Yearbooks

Programme: BDram

Kindly take note of the disclaimer regarding qualifications and degree names.
Code Faculty Department
01130117 Faculty of Humanities Department: School of the Arts
Credits Duration NQF level
Minimum duration of study: 3 years Total credits: 386 NQF level:  07

Programme information

This programme is directed towards the study of performance in relation to theatre, drama/theatre in education, performing arts management, film and television and the interface between technology and performance. The programme guides the student towards an understanding of the academic discourses and the practical skills required to interrogate, create, manage and promote multiple forms of performance.

Admission requirements

Important information for all prospective students for 2022

  • The admission requirements apply to students who apply for admission to the University of Pretoria with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) and Independent Examination Board (IEB) qualifications.
  • Applicants with qualifications other than the abovementioned should refer to:
    • Brochure: Undergraduate Programme Information 2022: Qualifications other than the NSC and IEB, available at click here.
  • Citizens from countries other than South Africa (applicants who are not South African citizens) should also refer to:
  • School of Tomorrow (SOT), Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) and General Education Development Test (GED): The University of Pretoria no longer accepts qualifications awarded by these institutions.
  • National Certificate (Vocational) (NCV) Level 4: The University of Pretoria may consider NCV candidates, provided they meet the exemption for bachelor’s status criteria and the programme requirements.

Transferring students

A transferring student is a student who, at the time of application for a degree programme at the University of Pretoria (UP) –

  • is a registered student at another tertiary institution, or was previously registered at another tertiary institution and did not complete the programme enrolled for at that institution, and is not currently enrolled at a tertiary institution, or has completed studies at another tertiary institution, but is not currently enrolled at a tertiary institution, or has started with tertiary studies at UP, then moved to another tertiary institution and wants to be readmitted at UP.

A transferring student will be considered for admission based on

  • an NSC or equivalent qualification with exemption to bachelor’s or diploma studies (whichever is applicable); and meeting the minimum faculty-specific subject requirements at NSC or tertiary level; or having completed a higher certificate at a tertiary institution with faculty-specific subjects/modules passed (equal to or more than 50%), as well as complying with faculty rules on admission;
  • previous academic performance (must have passed all modules registered for up to the closing date of application ) or as per faculty regulation/promotion requirements;
  • a certificate of good conduct.

Note: Students who have been dismissed at the previous institution due to poor academic performance, will not be considered for admission to UP.

Returning students

A returning student is a student who, at the time of application for a degree programme –

  • is a registered student at UP, and wants to transfer to another degree at UP, or was previously registered at UP and did not complete the programme enrolled for, and did not enrol at another tertiary institution in the meantime (including students who applied for leave of absence), or has completed studies at UP, but is not currently enrolled or was not enrolled at another tertiary institution after graduation.

A returning student will be considered for admission based on

  • an NSC or equivalent qualification with exemption to bachelor’s or diploma studies (whichever is applicable); and meeting the minimum faculty-specific subject requirements at NSC or tertiary level; or previous academic performance (should have a cumulative weighted average of at least 50% for the programme enrolled for);
  • having applied for and was granted leave of absence.

Note: Students who have been excluded/dismissed from a faculty due to poor academic performance may be considered for admission to another programme at UP.  The Admissions Committee may consider such students if they were not dismissed more than twice. Only ONE transfer between UP faculties will be allowed, and a maximum of two (2) transfers within a faculty.

Important faculty-specific information on undergraduate programmes for 2022

  • The closing date is an administrative admission guideline for non-selection programmes. Once a non-selection programme is full and has reached the institutional targets, then that programme will be closed for further admissions, irrespective of the closing date. However, if the institutional targets have not been met by the closing date, then that programme will remain open for admissions until the institutional targets are met. 
  • Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS. 
  • Faculty Yearbooks: click here
  • All modules (excluding foreign language modules) will only be presented in English, as English is the language of tuition, communication and correspondence. 

1. You will be considered for conditional admission if space allows, and if you:

  • are a Grade 11 applicant (with an APS of 30 or more excluding Life Orientation), please submit your final Grade 11 examination results, and have a National Senior Certificate (NSC) with university endorsement or an equivalent qualification; OR
  • are transferring from other recognised institutions to the University of Pretoria; OR
  • are a graduate or have graduate status from another recognised tertiary institution; OR
  • are a graduate of another Faculty at the University of Pretoria; AND 
  • comply with the minimum subject requirements and achievement levels, as well as the APS requirements of specific programmes.

If you are an applicant from a country other than South Africa, please apply for conditional admission based on your final results equivalent to Grade 11. Final admission is based on the qualification equivalent to the NSC.

2. You will be considered for final admission to degree studies if space allows, and if you:

  • have a National Senior Certificate (NSC) or equivalent qualification with admission to bachelor’s degree studies, and comply with the minimum subject requirements as well as the APS requirements of your chosen programme; OR
  • are a student transferring from another recognised tertiary institution and comply with the programme requirements; OR
  • have graduate status from another recognised tertiary institution or are a graduate of another Faculty at the University of Pretoria.

If you are a citizen from a country other than South Africa or are a student with other qualifications equivalent to the NSC (including school qualifications from other countries, eg Spain, New Zealand, etc), you must obtain a Complete Exemption Certificate or a Foreign Conditional Exemption Certificate based on your international (‘foreign’) qualifications. Certificates can only be obtained from Universities South Africa (USAf) at click here. In addition, these candidates must meet the relevant programme admission requirements.

University of Pretoria website: click here

Minimum requirements

Achievement level

English Home Language or English First Additional Language

APS

(Grade 11)

APS

(NSC/IEB completed)

 

5

30

28

Applicants must complete and pass an audition process.

* To retain admission, you must obtain an APS of at least 28 in the NSC. 

 

    Additional requirements

    Prospective students from other universities, who successfully passed the first year of study, may only register at the beginning of the second year of study.

    Admission is subject to the presentation of a programme, as well as the successful completion of a preliminary examination.

    Audition:

    During August the Department conducts an audition (practical and theory) in order to admit the most eligible candidates to study for this degree. The Department will communicate the date for the audition directly to the prospective students. The Department reserves the right to exclude a candidate based on the outcome of the audition.

    Other programme-specific information

    Note:

    • Choices within the particular third-year level modules will be made in consultation with the programme coordinators and the lecturers involved.
    • Productions: Requirements will be determined by the head of department.

    Promotion to next study year

    Promotion to the second year of study:

    Obtain 12 credits from the fundamental modules, including all ALL modules, as well as 50 credits from the core modules in the first year of study.

    Promotion to the third year of study:

    Obtain all first-year credits as well as 90 credits from the second year.

    Any deviation from these requirements may only be done subject to the approval of the Dean, on the recommendation of the head of department.

    Pass with distinction

    A student must obtain a weighted average of at least 75% (not rounded) in all the theoretical modules as well as 75% in the TNP praxis module at third-year level.

    Minimum credits: 100

    Fundamental modules

    Core modules

    • Module content:

      The languages of drama and film
      This module introduces the languages of drama and film as well as approaches to drama and film analysis. In addition, historical and contemporary drama and film theories will be used to read various drama and film texts.

      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016.

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    • Module content:

      Drama and film genres: This module introduces the notion of genre as part of a wider concept of narrative building and storytelling in both drama and film. Different types of genre are introduced and discussed with regard to film and drama and furthermore linked to the idea of emerging identities in contemporary storytelling. All these parts are conceptually introduced and provide an introduction to reading, interpretation and giving meaning to various discourses in film and drama narratives.

       
      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Text analysis and performance
      The self in relation to role, character, persona, embodiment and the creation of performance metaphors will be explored through analysis of prose, poetry and drama texts in order to establish a relationship between structural and aesthetic contents of the text and the construction of meaning in performance.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Bodied Spaces
      This module explores the ways in which the elements of scenography engage with the body to make meaning in a theatrical performance. The course demonstrates how visual codes can be used as narrative devices and how components of the spatial field can be used to support the primacy of the body as a maker of meaning in theatrical performance.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *Students have to pass all components of this module in order to be promoted to the next year level
      Basic techniques of acting will be introduced. Aspects of self, other and space will be explored and applied by means of acting exercises, theatre games, improvisation and interpretation of applicable material. The notions of storytelling/narrative/playmaking/construction and interpretation/recreation will be explored.
      The module further introduces experiential somatics for the actor and performer. Students will engage with the building blocks of body/voice integration towards the safe, interactive and heightened use of the body and voice in performance. Students will apply these building blocks in discipline-specific skills training and in performance, including acting.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Performing arts management
      In this module students will be introduced to the current state of the performing arts in South Africa. Students will explore the language and technical aspects of theatre. It includes the processes involved with creation and performance of theatre productions. Focus will be placed on the ways in which the creative vision of the director is supported and manifested, to consolidate the aesthetical quality and conceptual framing of the production. The skills and responsibilities of the technical and creative theatre practitioners will be explored and put into context.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Theatre and performance studies
      In this module students will explore the fundamental principles of role play and important elements are identified and described. The framing of a role play in various social, cultural and political arenas and the strategies applied forms the point of departure for this investigation. Students develop the skills to draw lines from the duality of text as well as life during the process of character development.

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    Minimum credits: 126

    Core modules

    • Module content:

      Historical modes of Western performance
      The module involves a study of the socio-political contexts of Western Classical and Renaissance theatre, redirecting the focus to the notion of violence in performance during the age of Enlightenment.

      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016. 

       

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    • Module content:

      Realism and contemporary South African performance
      Concepts of naturalism and realism will be interrogated in relation to dramatic texts and performance values in both drama and film. Ways in which dramatic realism emerges from and reflects historical perspectives since the "Age of Reason" will be offered. Against this background, the concept of "realism" will be interrogated in relation to performance texts and performance values in the emergence of interdisciplinary framework of performance studies. Ways in which dramatic realism emerges from and reflects historical perspectives will be offered and discussed, so as to draw connections between realism, and contemporary South African performance.

      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016. 

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Performance: body/ voice studies
      There are many points of convergence between the foundational principles of various voice and body movement pedagogies for performers. These commonalties pivot around the organic principles of kinesiology and vocology (function) that can be applied to performance (expression). This module will identify these common principles across a range of voice and body movement pedagogies and explore the ways in which they inform performance.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Digital media
      This module trains students to utilise available hardware and software used in filmmaking processes. With its emphasis on camera and editing technologies, the module introduces students to studies of mise-en-scene, decoupage and haptic criticism in engaging with the visual image. Students will also be introduced to radio as medium for fiction by interrogating the dynamics and processes of radio as a medium for communicating fiction.

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    • Module content:

      Programme-specific execution of a community-related project.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *Students have to pass all components of this module in order to be promoted to the next year level
      Performance techniques will be explored and located within selected modes of performance linked to the notions of enactment and embodiment by way of acting exercises, improvisation and interpretation of suitable material.
      Students will further apply somatic principles to various modes of performance involving the heightened use of the body and voice in the context of discipline specific skills training. This module will facilitate the development of heightened physical and vocal dynamics in expression and communication in performance.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Directing
      In this module students will interrogate the ritual mode of performance as the embodiment of self-expression versus role-play as a representational mode of performance. The purpose of the course is to explore the dialectical notion between these differentiated modes of performance and directing. The aim is also to conceptualise the dynamic position of the director in the application of a multidimensional approach to the process of directing.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      Applied theatre
      The module investigates the use of theatre as methodology and participatory practise in a variety of socio-cultural and educational contexts. The module frames applied theatre as a medium of communication that stimulates action, reflection and transformation. The module culminates in practical applied theatre programmes.

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    Minimum credits: 160

    Core modules

    • Module content:

      Reading cultural representation
      Against the framework of post-colonialism, issues of signification, representation and meaning in performance will be considered in relation to selected theoretical approaches to performance and their concern with gender in theatre and film. Representation and subjectivity and how they are revealed as gendered fictions rather than "natural", inevitable realities will be explored through various drama and film texts. The student will explore how the body, as codified cultural product, can become a symbolic battleground for cultural supremacy in and through performance.

      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016. 

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    • Module content:

      Counter discourses
      Social relations, material conditions, discursive practices, identity and representational structures will be studied in relation to Marxist Materialism, cross-cultural theatre, postmodern discourse and post-theory ideas. Key figures and ideas from relevant critical theory will guide an interrogation of popular performance and cinema as well as non-dominant cinemas and modes of performance.
       
      A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016. 

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *This module offers a choice between writing for stage and film and intermediate body, voice and movement studies
      Performance: intermediate body/voice studies
      This module investigates selected voice and body movement pedagogies related to physical theatre, dance, theatre voice, acting and music theatre in depth. Referring to the common principles amongst these pedagogies, the module further explores the differing ways in which each pedagogical approach engages with these common principles in a performance context.
      or
      Writing for stage and film
      Writing allows a choice between writing for stage and screenwriting. These options are exclusive from one another.
      Admission requirements: to register for this option of SBT 311 you need to have successfully completed DFK 110, 120, 210 and 220.
      Screenwriting (one quarter) introduces students to narrative construction and narrative theory that draws mostly on classical dominant story modes. Certain film and television texts will be studied in order to guide discussions and analyses of the narrative modes and genres under discussion.
      Intermediate screenwriting (one quarter) immediately follows basic screenwriting and explores alternative narrative modes that deviate from and subvert dominant storytelling modes. Critical theory will guide students in explorations of seminal film movements and their positions in film studies with direct relevance for screenwriting.
      The writing for stage component of this module takes on the notion of play and improvisation as a key to activate creative impulses within the practice of writing for stage. Theatre Sport's improvisational skills will be explored along with other methods of writing that articulate ideas of "play". Improvisation is the key dramaturgical focus of method and practice that suggests ways of unleashing creativity, play and observational skills as a fundamental to the world of storytelling. The module then moves to writing as and from the self as in autobiographical and testimony writing/theatre. Themes of obsession, witnessing, time, space and identities will be explored. The module will culminate in written and performed monologues.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *This module offers a choice between intermediate digital media and presenting for the media
      Intermediate digital media
      This module explores the use of technology and media in film and theatre through a conceptual engagement with notions of intermedial performance and frameworks of non-fiction filmmaking. Selected case studies guide an interrogation of intermedial performance theory while also engaging with image ontologies.
      or
      Presenting for the media
      This module will focus on advanced radio techniques and TV presentation within the broader context of the South African digital media practices.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *Students have to pass all components of this module in order to be promoted to the next year level
      Live performance and digital performance
      This module employs the notions of making, appreciating and performing to explore selected modes of contemporary live theatrical performance as well as performance for the digital media.
      This module further offers discipline specific skills training in relation to selected voice and body movement pedagogies in the context of making, appreciating and performing. Students need to select two of the four available skills training options (physical theatre/dance; singing voice, theatre voice, movement for the actor) in consultation with lecturers.
      This module consolidates the conceptual, vocal and physical skills acquired in the previous two years and focuses on the application of heightened physicality and vocality in performance.
      NOTE:
      Students will have to align their TNP 310 praxis choices with their choices within each third-year level theory module. Choices within TNP 310 are:
      • Performance (Acting)
      • Theatre voice
      • Singing
      • Movement for the actor
      • Physical theatre and dance
      • Digital media
      • Directing/Theatre making
      • Writing for stage and film
      • Music theatre (musical theatre and cabaret)
      • Radio
      • Camera acting
      Students who want to proceed to the Drama department's honours programme need to consider the following:
      • DRA 702 (Performance studies) needs Performance (Acting), Theatre voice and Movement for the actor as entry level requirements
      • DRA 705 (Physical theatre) needs Performance (Acting), Physical theatre and Theatre voice as entry level requirements
      • Musical theatre needs Physical theatre and dance, Performance (Acting) and Singing as entry level requirements
      • Cabaret needs Performance (Acting), Movement for the actor and Singing. (TNT 211 and TNT 311 [Directing] will be favourable)

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *This module offers a choice between Applied drama and Intermediate directing
      Applied drama
      The module investigates the use of drama as methodology in educational, community and corporate contexts. The interface between applied theatre and applied drama will be explored. The module culminates in a practical project.
      or
      Intermediate directing
      This module investigates the notions of concept, space, style, method and aesthetic in order to harness a praxis in directing. The module aims to activate conceptualisation skills and refers to contemporary directing methodologies in its aim to develop a directorial praxis. The module further provides the opportunities to begin to develop a distinctive directing style and voice while studying contemporary directing methods and concepts. The module culminates in a short directing scene.

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    • Module content:

      *Closed – only for BDram students
      *This module offers a choice between intermediate performance studies and intermediate performing arts management
      Intermediate performing arts management: Managing the production and managing the artist
      Being subjected to constant flux and change, the current state of the performing arts industry in South Africa (as introduced in TNT 111), will be reconsidered in this module. Aspects of production management, including organisation and administration, the writing of proposals and budgeting for productions/performances will be investigated. To enable students to secure a career in the industry, they will be introduced to the notion of managing the self/the artist as a business/product. This will include, amongst others, negotiating contracts, compilation of CVs and portfolios and preparation for interviews and auditions (interacting with TNP 310).
      or
      Intermediate theatre and performance studies
      In this module students will explore and interrogate selected western and non-western theories, paradigms and practices of actor and performer training with particular emphasis on embodiment by the performer. The work of key contemporary practitioners will be examined in order to establish how their training systems and approaches relate to performance traditions and how they have changed our perception of the artist's body/instrument in contemporary performance.

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    The General Academic Regulations (G Regulations) and General Student Rules apply to all faculties and registered students of the University, as well as all prospective students who have accepted an offer of a place at the University of Pretoria. On registering for a programme, the student bears the responsibility of ensuring that they familiarise themselves with the General Academic Regulations applicable to their registration, as well as the relevant faculty-specific and programme-specific regulations and information as stipulated in the relevant yearbook. Ignorance concerning these regulations will not be accepted as an excuse for any transgression, or basis for an exception to any of the aforementioned regulations.

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