There are no pre-requisites for this module to be added

This module develops your advanced understanding of how dramatic stories are constructed and how structure shapes meaning, exploits tension, and creates an audience experience. You will explore a range of narrative models and structural techniques, analysing how character, plot, theme, and theatrical form interact to create compelling dramatic arcs. Through practical etudes, collaborative rehearsal processes, and a short placement with a staff director, you will learn to integrate critical analysis with creative decision making. By the end of the module, you will be able to apply structural principles with originality, exercise leadership in rehearsal contexts, and articulate the relationship between story, structure, and performance practice with professional clarity.The module combines lectures, masterclasses, tutorials, and project based etudes to introduce a wide range of approaches to dramatic storytelling. You will examine elements such as character, dialogue, plot, theme, visual and aural design, and explore structural forms from linear narrative to more complex manipulations of time and perspective. Across the trimester, you will complete four practical etudes, each focusing on a different aspect of story and structure, and you will undertake a short placement as an assistant director to observe professional rehearsal processes. Weekly tutorials support your development, and the module culminates in a final etude and a reflective analytical essay.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to

LO1: Critically appraise and synthesise a range of dramatic story structuring techniques, drawing on current scholarship and professional practice.

LO2: Analyse and evaluate the processes involved in planning and executing a performance project to a professional standard, exercising independent judgement in complex or unpredictable contexts.

LO3: Critically articulate and defend complex artistic and analytical ideas with clarity and authority within collaborative and interdisciplinary environments.

LO4: Exercise creative leadership and conceptualise, interrogate, and resolve artistic problems in practice.

LO5: Evaluate and generate original approaches to the development of character, plot, and theme, producing compelling dramatic narratives informed by advanced techniques and critical insight.

LO6: Critically integrate and justify the relationship between theoretical perspectives and creative practice, exercising independent judgement in practical artistic decision making.