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Environmentally Engaged Theatre Practice

Module description

In this module you will explore how theatre and performance can facilitate and enhance human-nature connectedness. You will develop practical skills in making outdoor site-specific performances and creating immersive and interactive experiences to help build new relationship with nature for audiences. You will research practices of connecting and communing with nature from a range of global contexts and consider them through the notion of performance. You will also study creative, arts-based initiatives that engage people in nature-based experiences for various reasons, including aesthetic appreciation, to derive physical and mental health benefits, for spiritual nourishment, to raise awareness about environmental concerns or prompt pro-environmental behaviour change. You will analyse their approaches and techniques for creating meaningful experiences in nature and evaluate their narrative, aesthetic and affective strategies. You will also consider questions of making work that is environmentally sustainable, ethical and inclusive. You will draw on this knowledge to create your own outdoor, nature-based theatrical experiences. These might, for example, playfully re-imagine human-nature interactions and our relationship with the more than human world, trouble understanding of the nature-culture binary, or prompt debate about environmental citizenship through multi-sensory, multi-media and/or multi-platform storytelling.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims:

• to explore environmentally engaged theatre making strategies through a practical examination of performance techniques and approaches to connecting people to nature and through research into relevant performers, practitioners and theorists.
  
  
• to develop skills in outdoor site-specific research, devising and staging practices.
  
  
• to develop skills in outdoor immersive storytelling, dramaturgy and audience management practices.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate practical skills necessary for the creation of environmentally engaged theatre and performance.
• 2. Locate your own nature-based practice within the wider fields of contemporary eco-performance theory and practice and develop a language to critically reflect on it.
• 3. Demonstrate an understanding of the logistics of outdoor site-specific and immersive theatre and performance practice, including carrying out risk assessments, environmental audits and contingency planning.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Relate to others in theatrical processes and performances; work effectively with others in small task-orientated groups and initiate and sustain creative, analytic and interpretative work within strict time limits and basic technical competence.
• 5. Explore theoretical concerns through practice, and vice versa, and synthesise findings in practical and written tasks. Demonstrate the ability to interpret research into physical practice and vice versa.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Demonstrate confidence in performance skills and public presentation, both of dramatic practice and researched material.
• 7. Balance your time between self-direction and collaborative work; demonstrate self-management, collaborative working skills, problem solving, critical analysis and valuing own and others’ ideas and beliefs
• 8. Demonstrate group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback and improved communication skills and analytic abilities in discussions.

Syllabus plan

The content may vary from year to year; however, it is envisioned that the module will be structured in the following way and cover the following topics:

• The module will begin by introducing you to a range of relevant human-nature connection initiatives, approaches, techniques and practices which you will critically analyse, including through short student presentations in pairs.
  
  
• You will apply this learning and develop your own practice through a series of staff-led studio and outdoor workshops and through self-directed, small group experiments.
  
  
• The module will work towards the presentation of your own outdoor, nature-based work. This will be informed by the ideas and practices explored in the module and will develop your technical skills in creating site-specific immersive performance. The nature of the response will determine the size of the group (from solo works to small or larger groups) and roles of each participant (performer, multi-media designer, facilitator etc). You will be supported in the creation of your work via structured seminars, feedback on a proposal, and one-to-one tutorials. You will introduce your work and the ideas that underpin it through a short abstract.
  
  
• You will reflect on your learning and creative practice through a final written piece of work. This will include a short discussion of the work and your understanding of human-nature connectedness, how this is articulated in the work, your role in its realisation, your assessment of the work and how the ideas in the project might be further developed.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Angelacki, V. (2019) Theatre & Environment. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• Beer, T. (2021) Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• Besel, R. D. and J. A. Blau, (eds). (2014) Performance on Behalf of the Environment. Lanham: Lexington.
• Bishop, C. (2012). Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso.
• Däwes, B. and Maufort, M. (eds.) (2014). Enacting Nature: Ecocritical Perspectives on Indigenous Performance. Peter Lang. 
• Glassner, A, (2019). Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction. London: Routledge.
• Gröppel-Wegener, A and Kidd, J. (2019). Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling. London: Routledge.
• Hughes, C. (1998). Museum theatre communicating with visitors through drama. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
• Kastner, J. (ed.). (2012) Nature (Documents of Contemporary Art). Massachusetts, MIT Press.
• Lavery, C. (2016) Introduction: performance and ecology – what can theatre do? Green Letters, 20 (3), 229-23.
• Lichtenfels and Rouse (2013). Performance, Politics and Activism. Basingstoke:  Palgrave.
• Machon, J. (2013). Immersive theatres: Intimacy and immediacy in contemporary performance: Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• Pearson, M. (2010). Site-Specific Performance. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wrights & Sites (2006). A Mis-Guide To Anywhere. Exeter, Arts Council England/CCEP.
• Yorke, J. (2014). Into the Woods: how stories work and why we tell them, London: Penguin.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Nature Connectedness: For a new relationship with nature [Online course]: https://www.derby.ac.uk/short-courses-cpd/online/free-courses/nature-connectedness-relationship-with-nature/
  
  
• Julie’s Bicycle: http://www.juliesbicycle.com/

Key words search

Eco-theatre and performance, site-specific theatre and performance, immersive theatre and performance, nature-based theatre and performance, outdoor theatre and performance, environmentally engaged theatre and performance, human-nature connection and performance.