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Popular Performance Practices

Module description

In this module, you will be introduced to the practice and theories of popular entertainment forms and their relationship to contemporary understandings of intangible cultural heritage. You will learn the history and context from which these forms emerged in the 18^th& 19^th centuries, and how to apply them to performance. Using theories such as carnivalesque, ethnography and commodification of space and point of view, you will also learn how these forms have become embedded in contemporary practices of live and mediated entertainment – e.g., festival culture, street theatre, commemorative events, television and augmented/virtual reality. Learning and teaching methods include workshops, rehearsals, seminars, and practical presentations.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of several tools and methods for approaching popular performance. It will provide you with a grounding in the history, practice and theory underpinning outdoor, vernacular, popular performance forms. The module will investigate how a contemporary understanding of how intangible cultural heritage is not a fixed point but a living form is applied in the revitalisation of popular performance practices today.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate competency in the execution and delivery of a popular performance project with a particular focus on presenting to the public in informal contexts.
• 2. Competently analyse popular performance traditions and their value for contemporary practice

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Engage with experimentation and considered risk taking by applying a range of trial and error methodologies in your creative practice.
• 4. Explore theoretical concerns through practice, and vice versa, and synthesise findings in practical and written tasks.
• 5. Contribute research to specified tasks and making processes, to develop confidence in the ability to analyse, propose and imagine around complex material

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 6. Initiate and sustain creative work; set personal objectives that are linked to a sense of challenge
• 7. Demonstrate effective teamwork skills, including the ability to problem solve and adapt to change and/or the needs of the project or group objectives.
• 8. Understand and appreciate the relevance and value of cultural heritage

Syllabus plan

Whilst content specifics may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the module will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The course will examine the meaning and practice of Ritual & Celebratory arts (eg mumming, mystery plays, rituals, parades & commemorative events, bonfires & festivals - Vauxhall Gardens, WSI & Red Earth).
• You shall be introduced to and explore through practice the fairground and fairground booth (sideshows, barking, modernity, public space).
• You shall be introduced to and explore through practice a variety of seaside entertainments (including minstrelsy, pierrots & concert party, Punch & Judy).
• You shall be introduced to and explore pre-cinema: peepshows, magic lanternism & Bill Douglas Museum.
• The course will culminate in a series of trio/duo performances or exhibitions during the final week(s).

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 reassessment 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

• Bakhtin, Mikhail  Rabelais and his World
• Bush-Bailey, Gilli (2013) “Re: Enactment” in Cambridge Companion to Theatre History, Wiles, David & Dymkowski, Christine (eds), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Coult, Tony and Kershaw, Baz (1990) Engineers of the Imagination: the Welfare State handbook, London: Methuen.
• Graham, Maurice (1951) Showman & Suckers, London: Percival Marshall.
• Grantham, Barry (2000) Playing Commedia: a training guide to commedia techniques, London: Nick Hern Books.
• Harrop, Peter (2020) Mummers' Plays Revisited, Abingdon: Routledge.
• Kember, Joe (2009) Marketing Modernity: Victorian popular shows and early cinema, Exeter: University of Exeter Press.
• Kershaw, Baz (1999) The Radical in Performance: between Brecht and Baudrillard, London: Routledge.
• Lidington, Tony (2017) ‘In the Belly of the Beast’, Popular Entertainment Studies, 8:1, pp. 36-56.
• Mason, Bim (1992) Street Theatre and other outdoor performance, London: Rouledge.
• McNamara, Brooks (1974) ’Scenography of Popular Entertainment’, The Drama Review TDR, 18(1):16.
• Plunkett, John (2015) ‘Peepshows for All: Performing Words and the Travelling Showman’, ZAA (Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), 63(1): 7–30.
• Radcliffe, Caroline (2012) ‘Remediation and Immediacy in the Theatre of Sensation’, Nineteenth Century theatre & Film, 36:2.
• Schechner, Richard (1995) The future of ritual: writings on culture and performance, London: Routledge.
• Schechter, Joel (1985) Durov’s Pig: Clowns, Politics and Theatre, New York: TCG.
• Toulmin, Vanessa (2010) ‘Cuckoo in the Nest: Edwardian Itinerant Exhibition Practices and the Tansition to Cinema in the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1906’, The Moving Image, Volume 1, Spring 2010.
• Yeandle, Peter, Newey,Kate and Richards, Jeffery (eds.) (2016) Politics, performance and Popular Culture: theatre and society in nineteenth-century Britain, Manchester: Manchester University Press

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Lidington, Tony (2018) ‘Raree Man & His Peepshow’, Youtube video
• ELE - 

Key words search

Acting, Directing, Outdoor Arts, Performing in Public, Cultural Heritage