Spoken word poetry is a international literature movement that has occured throughout the 2000s. It has opened up the world of poetry to younger and diverse audiences and writers.
This course is for both the beginner writer wanting to learn how to bring their poetry from the page to stage and through to the experienced spoken word poet looking for new stages and performance mediums that go beyond open mic nights and poetry slams.
We will focus on the sound of poetry. Learning skills how to write poetry with the intention for it to be performed. The later classes of this course will focus on an introduction to poetic theatre and how theatrical devices such as; character development, props, costume, soundscapes, movement can be used to take the performance of poetry into a whole new artistic world.
This class will include a research component of both contemporary performance poets and traditional oral practices. Critical analysis of performance poems/poets and theatre works, writing original poems and workshopping them into performance pieces and practicing theatrical script devices such as performance annotations and stage directions.
The course will include a couple of full body performative texts as well as a course reader of of text, video and audio from extracts of full bodies of work.