PRFM2603 - Between Impro & Text: Making Performance

Semester 1, 2013  |  Credit Points: 6

Coordinator: Paul Gregory Dwyer
Phone: +61 2 9351 6850
Email: paul.dwyer@sydney.edu.au

Description

Some performances seem firmly text-based (a David Williamson play; the libretto/score of a Wagnerian opera). Others involve more or less spontaneous "composition-in-performance" (Commedia dell' Arte, Theatresports, "free jazz"). Yet, whatever the form, performance is always the thing you get when skilled artisans "assume a responsibility to an audience and to tradition as they understand it" (Dell Hymes). In this unit, we analyse the interactions between literary and primarily oral traditions of performance, questioning assumptions about the historical primacy of texts.

Assessments

1x500wd equivalent group performance/workshop presentation (20%), 1x1500wd individual workshop report (40%), 1x2500wd essay (40%)

Textbooks

Selected readings available from the University Copy Centre

Classes

1x1-hr lecture/week, 1x2-hr tutorial/week

Prerequisites

18 junior credit points from subject areas listed in Table A

Prohibitions

PRFM3005

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