The Director and Production: Dissertation

• Credit value: 60 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Rob Swain
• Assessment: a mentor director’s report (30%), a 15-minute presentation and 2000-word written commentary (30%), and a 30-minute viva voce examination (40%)

In this unit, in which you will be seconded to a professional theatre company or companies, you will gain practical experience of professional directing through a series of projects involving professional actors and other professional collaborators. You will gain detailed practical understanding of the way in which professional theatre companies work and of the role of the artistic director by working as an assistant director on a full theatre production.

The secondment will run for six months from approximately August at the end of Year 1 until the end of May of Year 2.

By the end of this unit, you should be able to demonstrate that you can:

• undertake and discharge the duties of a professional assistant director
• undertake and discharge the duties of a professional theatre director in a number of professional production projects involving professional actors and other professional collaborators as appropriate
• make a presentation to assessors (and others if appropriate) regarding these production projects
• prepare written material related to the presentation that supports and sustains its argument and conclusions.