• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Performance and Participation

Module description

Immersive, interactive and participatory performances and events are legion, where audiences encounter actors within or beyond theatrical spaces, or become performers themselves in cultural or everyday spaces. This module sets this return of interest in the participant-audience in its historical context. We will look at the diverse ways in which ordinary people have been involved as participant-audiences, non-specialist makers and participants in different kinds of theatre events from history and in the present day. Our focus in the first part of the module will be on historical forms in predominantly European performance modes, and in the second on contemporary modes of participation and performance.
You will be reading about different practices and analysing the theoretical frameworks, ideologies, and philosophies that underpin these practices. There will be the opportunity for you undertake small-group experiment, analysis and presentation on these differing performance modes, and to pursue independent research into an area of your interest.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to encourage you to analyse, critique and challenge the range of approaches to audience participation in theatrical practice from history and the present day.

You will examine a range of scholarly approaches to non-specialist participation including audience participation in immersive and interactive performance; amateur and grassroots arts; relational aesthetics and performance art; political performance and ideas of democracy.

Through close reading, critical analysis of theoretical material as well as theatrical practices and events, the module aims to widen students understanding of what is at stake for makers and participants in participatory performances.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the different kinds of participatory practices in theatre and performance from history and the present day, in Europe and the wider world.
• 2. Demonstrate knowledge of the range of scholarly and theoretical approaches to participation in performance.
• 3. Demonstrate an ability to evaluate the relationships between the social, cultural, historical, and ideological context and the mode of participatory practices.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 4. Contribute research to small groups in effective presentations, to evaluate visual evidence and analyse, critique and manipulate complex material.
• 5. Apply library and IT skills in independent additional research.
• 6. To work effectively with others in small task-orientated groups and to initiate and sustain creative, analytic and interpretative work within strict time limits.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 7. Develop personal research skills using personal initiative; to set personal objectives and to identify and evaluate personal learning strategies.
• 8. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback and to improve communication skills and analytic abilities in discussions.
• 9. Collaborate in various groups and group sizes, to learn elements of teamwork and presentation.
• 10. Balance between self-direction and collaborative work; self-management, collaborative working skills, problem solving, critical analysis and valuing own and others ideas and beliefs.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following in lectures, small-group presentation, seminar and creative tasks:
- participatory practices and forms from theatre history
- contemporary participatory practices
- theoretical approaches to cultural participation, democracy and citizenship
- theoretical approaches to cultural policy and cultural participation.
The final weeks of the module will allow students to develop individual research interests linked to the final essay of the module.

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

• Sruti Bala, Gestures of Participatory Art. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018
• Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells . London: Verso, 2012
• Augusto Boal, Legislative Theater . London: Routledge, 1998.
• Vicki Ann Cremona et al , Theatre Events: Borders, Dynamics, Frames . Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
• Helen Freshwater, Theatre and Audience . Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2009.
• Susan Kattwinkel, (ed.) Audience Participation: Essays on Inclusion in Performance . Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003.
• Baz Kershaw, The Politics of Performance: radical theatre as cultural intervention . London: Routledge, 1992
• ---, Theatre Ecology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Helen Nicholson, Nadine Holdsworth and Jane Milling, The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018.
• Jacques Ranciere, Staging the People . London, Verso, 2011.
• Nicholas Ridout, ‘Performance and Democracy’, in Tracy C. Davis (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• ---, Stage Fright, Animals And Other Theatrical Problems . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Pam Schweitzer, Reminiscence Theatre: Making theatre from memories . London: Jessica Kingsley, 2007.
• Eugene van Erven, The Playful Revolution: Theatre and Liberation in Asia . John Wiley and Sons, 1992.
• David Wiles, Theatre and Citizenship . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE page:

Key words search

participation, performance, audience, community arts, theatre practices