Module Directory

This module gives second year Drama students the opportunity to explore a diverse range of key plays which stage debates about gender and identity. We examine these plays for their innovative use of theatrical form to question gender roles or further debates about matters of identity. We connect and apply critical theories to ‘read’ and interpret these works, exploring them through practical drama workshops. Students are then asked to respond creatively to the texts on the module by creating their own original performance about gender and/or identity, making use of one or more of the formal approaches or texts we have explored in the module. Final performances are staged in the Lakeside Theatre or Studio, and students write reflectively on their performance and the process that created it.

The syllabus covers the 19^th to the 21^st century and offers varied and diverse texts that have all in some way moved forward theatrical modes of representing gender and identity. Weekly workshops focused on each text explore how very different theatrical forms tackle the subject of gender/identity in different ways: from the realist, well-made play, through post-war kitchen-sink drama, absurdism, poetic choreopoems, the monologue or one-person show, and multi-media ‘performance’ using visual and digital elements. Theorists and critics covered in this module include bell hooks, Rebecca Walker, Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Wollstonecraft, Laura Mulvey, Michelene Wandor, Elaine Aston and Jill Dolan.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to groundbreaking plays and performances that have pushed forward debates about gender and identity.


• To introduce students to key issues of gender theory and other relevant intersectional theories of identity – and explore how these may be applied to drama.


• To develop and deepen students’ practical skills in theatre-making (acting, directing, collaborative creative processes).

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

1. Demonstrate an understanding of theories about gender/ identity from the 19^th to the 21^st century and apply these ideas critically in relation to theatre performances and plays both in writing and through theatre practice.


2. Demonstrate knowledge and critical engagement with a range of theatre texts and practitioners whose work explores gender and/or identity.


3. Creatively respond to the ideas explored on the module and make a piece of theatre that engages in debates and ideas about gender and performance.


4. Apply and demonstrate skills of movement, voice, acting, technical design, stage management, and production.


5. Reflect critically, both verbally and in writing, on their own theatre practice and that of others.

Transferable skills:

These skills are highly valued by graduate employers:

• Creative problem-solving.


• Planning and time-management.


• Considerations of sustainability in the workplace.


• Considerations of equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as health and safety, in the workplace.


• Collaborative skills.


• Time-keeping, punctuality and meeting deadlines.


• Professional conduct.


• Artistic, technical, and professional skills in theatre-making both onstage and backstage.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS COURSE COVERS MATERIAL THAT SOME STUDENTS MIGHT FIND TROUBLING.

Course content:

• Feminist, gay, lesbian, queer, and trans theories, histories, and dramaturgies of performance.


• Artistic and cultural works by/about feminist, gay, lesbian, queer, and trans subjects.


• The performance of gender and sexual identities in everyday life.


• The role of gender as discourse and social practice in different historical periods and a variety of cultures/countries, and in the changing social and cultural context of the theatre.


• Historical production of gender and sexuality on and off stage.


• Competing constructions and representations of femininity and masculinity.


• Feminist and queer activism.


• The interplay of gender, sexuality and subjectivity both in society and within theatrical space.


• Performative intersections of gender and sexuality with other determinants of identity such as race, ethnicity, class, ability, employment, religion, nationality, and age.


• Theories of gender, transsexuality, social politics, and dramatic representation (text and performance).


• The nature of gender studies and of theatre in terms of the structures of social interrelationships, power, identity and role central to both disciplines.


• Gender as a methodological tool or category of analysis with which to approach a range of academic disciplines.

This module will be delivered via:

• Weekly 2 hour workshop/seminar

Students will submit a 1500 word reflective piece of writing at the end of the module.