20-21 DT2201: Theatre & Text: Staging the Real
Welcome!
I'm delighted to be teaching DT2201 Staging the Real this year and look forward to working with you. As you know, this course focuses on documentary and verbatim theatre and raises questions about the histories, ethics, pleasures, possibilities and limitations of 'staging the real'. We'll be reading plays, watching performances, discussing our responses, scrutinising scholarly writings, and making theatre pieces. As an academic, I have published on this topic and you may find it helpful to have a look at the book I co-edited with Alison Forysth - 'Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present' (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), listed in the course bibliography - which is the first book to critically analyse the global resurgence of documentary theatre in the twenty-first century. I hope, like me, you will become fascinated by this topic!
In the first half of the course, we will explore a range of approaches to the staging of documentary theatre material around the world in the twenty-first century; we will also develop an appreciation of the theoretical implications and historical traditions of ‘staging the real’. In the second half of term, the focus will be on preparing the assessed group performances, and discussions on the essays. Throughout the term, we will explore verbatim theatre both critically (through discussion, presentations, and essay writing), and creatively.
Please keep in touch and let me know if have any thoughts, ideas, or questions - I'd love to hear them! And I hope you enjoy the course!
Chris Megson
I'm delighted to be teaching DT2201 Staging the Real this year and look forward to working with you. As you know, this course focuses on documentary and verbatim theatre and raises questions about the histories, ethics, pleasures, possibilities and limitations of 'staging the real'. We'll be reading plays, watching performances, discussing our responses, scrutinising scholarly writings, and making theatre pieces. As an academic, I have published on this topic and you may find it helpful to have a look at the book I co-edited with Alison Forysth - 'Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present' (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), listed in the course bibliography - which is the first book to critically analyse the global resurgence of documentary theatre in the twenty-first century. I hope, like me, you will become fascinated by this topic!
In the first half of the course, we will explore a range of approaches to the staging of documentary theatre material around the world in the twenty-first century; we will also develop an appreciation of the theoretical implications and historical traditions of ‘staging the real’. In the second half of term, the focus will be on preparing the assessed group performances, and discussions on the essays. Throughout the term, we will explore verbatim theatre both critically (through discussion, presentations, and essay writing), and creatively.
Please keep in touch and let me know if have any thoughts, ideas, or questions - I'd love to hear them! And I hope you enjoy the course!
Chris Megson