and sound recordings and receives

some 1,000 journals, in printed and electronic

orm.

Centre or Research and Knowledge

Exchange

The centre oers core services to research

students, consisting o a dedicated oce with

ull IT provision, a meeting room and other

acilities which are open 14 hours a day, seven

days a week. The centre is also home to Wired

Wessex which is a business support network

working with micro businesses in the new

media and IT Industry.

The Stripe

This is a state-o-the-art lecture theatre

complex encompassing an auditorium, lecture

theatres, seminar rooms and studio spaces.

The acility is used or lectures, seminars and

as a perormance space. A number o key

public events also take place inside The Stripe

throughout the year.

Facilities on campusUniversity Centre

The University Centre creates an impressive

gateway to the King Alred Campus. It

opened in September 2007 and includes the

Student Union, academic bookshop, mini-

mart convenience store and places to eat and

drink. The Centres Learning Ca provides an

inormal atmosphere to relax or study, oering

24-hour Internet access seven days a week.

It is installed with wireless Internet technology

allowing or laptop use or alternatively people

can use one o the 50 networked PCs.

Art and Culture

As well as being one o the most popular

centres or higher education or perorming

arts courses in the UK, Winchesters campus

is a thriving network o art activity. The campus

itsel has a vast range o perormance and

rehearsal space including the new 6 million

West Downs Perorming Arts Centre. For more

inormation about the University o Winchester

go to www.winchester.ac.uk


12/12

The University o Winchester

Winchester

Hampshire

SO22 4NR

www.winchester.ac.uk

Finding out more...Course Enquiries and Applications

Telephone: +44 (0)1962 827234


a large print version of thisbooklet is available on request01786/09/09

ma devised performance leaflet 2010

Documents