Musical TheatreBA Hons

What you'll do

In this module, you’ll be introduced to contemporary methods and techniques for creating your own devised music theatre project.

What you'll learn

Working together and under guidance from your tutors, you’ll learn from the work of other devised practitioner and explore how movement, text and music-making can be used to develop your own original work in response to a given theme or stimulus.

Additional content

You need not be a trained musician either; sometimes, the best work comes simply through playing, exploring and taking risks – all skills highly regarded by theatre directors and makers, but also much-valued across a range of sectors.

What you'll do

As its name implies, in this module, you’ll ‘make theatre’. Unlike Devised Project, though, this is an intensive two-week process during which you’ll work with guest creatives from industry (composers, writers and directors) to stage either a classic or contemporary work of musical theatre from first read-through to full performance in ten days.

What you'll learn

This module will help develop teamwork, collaboration, good timekeeping and resilience – all skills needed in the performing arts.

What you'll do

Developing stagecraft and performance skills includes knowing how to use your body – to move, to dance and to act. This module will introduce you to a range of movement and dance styles which you will then put to use in other practical modules during your degree. These styles might include jazz, acro, ballet, tap and contemporary and whether you are an experienced dancer or a total novice, this module will help develop your skills and discover new strengths in performance.

What you'll do

In order to enhance your skills in performance, this module will introduce you to some key ways of thinking about musical theatre and performance as part of culture more broadly.

What you'll learn

You’ll learn how to talk and reason critically on issues such as race and representation in performance, or how to understand the relationship between what an author or director intends when creating a production and what a journalist might report in their review. Along the way, your develop skills in different kinds of writing and gain confidence in ways to research and think critically about what you see, hear and perform. This module provides you with critical skills for success in your degree, but also skills much-needed in today’s job market.

What you'll do

Building on ‘Performance – Criticism and Analysis’, Performance and Society gives you the opportunity explore key works and themes in their social, cultural and artistic context. For example, why is musical theatre currently so obsessed with bio-musicals such as Jersey Boys or Tina: The Tina Turner Musical? What does it reveal about our current culture and societal trends that these kinds of tribute acts and imitations are so popular? Are they commercial, trading on what is familiar – or is there more to them? Working with students on Drama & Performance, you’ll be asked to engage with these ideas in seminars and then explore one or two themes through practical workshops as well.

What you'll do

Developing stagecraft and performance skills includes knowing how to use your voice and engage with text. This module will introduce you to the key principles in understand how to deliver text and some strategies for “acting the song” – skills you will then put to use in other practical modules during your degree.

What you'll learn

You will explore solo work and monologue, ensemble work and duologues, building a performance repertoire across a range of styles. Whether you are an experienced singer or a total novice, this module will help develop your skill and technique in how to use your voice; skills as useful to the musical stage as they are to the company boardroom!

What you'll do

Building from ‘Voice and the Actor’ and ‘Movement for Performance’, this module will introduce you to a range of specialist skills in musical theatre production and performance, including as an actor, director, producer, designer, choreographer and musical director. Learning about these through skills-based workshops, you will work in groups to develop a ‘project pitch’ for the staging of a production, where you will choose a particular role or specialism.

What you'll do

Following the ‘project pitches’ in ‘Musical Theatre Skills’, this module sees you put your newly-developed skills into action as you work in small groups – and together, in one larger theatre company – to stage a classic musical in a new, exciting or contemporary way. For example, previous work has included a multi-media production of Sweeney Todd and a modern-day interpretation of Annie, set in a migrant camp. As the next generation of creatives and performers, this module gives you the chance to practise your skills while also exploring how musical theatre can remain current and develop in the future. After all, no production should ever simply be a museum piece. How do you want to reinvent the form?

What you'll do

As its name suggests, ‘Musical Theatre Laboratory’ is a place where ideas are tested and risks are taken. Building on ‘Devised Project’ and ‘Performance and Society’ from your first year, this module will equip you skills to explore a specific topic through applied research – working in groups to become expert in an area and then demonstrating this through presentation and performance. The specific subject focus might change from year to year, but previous groups have explored the politics of representing real-life on the musical stage (such as the ideological politics in The Sound of Music and Come From Away) along with the way our voice is used as a medium of performance in popular culture (such as the presence of mute characters in musical theatre or the use of imitation in bio-musicals).

What you'll learn

This module is a foundation for your final year Major Academic Project module, and will provide you with skills in synthesis theory and practice – a key skill at University and beyond.

What you'll do

Like a reliable brand of masonry paint, this module does what it says on the tin. In order to imagine the future of performance, we need to understand the historical contexts, cultures and practices that have led to the work we know, love and even loathe, today.

What you'll learn

This module will sharpen your research and writing skills, and building on ‘Performance and Society’, will help you be experts in your subject as a broad part of popular culture – rather than just fans of your favourite shows.

What you'll do

Alongside ‘Performance Histories’, this module builds further from ‘Performance – Criticism and Analysis’ and through research, reading, debate and writing, you will become experts in asking the difficult questions that continue to arise from, and are created by, theatre and performance. Considering race theory and postcolonial ideas, how ‘progressive’ is Hamilton’s depiction of race? If gender is a societal construct, should personal and fictional identities always match when casting actors? What can historical avant-garde and contemporary live art practitioners tell us about ways to think through questions of politics, capitalism, immigration, nationhood and other big topics – and how might what philosophers, scholars and critics say about these say be useful in understanding Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, or Wicked; Fun Home or Cabaret?

What you'll do

This module introduces students to the complexities around both the ideation process of a new creative business, but also how feasible marketing, manufacturing, and selling will be. Students will typically form into small groups to aid the discourse around design, content creation, and pitching of ideas.

What you'll learn

The knowledge and mind-set provided by this module are of use for those students considering running their own business, but are also highly transferable skills, desirable by future employers.

What you'll do

This practical module will introduce you to the relationship between musical theatre practice and jazz as a musical style.

What you'll learn

Through the development of vocal repertoire, you’ll learn about jazz styles and technique – from the Great American Songbook of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, to contemporary interpretations by Lady Gaga or Jamie Cullum.

Teaching activities

This module invites you to learn about history and style through practical workshops – and create a cabaret performance of jazz standards.

What you'll do

In this module, students will be reading and analysing various forms of writing for performance, and writing and developing their own scripts for performance. This will include traditional playwriting forms, forms drawn from experimental theatre techniques, as well as hybrid forms for media and performance. There will be workshop components to the module, where students will bring in new work to be read out loud, and culminating in a staged reading of a work of the student's choosing.

What you'll do

This faculty-wide module provides students with the opportunity to gain credit from paid/unpaid work, volunteering, research placements, internships and other work-related learning, such as a desk-based study. Students arrange their own programme of learning activities (of at least 60 hours) and are supported through workshops and tutorials, both to set appropriate learning goals and to provide appropriate evidence of how their employability skills, knowledge and attributes have been enhanced.

Additional content

Please note that, should they choose to, students can undertake work experience during the summer break and autumn teaching block, before the module starts in the spring teaching block.

What you'll do

This module provides the opportunity for students to broaden their range of creative, intellectual and interpersonal skills and attributes through engaging in interdisciplinary work, developing an appreciation of other creative disciplines and understanding how professionals collaborate. This module is 'project' based and allows opportunity for reflection, experimentation and development of interdisciplinary thinking.

What you'll learn

The learning objectives of this module are to be confirmed.

What you'll learn

The learning outcomes of this module are:

• Demonstrate increasing autonomy, with a reduced need for supervision and direction, within defined guidelines
• Communicate a detailed knowledge of the contexts of business and industry specific practices relevant to their chosen field and an awareness of a variety of ideas, contexts and frameworks within self-employment, freelancing or business startups
• Develop working professional relationships within industry/business disciplines
• Proactively evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses, and develop their own criteria and judgement relating to their business practice, future learning and future employability goals

Explore this module

What you'll learn

The learning outcomes of this module are:

• Demonstrate increasing autonomy, with reduced need for supervision and direction, within defined guidelines
• Communicate a detailed knowledge of the contexts of business and industry specific practices relevant to their chosen field and an awareness of a variety of ideas, contexts and frameworks within self-employment, freelancing or business startups
• Develop working professional relationships within industry/business disciplines
• Proactively evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses, and develop their own criteria and judgement relating to their business practice, future learning and future employability goals

Explore this module

Assessment

On this module, you'll be assessed through a portfolio (100% of final mark).

What you'll do

With the support of the Creative Careers team, you can find, apply for and complete a year of a work placement with a variety of employers - previous placements have been offered from NBC, Disney, Warner Bros. and a variety of SME's in the region.

What you'll learn

The learning outcomes of this module are:

• Demonstrate increasing autonomy, with a reduced need for supervision and direction, within defined guidelines
• Communicate a detailed knowledge of the contexts of business and industry specific practices relevant to their chosen field and an awareness of a variety of ideas, contexts and frameworks within their chosen area of employment or self-employment
• Develop working professional relationships within industry/business disciplines
• Proactively evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses, and develop their own criteria and judgement relating to their business practice, future learning and future employability goals

Explore this module

Additional content

What you’ll do

Study abroad placements are done either in the second teaching block of your second year, or in year 3 of a 4 year sandwich degree. Enhance your learning experience by adding a global dimension to your studies and develop knowledge and skills essential for roles in the global workforce. Participation in this module is subject to a selection process, supply and demand you'll be assessed on a pass/fail basis.

Where activity is to be undertaken in a non-English speaking country, you'll need to evidence your language ability and plans for improving your language competency.

What you’ll learn

When you complete this module successfully, you'll be able to:

• Critically assess how activities relate to disciplinary knowledge and practice covered on your course within a global context
• Manage and complete tasks in an overseas study environment relevant to your course, with an appropriate level of skill, independence and performance
• Reflect critically on your personal development during your study abroad, identifying the transferable skills you acquired and their relevance to future study and employability

Teaching activities

• 3 hours of tutorials

Assessment

On this module, you'll be assessed through:

• a coursework portfolio

What you'll learn

The learning outcomes of this module are:

• Critically assess how activities relate to disciplinary knowledge and practice covered on the students' undergraduate course within a global context
• Manage and complete tasks in an overseas study environment relevant to their course, with an appropriate level of skill, independence, and performance
• Reflect critically on their personal development during their study abroad, identify the transferable skills gained and their relevance to future study and employability

Explore this module

What you'll do

This module introduces students on both musical theatre and drama & performance to alternative understandings of performance and theatre. It might ask you to consider whether silence can be musical? How repeating the same movement or sound multiple times can create something entirely new, or examine what happens when we take well-known or high-cultural works of art and entirely reduce or recreate them. Drawing on lineages of historical avant-garde and performance art practices, this is an exciting and challenging core module which pushes boundaries and definitions.

What you'll do

In this module, you will engage with various forms of storytelling for young audiences. This might include digital storytelling for young children, or live in-person performances in schools.

What you'll learn

Using song, dance, storytelling and spectacle, this module offers students the opportunity to gain vital experience in the kind of work that might support your early freelance career as performers but, crucially, it means that by the time you graduate, you may have had the privilege of being among the first performers children will have seen live. Sharing your love of performance and theatre with the next generation is a real-world benefit of this module.

What you'll do

You will have the opportunity to form and manage your own theatre company, collaborating with colleagues through taking responsibility for defined roles (for example, producer, artistic director, designer, finance and budgets or marketing)

What you'll do

As a complement to Forming A Company, ‘Major Academic Project’ is all about you. It is an individual assessment which offers three discrete routes which you can self-select. You can, for instance, produce a piece of mid-length academic writing about a subject you are interested in; you can produce a showcase performance and industry-portfolio; you can creative your own piece of practice; or present research work in an undergraduate symposium. This module is what you want to make it, and you will be guided by one-to-one supervision within our team based on specialism.

What you'll learn

Students from this module have progressed to obtaining agent representation for performance, have succeeded in applying for research-based postgraduate study, or otherwise honed their skills in public presentation to pursue a career such as teaching.

What you'll do

Build your skills for professional collaborative theatre work and individual research, through a series of workshops with staff focusing on different elements of academic and professional work. These may include community work, acting in an expanded field, written research, presentations and pitches, funding applications, marketing, production, technical design, CVs and professional websites.

What you'll do

As the name suggests, this module is an option in which musical theatre students study a specific topic in detail. This topic is likely to be one not currently covered in the core curriculum, and as such, is likely to be something drawn from a lecturer’s current research or practical work.

What you'll learn

You will benefit from learning first-hand about the cutting-edge research in the department beyond the curriculum, and have the opportunity to contribute, develop, and help shape current research in their field.

Additional content

This module is of great benefit to student wanting to progress to postgraduate study. Topics have previously included an evaluation of the legacy and value of the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber – a figure often dismissed by the academy, but foundational to the existence of the current musical theatre industry. You may select this module or Applied Theatre: Workshop Skills.

What you'll learn

As a follow-on from ‘Applied Theatre for Young Audiences’, this optional applied module offers you the opportunity to gain workshop and facilitation skills, so as to enable them to work with disparate community or scholarly groups, delivering things such as drama games and forum theatre. This module equips students with a strong grounding if they wish, for example, to consider drama therapy as a career. You may select this module or Musical Theatre: Special Topic.