TH211-5-AU-CO:
Global Encounters in Theatre

The details
2025/26
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Thursday 02 October 2025
Friday 12 December 2025
15
04 April 2025

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

BA W401 Drama,
BA W402 Drama (Including Year Abroad),
BA W403 Drama (Including Placement Year),
BA W408 Drama (Including Foundation Year),
BA QW24 Drama and Literature,
BA QW25 Drama and Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA WQ28 Drama and Literature (Including Foundation Year),
BA WQ42 Drama and Literature (Including Year Abroad),
MLITQ394 Drama and Scriptwriting,
BA WW80 Drama and Creative Writing,
BA WW81 Drama and Creative Writing (Including Foundation Year),
BA WW82 Drama and Creative Writing (including Placement Year),
BA WW83 Drama and Creative Writing (including Year Abroad)

Module description

This second-year module will explore concepts and practices of performance and theatre from around the world in order to provide theoretical underpinning and some practical grounding. It will look at main traditional forms of theatre in Asia, Africa and Southern America. This module will foster an interdisciplinary approach: it will make clear links with anthropology, cultural studies, history and film studies and will encourage students to make comparisons between practices and ideas through the employ of a variety of material: archive, video and cinematic material, literary texts and play-texts.

Module aims

The aims of the module are:



  • To introduce students to diverse theatrical traditions from a global transnational perspective.

  • To provide students with an understanding of how each tradition is related to one another.

  • To enable students to embody and perform a diverse range of performative styles inspired by these traditions from around the Globe.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:



  1. Demonstrate knowledge specific to cross-cultural theatrical practices and performance cultures.

  2. Apply inter-cultural and interdisciplinary principles to creative practice.

  3. Demonstrate an enhanced ability to work directly in a field of performance and cultural practice.

  4. Gain the ability to think critically and comparatively about cultural manifestations from around the globe.

  5. Acquire a knowledge of global and their political and cultural impact.

  6. Provide students with appropriate conceptual, technical, practical, and research skills that will be required as part of the degree and for onward graduate employment, specifically within the field of production and community theatre.

Module information

Sample Bibliography


Primary Texts
Tang Xianzu’s Peony pavilion directed by Chen Shi-Zheng
Wole Soyinka A Dance of the Forests (1960)
Abdelkader Alloula The Veil (1980)
Griselda Gambaro The Camp  (1971)
Farewell My Concubine: William Dolby, tr., “Hegemon King Says Farewell to His Queen,” Eight Chinese plays, pp. 111-37.


Secondary reading
Banham, Martin,et al (1994), The Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Brooker, Peter.  A Concise Glossary of Cultural Theory.  London: Arnold, 1999.


Diakhate, Ousmane & Eyoh, Hansel Ndumbe (1997), ‘Of Inner Roots and External Adjuncts’ in Don Rubin (ed) The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre Volume 3 Africa. London and New York: Routledge


Diamond, C. (2012) Communities of Imagination: Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres  University of Hawai'i Press


Fei, Faye Chunfang (1998) (ed. and trans.) Chinese Theories of Theater and Performance from Confucius to the Present. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.


Fu, Jin. (2012) Chinese theatre Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Gissenweher, Michael. “To Weave a Silk Road Way...” in The Dramatic touch of difference edited by E. Fischer-Lichte, J. Riley, M. Gissenwweher, Tèubingen : G. Narr, pp.151-60


Goldstein, Joshua. "Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of the Peking Opera, 1912-1930." positions: east asia cultures critique, vol. 7 no. 2, 1999, pp. 377-420. Project


Khalid Amine ‘Theatre in the Arab World: A Difficult Birth’ from Theatre Research International vol. 31 | no. 2 | pp145–162
MUSE, muse.jhu.edu/article/27928.
Okagbue, Osita (2007), African Theatres and Performance, London: Routledge

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

  • Weekly 2-hour workshop

Bibliography*

This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   10-minute group practical performance/short film (in class in week TBC) plus individual 700-word critical reflection statement (submit to FASer)    95% 
Practical   Participation    5% 

Additional coursework information

The coursework comprises:

  • 10-minute group or 5-minute individual practical performance OR short workshop demonstration (in class in week 24) plus individual 700-word critical reflection statement (95%)
  • Participation (5%)

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Mary Mazzilli, email: m.mazzilli@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Mary Mazzilli
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

 

Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes

External examiner

Dr Christina Papagiannouli
University of South Wales
Research Fellow
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 24 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
24 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.

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