Bachelor of Arts in Live Performance

To equip graduates with all the necessary theoretical and practical skills for sustainable and profitable careers in the live performance industry immediately upon graduation.

Rationale

This degree is designed to offer the graduate a sustainable and profitable career in a discipline of his or her choice in the live performance entertainment industry. The outcomes-based structure of the programme ensures graduates who command both theoretical and practical expertise in their areas of specialisation.

Primary and secondary schooling. The typical learner accepted to this program will have secondary or tertiary schooling emphasis on arts-related subjects such as:

• Languages
• Fine art
• Drama/theatre studies

and will have areas of personal interest associated with the performing arts, the entertainment industry in its broadest sense, and the arts in general. Primary criteria in the selection process are personal portfolios and attributes that point to creativity, determination, passion, reliability, humility, integrity and self-discipline.

Recognition of prior learning

In keeping with parameters laid down by government legislation, processes are in place for the acknowledgement of previously acquired competency equivalents in terms of course components.

N/A

Mid year project requirements: The learner will be required to complete their two sub major treatments (twenty five pages each) and pass the appropriate competence tests for these. The learner will also be required to complete all other discipline tasks that have been requested by the lecturer for hand in or presentation with the written discipline treatments for project final pre production. The learner is required to complete all other project work that has been assigned for final presentation by the discipline lecturer.

Summary of Mid year project work

• A thirty page stage play.
• A fifty page major discipline treatment with HVI file reference document attached.
• Two twenty five page sub major treatments.
• The pre production presentation of a thirty to forty five minute stage play/musical/physical project to (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).
• The rehearsal of a thirty to forty five minute stage play/musical/physical project (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).
• The dress rehearsal and final presentation of a thirty to forty five minute stage play/musical/physical project (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).

End of year graduation production requirements: The learner will be required to complete a fifty page major discipline treatment and pass the appropriate competence tests. The learners must complete their two sub major treatments (twenty five pages each) and pass the appropriate competence tests for these. The learner will also be required to complete all other discipline tasks that have been requested by the lecturer for hand in or presentation with the written discipline treatments for project final pre production. The learner is required to complete all other production work that has been assigned for final presentation by the discipline lecturer.

Summary of End of year graduation project requirements

• A thirty to forty page stage play.
• A fifty page major discipline treatment with HVI file reference document attached.
• Two, twenty five page sub major treatments.
• The pre production presentation of a forty five to sixty minute stage play/musical/ physical project to (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).
• The rehearsal of a forty five to sixty minute stage play/musical/physical project (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).
• The dress rehearsal and final presentation of a forty five to sixty minute stage play/musical/physical production for paying public and audience response evaluation (acting, producing, writing, directing, production design/stage design disciplines).

The only exit level in this programme is after successful completion of three years full-time study.

Integrated assessment

It is important to note that AFDA`s final exit evaluations take cogniscance of the important fact that graduates of this program have the final outcome objective of originating entertainment products that will engage the public, thus fulfilling AFDA`s ultimate objective which is to produce graduates capable of sustained and profitable careers in a discipline and medium of their choice in the entertainment industry. The composition of final assessment systems reflects this fact.

Final evaluation requires successful completion of two evaluation phases

1. Submission of major discipline thesis research treatments pertaining to proposed project outcomes (minimum 10 000 words);
2. Generation of the project outcome as researched and proposed in the discipline thesis, and presentation of the project outcome to the internal and external panels, described hereafter.

Final evaluation for exit from this program after three years is effected through a final Value Added Learning Audit (VALA), executed by two formal panels - The Internal Quality Assurance Panel and the Public Panel - and one informal panel - the Professional Panel. The two formal panels have direct input on the final grade awarded to the learner, while the Professional Panel offer moderating input to the Internal Quality Assurance Panel.

The Internal Quality Assurance Panel - referred to at AFDA as the Value Added Learning Audit Panel. Criteria for appointment to the VALA Panel are:

• A Master of Arts Degree or higher;
• Permanent retention or appointment by AFDA;
• In-depth understanding of the AFDA curriculum and pedagogic strategies.

The Public Panel - is constituted from a broad random sample drawn from the audience who attend the final evaluation presentations. After viewing the product offered for evaluation, members of the public panel complete an evaluation questionaire, evaluation criteria of which have a direct correlation with Core Course skills blocks inputted over the three years duration of the program, thus insuring that not only the student, but the program itself, answers to the public, the engagement of whom is by logical extension the ultimate focus of the student outcomes.

Graduates are evaluated in terms of their individual discipline contribution to a project outcome, as well as the overall production quality of the project, which grades are blended according to a sliding weighted average.