So if you just want to come into the space.
Cases, bags and everything like that on the front row for us.
And then just come on back.
My name is Pablo Pakula and I am the person who convenes - so runs - the Third Year module
Practical Project in Drama.
Which we shorten as PPD!
And what a PPD is, is a Third Year / Final Year module that all Single Honours Drama
students do.
It's about taking an academic research question and exploring it through practical methods
and practical performance.
And it's kind of like a dissertation that you normally do at the end of a degree where
you set up your research project, etc.
But instead of doing this individually and writing an essay, a dissertation, you're investigating
it through practice.
We have a bunch of lectures and seminars about how practice as research works and sort of
guidance and help and information about how to carry out the project and then you split
off into groups.
You get to pick.
You come up with a research question that you all have a common interest in and then
over the whole course of the year you develop your outcome for your research.
You can choose the question.
You can choose the form.
You know, it's a chance for you to really explore what interests you.
If you'd like to take your seat.
There is a document on the table to familiarise yourself with what you're going to be hearing
in a bit.
If you'd like to place the headphones on.
There's a volume adjuster on the side of it but it should be fine.
It will start in a minute but please don't touch the evidence until you're instructed
to do so at the end.
"Hi Sam.
I'm just calling to check on how you're doing.
I haven't heard from you in a while.
Your Mum's been worried about you recently.
Hope you're able to get out a bit more and, erm, keep yourself busy.
What I'm trying to say is, er, give us a call when you get the chance.
Ok?
Take care.
[Sigh] Time for some TV".
So, it's a long and thin module which lasts all year and people sometimes do them in companies
or smaller groups, duos.
Sometimes individual work, for students who might be interested in exploring a medium
like playwriting or design or stage management.
My project took the form of a playscript and it was really interesting doing all the research
and then condensing it down into about five scenes and scene summaries and mood board
which evaluated initially this family in Birmingham who were experiencing their history and how
this constructed their identities.
Our piece is called Hashtag Living My Best Life.
It's a satirical parody regarding the neoliberalist and consumerist agenda in influencer culture
on Instagram.
Boooo.
I've got no Followers.
Molly Mae's got Followers.
[Chime rings repeatedly]
Our project was a resource pack that we created for teachers, which was one of the options
on the module of a non-performance output.
You don't have to do a performance, it can be any other kind of practical output.
So our resource pack incorporated Drama games which can be used to teach different subjects
and it incorporated a report advocating for more arts in schools.
Our performance is called Earth Inc., or Earth Incorporated, and it's about the commercialism
of nature.
How we always buy in nature rather than just experiencing actual natural spaces.
Our project ended up being a installation in this space.
And essentially it was about exploring the reliability of an individual's own autobiographical
memory.
We wanted to kind of test and sort of explore what an audience remembers about a piece.
What an audience sort of takes away from it.
I think I definitely learned how to work in a group and also have to split different research
between us and we'd prioritise working on it throughout the year.
We spent a lot of time researching.
A lot of time coming up with one idea, then maybe scrapping it because we'd come up with
a better one.
When we had all our ideas collated we could bring it all into the space and just sort
of seeing it all in here it felt like we'd genuinely achieved something special.
My favourite thing about the module was being able to write because I love writing and just
I guess being able to take everything that I've learned over the years and apply it to
this creative output.
It really is a culmination of the students' work because they can draw on theories, practitioners,
points of interest that they might have developed or picked up in their first, second and the
beginning of their third year so this is really kind of like the cherry on the top in terms
of practice.
It also develops the students' skills as creative individuals who are anchoring their art - their
practice - in deep, rigorous, critical and theoretical thinking and I think it really
does kind of exemplify perfectly what we do in this department particularly which is to
bring theory and practice and to really understand them as one thing.
It gives them independence so that really you're in the drivers' seat.
you do have a supervisor.
You have me as a convenor to help you and to guide you but I think that it really is
that great preparation for stepping out into the world and graduating and going on to wonderful
things!