THE ACTOR AND THE ENSEMBLE - 2025/6

Module Overview

The Actor and the Ensemble enables students to explore different modes of performance. This includes collaborative & devised practice, applied theatre and social justice, and contemporary political performance. In the first teaching block you will be working as an ensemble exploring post-modern collaborative practices. In the second teaching block students consider how theatre can be used to reflect the stories and issues pertaining to a diverse range of communities, both locally and internationally. The third teaching block looks in depth at contemporary political performance. Work is shared with peers at the end of each teaching block as work in progress in a safe practical performance setting.

Module provider

Guildford School of Acting

Module Leader

TRINGHAM Anna (GSA)

Number of Credits: 60

ECTS Credits: 30

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

n/a

Module content

In each teaching block students will undertake weekly practical studio based workshops.

• Teaching block 1 – Collaborative and Devising Practice


• Teaching block 2 – Applied theatre and social justice


• Teaching block 3 – Contemporary Political Performance

Towards the end of each teaching block students will prepare and share a final product that embodies their learning over the term. The final week of each project will include a group tutorial, to enable student and tutor joint reflection and action planning.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate a practical evidence of a developing methodology as a creative practitioner

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Collaborative & Devised Practice


• Applied Theatre & Social Justice


• Contemporary Political Performance

Formative Assessment

Towards the end of each teaching block students will prepare and share a final product that embodies their learning over the term. The final week of each project will include a group tutorial, to enable student and tutor joint reflection and action planning.

Feedback

There are practical assessments that provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate and receive feedback continually, verbally, from teachers, and from peers. Students receive informal and formal verbal and written feedback and also benefit from personal tutorials where this feedback can be discussed after reflection and grading has taken place.

Formal summative feedback will be published via SurreyLearn by a published date within three teaching weeks.

Module aims

• To provide the student with an opportunity to encounter the foundational principles of applied and contemporary theatre.
  
• To facilitate the acquisition and development of vocal and physical techniques, skills and universal vocabularies inherent within the creative industries.
• To enable experiential understanding of theatre and drama, adding to it a level of critical awareness and analytical ability which will enrich practice and extend potential, as artists and creative professionals.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Enable collaborative practical engagement with core practical technical performance skills through group activity


• Enable the collaborative, articulate, reflective practitioner

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: APP1002

Other information

Guildford School of Acting is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Digital Capabilities

Students develop their digital skills and literacy throughout the module. They are introduced to the virtual learning environment and required to make use of online resources including online research, creation and submission of digital work (video, written) for formative and summative assessment.

Global and Cultural Capabilities

Module content encourages students to engage and work within a range of different social, economic and cultural contexts. They will examine their positionality in relation to a mixture of sites and settings through appropriate scholarship.

Module content incorporates perspectives and practices from a range of cultures; through conversations around culture, appreciation, and appropriation students are encouraged to diversify their knowledge and reflect on different experiences; through critical engagement students are encouraged to examine and debate topics in relation to global and cultural capabilities, further developing students’ sustainable performance practice.

Employability 

Students directly gain skills and experience in performance skills, equipping them for careers in the creative field. 

 Resourcefulness and Resilience 

Students are guided to develop the ability to reflect, evaluate, adapt, and respond effectively to unforeseen circumstances and challenges throughout the programme and particularly in their development of community engagement skills, negotiation, and flexibility. They also develop their resilience through the continuous integration of self-reflective assessment. 

 Sustainability

Throughout the module students are encouraged to consider how they can apply their in-class learning to the professional creative field. This includes the strengthening of key performance skills and reflective practice which supports resilience and wellbeing. This course promotes enterprise and entrepreneurship as well as collaborative thinking. These values help students to imagine their own models for social sustainability within the applied and contemporary theatre industry. Students will be nurtured as future leaders in sustainability thinking and supported to take informed decisions and responsible actions that promote the wellbeing of present and future generations.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.