BA (Hons) Performance and Production

This module helps you develop your understanding and application of a range of key ideas about acting and performance as a fundamental grounding for the rest of your studies.

Beginning in the studio it establishes a shared practical working vocabulary of performance for all students, including games, voice & movement exercises and warm-ups. We will begin a conversation here, exploring the difference between performances of self and of character. From this basis we begin to apply these skills to platforms across different multimedia forms (live, online, mediated and on screen), considering how they differ in process and application.

Lastly it begins the process of establishing regular reflection on and evaluation of your own practice as a crucial part of your ongoing professional development and lifelong learning.

You will be introduced to the fundamentals of Socially Engaged Practice, tracing its historical origins and examining its contemporary context.  Key practitioners in the field will be highlighted, along with their works and motivations. This exploration will enhance your understanding of the politics and implications of participation and agency within socially engaged art.

You will analyse various methods employed by socially engaged practitioners to engage their audiences, including audio, virtual reality (VR), immersive experiences, live art, and gaming.  This analysis will prompt students to critically consider the ethical, environmental, and reflective responsibilities inherent in socially engaged practice.

You will develop your understanding by collaborating on a project design responding to briefs from external organisations seeking creative solutions to social issues, such as museums, schools, or hospitals.  Working in small groups, you will develop and present a pitch that responds to the brief, incorporating all elements of responsible socially engaged practice.

Introduction to Production Skills is a practical and creative course aimed at familiarising you with performance technology while fostering a collaborative and creative environment. This module offers an exploration of various skillsets including Lighting, Sound, Projection, and Multimedia. 

Many individuals unfamiliar with technology may initially feel apprehensive, but this module aims to dispel such fears by demonstrating the vital, intriguing, and highly creative role technology plays in production. Providing a suitable technical backdrop for a performance requires both dedication and imaginative thinking. This module centres on collaborative creation, fostering a deeper appreciation for the technician's role through both theoretical knowledge and practical application. 

This module provides you with an exploration of potential employment routes in the fields of performance, production, and socially engaged practice. Through a series of practical, work-based lectures, you will engage with the theories, methodologies, and practical skills relevant to each employment area. The module aims to equip you with the ability to articulate transferable skills and to network with industry professionals, thereby enhancing your employment prospects. The module is structured into five main sections, each focusing on a specific role within the performance, production, and socially engaged practice sectors. Each section spans two weeks and includes lectures led by tutors and industry specialists. This structure allows for both theoretical understanding and practical application. You will receive up-to-date and relevant training that aligns with contemporary employment opportunities.

This module is designed to immerse you in the art of storytelling through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating a range of mixed media methods. It aims to equip you with the skills and techniques necessary to craft and perform compelling narratives that reflect personal, political, and social themes. By the end of this course, you will have developed a robust understanding of how to engage audiences through diverse storytelling practices. An interdisciplinary approach is central to this module. This approach will be complemented by exploring cultural and historical contexts, enriching your narratives with depth and authenticity. 

At the heart of your degree is the skill of collaboration and it is your developed knowledge and experience of creative collaboration that will enhance your success in the Creative Industries after you graduate. This module introduces you to approaches and encourages you to work collaboratively in a variety of roles: writer, director, technician, actor, content creator and so on and across a variety of possible formats. Live, recorded, online, immersive, environmental or any combination that seems creatively appropriate. 

It will help you develop a shared vocabulary of performance across a range of media and it will encourage you to reflect on how successful the interdisciplinary approach has been for you as an artist and for the group as a collective.

This module introduces you to cutting-edge practitioners and innovative approaches, encouraging you to explore ways to push the boundaries of traditional performance. You will learn about and experiment with interdisciplinary performance practices, theories, and creative methodologies in both live and recorded settings, (and the spaces in between).

By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, you will develop the ability to think creatively and adapt to diverse performance environments—essential skills for the ever-evolving creative industries.

The module embraces an interventionist perspective, challenging you to create performances that provoke thought and inspire change. 

Working in groups, using interdisciplinary techniques, you will develop an effective performance event to a specific brief and for a specific market, community or client.  You will be given a range of options and will be asked to choose and respond to a particular client.

Working collaboratively, you will produce a forward presentation reflecting reasons for the choice of project and exploring the artistic, ethical and, social concerns/ interests that are at the heart of your chosen area of study and creative development. You will evidence your ability to work both independently and collaboratively to create content that responds to the Client brief and transform your research and development into the delivery of a practical project within the time and scoping requirements directed.

This module will enhance your ability to use various technical elements creatively across all forms of performance. You'll learn advanced lighting control, sound recording and editing, and show control. You will also create and manipulate projections using AI and existing images.

This module prepares you for the role of a technical creative manager, equipping you with advanced skills for diverse performance environments. 

This module focuses on equipping you with the skills needed to establish and manage your own creative company, guiding you through the intricacies of production management within the arts. Throughout the module, industry professionals will provide insights into various facets of production management, from managing funding and budgets to effectively marketing and selling your creative endeavours to both corporate entities and the public. 

This module will provide you with the opportunity to explore a specialist application of performance in a form that you may not have previous experience of. Introductory workshops will introduce you to the format, the contextual history and current industrial relevance. You will consider examples of practice and the component requisite skills to produce work in this specialist discipline. You will also build an understanding of the production ‘workflow’ before applying the knowledge in the inception and creative development of group projects. During that process you may perform and/or produce, but are also encouraged to develop new skills in a production context that you are less familiar with. You will also consider the promotion and dissemination of that work to a target audience, with such things as poster design, social media application, trailers and so forth. Projects on offer will range and may be delivered collaboratively with other programmes. As an indicative example they may include live event projects (comedy, DJ sets, Live Art, radio presenting, gig) , or digitally produced projects (filmmaking, podcasting, immersive production, audio-drama, vlogging, audio books, music production, news presentation). This list is indicative only.  Throughout the project, you will document your process and maintain a reflective journal.

This module will help you expand your contacts and apply your knowledge and skills in a real work setting. By combining academic learning with practical experience, it will develop your professional skills, enhance your employability, and deepen your understanding of the industry. Through direct workplace experience, you will gain new skills, develop existing ones, build professional networks, and explore career paths. 

 The module's learning experiences are formulated in partnership with employers to address current workforce requirements. This can be done through either a placement or client brief setting.  

 Students negotiate a learning contract with an employer/client and a tutor, and are assessed on their contribution to fulfilling the contract, the quality and impact of their work and their reflections on professional development. 

 Work-based learning contracts might include (but not limited to) work in relation to City Council initiatives and related community organisations projects, teaching/workshops in local schools, funding bid applications, research-related projects and Practice as Research projects, etc.

The aim is to provide students with an additional year of study at an approved overseas partner that will complement their programme at LJMU. This is an additional year of full-time study at an approved higher education institution. The modules to be studied must be agreed in advance, and must be appropriate for the student's programme of study. Assuming successful completion of this year, mark-bearing credit will be awarded by the University Recognition Group. The grade conversion scale to be used will be made available in advance of the year abroad.  

This module will prepare students for their independent project through forming, researching, developing, and pitching projects and ideas. It is designed to encourage students to speak from their own artistry and define their interests and developments connecting their prior learning with their onward trajectory and career goals.

Students will work both independently and collaboratively to define roles and contributions to a range of projects through the creation of an independent research document. They will document a range of critical, creative, and practical approaches to undertaking the independent project and demonstrate their responsibilities to ethical, sustainable, artistic and creative approaches to performance and production.

Students will be required to reflect on prior learning and connect with future career aspirations and goals. They will be required to identify a project (solo or group) in relation to their learning development in performance and production. They will demonstrate and set out their role and responsibilities in creating the project, identifying risks, challenges and opportunities. They will evidence feedback and forward thinking through criticality to demonstrate research and knowledge related to the creation of their project.

The module seeks to enhance your confidence in crystallising your personal employment identity and career plan, in the following ways: 

• Building on skills from PP1, you will explore and engage with alternative funding opportunities, learning to develop projects that meet the requirements of available funding schemes and commissions. 
• Through valuable networking opportunities with invited industry professionals, you will enhance your practical knowledge of applying for real-world jobs and participating in relevant interview processes. Students will engage in professional simulations, selecting from a series of employment opportunity categories set up at the start of the module. You will research and create professional cover letters and CVs tailor.ed to specific job descriptions. Subsequently, preparation for interviews, auditions, workshops, screen tests, or skills tests will be conducted, and ultimately observed by a team of professionals (working in sectors relevant to the employment opportunities offered) and marking tutors who will provide feedback/feedforward.  
• The module also allows opportunities for developing essential industry micro-credentials that you can add to your CV.  

Finally, you will be supported in creating and presenting a reflective account of your experiences, culminating in a career plan and articulating your future career trajectory with supporting evidence. 

In this module you will be further able to develop specialist skills and knowledge in a discipline area of your choice. Following the first through weeks, you will propose a project and present a schedule for the work. For the work itself, you will each produce a short piece or practical example (artefact) that can be in any form that suites your specialist interest and develops one or more requisite skill (for example live, voice or film performance, immersive practice etc).

You should use the project to identify and develop experience in a specialist skill that interests you, you should submit this with your preliminary research which might include scripts, designs, research, blogs or journal notes as appropriate to your project. The emphases of the module is on the development of a key - this could be performed or technical in quality. 

This module helps you to identify and create the necessary artefacts and platforms for presenting yourself professionally, as appropriate to your identified specialism. It will help you develop the understanding of who you are as an artist and translate that into an effective digital visual presence. 

A series of workshops and guest specialist lecturers will teach the range of skills required to cover the areas listed, and you should aim to create material week-on-week. 

Each student will be assigned a tutor who is available for tutorial support for four 30-minute sessions (total 2 hours) during the delivery of the module and/or preparation for assessment submission. 

This module is a cumulative demonstration of skills as well as critical and creative approaches developed throughout the course. Students will participate in an independent project (solo or group work) undertaking specific functions and roles to bring about the creation of the project. The project must directly apply learning from the degree e.g., creating a socially engaged project, a performance at a museum, a film screening or a radio drama broadcast, a solo or group performance, or may be a tech design (immersive set), as examples. The role undertaken will be discussed and agreed upon with tutors to ensure comparability and fairness as well as appropriateness to study.

Students will demonstrate the consolidation of their learning through their agreed contribution which should demonstrate their abilities in artistic, production, technical, administrative, socially engaged, or other relevant skill work. They will evidence their ability to work autonomously as performance and production practitioners both independently and collaboratively as well as with a range of stakeholders and partners as relevant to the project and to bring about their critical and creative learning into the delivery of a practical project within the time and scoping requirements directed.

Following the delivery of the project, students will make a public presentation that demonstrates how the project was achieved, critically reflect on their learning experiences, and connect to their onward implementation of learning from the project to future work. Students will be supported through tutorials where students will evidence work in progress through rehearsal, demonstration, and discussion.  Students will take the lead in seeking support from their project supervisor and in ensuring ethical compliance. The tutor (supervisor) will provide guidance and direction and should be the point of contact for clearing all risk assessments and consents for ethical practice.