Craig Norman

For BA (Hons) Acting:

• Acting 1 – Level 4. This unit teaches first year students the fundamental aspects of character creation, exploring concepts such as truth, trust, concentration and spontaneity, working with a Stanislavskian approach and also incorporating the work of practitioners such as Uta Hagen, Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin. A key aspect of this unit is the exploration of the Object Exercise, which allows students to create public solitude on stage, as well as work with and develop other vital components of Stanislavsky's system of actor training explored elsewhere in the unit.
• Acting 2 – Level 4. This unit sees the development of Acting 1 into the exploration of working with text, understanding and analysing 'the world of the play' and how to break down a script from an actor's perspective. The unit culminates in the showing of scenes that are taken from plays rooted in the genre of psychological realism.
• Practice in Context – Level 4 (now integrated into Acting 1). This was a theoretical unit that introduced and investigated major theatrical genres, critical theories and practitioners and examined their impact on both historical and contemporary performance. The unit underpinned the studio practice element, by developing knowledge and understanding of the ways that historical contexts and theories shape contemporary performance making. It also developed study, research, academic writing and verbal presentation skills.
• Professional Contexts – Level 5. This is a theoretical unit that further develops from the foundation established at level 4, that enables students to choose their own specialist topic to explore. With a focus on employability, students are invited to consider transferrable skills in relation to their acting degree. Students are taught how to structure and write an essay, how to work with research methods and present their work and how to effectively plan, manage and produce a research project of 3, 000 words.
• Actor Creator – Level 5. This unit introduces students to contemporary performance-making through studio practice, devising, performing and feedback. Students explore the theory and practice of contemporary theatre-makers, in order to inform and inspire their own practice with an opportunity for them to develop their own independent voices as actor creators. In this unit, students are required to consider questions relating to form, style, structure, content, meaning and audience engagement. Craig has delivered a playwriting workshop to students on this unit.
• Investigative Study – Level 6. Building upon the knowledge and experience gained of academic writing and research methods of the previous two years, this final year theoretical unit requires students to work independently to research and write a 5, 000 sustained argument that focuses on a specialist topic of their own choice.
• Negotiated Practice – Level 6. This is a third year unit that enables students to negotiate, manage and produce an artistic project of their own choice, culminating in a showing of work. Projects could, for example, involve performance, directing and/or writing or could be an installation or workshop/series of workshops.
• Production Practice 1/2 – Level 6. In these final year units, students perform or work as crew members in professional productions, in the studio theatre on campus and on the main stages of external venues, such as the Lighthouse Poole and Pavilion Dance South West. These full-scale productions showcase the culmination of the skills of the students, that they have acquired and developed over the course of the three years. Additionally, as part of these units, students are prepared for the acting industry and are required to produce professional materials (e.g. CV's, self-tapes). They also undertake a mock audition in front of a professional theatre director.

For BA (Hons) Events Management:

• Live Event 1/Event Production/Fundamentals of Arts Management Practice - Level 4. These units introduced students to the fundamental aspects of event management including the teaching of project management and team working theories, working with artists and contracts, health and safety, venue dressing, disability, equality and the law, insurance, managing finance and event curation. Students would then demonstrate their learning of these aspects by producing a live event that worked with singular or multidisciplinary art forms.
• Culture and Society – Level 4. This unit was an introduction to theoretical and contextual perspectives in relation to event management including the teaching of notions of culture, cultural policy, concepts of high and low art, art forms, review writing and research techniques.
• Working In The Arts – Level 4. In this unit, following a series of introductory lectures, seminars and briefings, students were required to gain experience and develop knowledge of a range of work, organisations and professional roles through work shadowing, volunteer activity, research, specific tasks or self-generated work as a way to begin to understand the sector and how it operates.
• Live Event 2 – Level 5. In this unit, students were required to develop their knowledge and experience from the first year in the creation and production of a more developed live event, working with external partners.
• Work Placement – Level 5. In this unit, students were required to source a placement with an arts or cultural organisation for a six week period. Craig oversaw the process for the entire cohort of students, ensuring that all of the correct legal documentation was in place before the students commenced their placement, visiting students/organisations and co-ordinating the placement process between organisation, students and the AUB from start to finish.
• Creative Planning and Programming/Arts Planning, Programming and Production – Level 5. These units examined the debate informing artistic programming decisions and explored in detail, the planning processes and the particular problems and issues associated with venue management, festivals, community arts and touring. Students were required to demonstrate their learning and research by producing a programme and publicity brochure for an arts venue or event.
• Major Project - Level 6. This unit required third year students to demonstrate the culmination of their knowledge in the conceiving, planning and production of a large-scale event.
• Dissertation - Level 6. This unit required students to work independently to research and write an extended essay, with a specific focus on an aspect of the arts and cultural industries that was of personal interest.

Journal peer review

Peer reviewer for the Studies in Theatre and Performance journal (for a manuscript entitled 'An Examination of Audience Behaviour in Immersive Theatre Environments through Environment-Behaviour Studies'). (July 2021)