It is TERRIFYING!
Naw, it's grand. I suppose the best way is to tell you what I've done so far.
Basically you do six modules in your first year, three in Semester One, three in Semester Two. If you're doing Single Hons Drama then four of these will be Drama, and you pick the other two from a different course (I chose English, though you can do Film, Anthropology, even Ethnomusicology etc.). The modules were as follows:
Semester OneDRA1001 - Performance Analysis
DRA1004 - Introduction to Practical Theatre 2
DRA1003 - (half of it) Introduction to Practical Theatre 1
and your extra module
Semester TwoDRA1002 - Drama 2
DRA1003 - (the rest of) Introduction to Practical Theatre 1
your other extra module
DRA1001 Theoretical. Looks at ways of analysing performance and brings in ideas on gender, race, feminism etc. It's not too tough but was my least favourite module.
DRA1002 We haven't started this yet, but apparently it looks at theatre history, so I'm quite looking forward to it.
DRA1003 This module runs along the whole year. In Semester One you look at practitioners such as Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Brecht etc. In Semester Two you split into about 8 groups, each headed by a student interested in directing, and produce a 10 minute scene. All scenes are performed in May in the 'Rough Cuts' showcase. Ones this year include 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (mine
), '4.48 Psychosis', 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Crucible'.
DRA1004 looks at Greek tragedy. We took 'Medea' by Euripides. A guest director comes in, workshops the text with you as you look at the essential themes, decontruct it and then perform your new version in December.
The lecturers are very good, especially Paul Murphy and Kurt Taroff, and the course is far more sociable than practically all others. The Drama Society has been neglected by previous generations but this year there is a definite push to revive it. At the minute we're producing three plays (including 'The History Boys', which I'm directing
), and we're taking them down to the Irish Student Drama festival in Dublin this March.
So yeah, after that ramble, any questions? haha