KSB245 Performing Ideas, Ideology and Social Critique

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2026, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

This intermediate unit sees the creative application of acting and research skills to respond to contemporary plays that confront complex cultural, political or social issues, with scenes to be staged for live audiences and then adapted to being filmed in screen studio settings. These can include the challenge to act in scenes that require considerable investment in understanding complex ideas, fusing psychological and political/philosophical perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, unusual given circumstances, or digital/green screen environments. (There may also be scenes requiring the application of explicit consent-based protocols such as those that regulate the portrayal of intimacy or violence.)

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Identify and review the cultural, political and social critiques, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, informing contemporary acting texts.
2. Apply skills and understandings of acting methods and staging languages to communicate ideas and critiques relating to contemporary society, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, to contemporary live and screen audiences.
3. Apply skills and understandings of screen recording and acting procedures to convey ideas and critiques to screen viewers.
4. Demonstrate the application of leadership and creative collaboration to solve complex artistic, procedural and technical problems, in screen and stage settings.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit a series of tutorials complemented by practical workshops, and screen-based and live performances, will see you engaging with a range of transformative ideas relating to contemporary social, cultural and political issues. These are explored through research, dramatic storytelling, and through problem-based learning approaches applied to staging in both live and TV studio settings, drawing on technical equipment and technical support for work in the television studio.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways: 

• a range of formative tasks and roles will be offered to facilitate progressive feedback to assist you in your learning 
• comments on summative assessment work in addition to criteria sheets, both for group work and individual endeavour 
• criteria sheet grading. 

Assessment

Overview

There are three assessment items for this unit. The first is a written assignment, an essay, that requires you to investigate and comment on how a selected playwright has engaged with contemporary ideas and critiques, and how these have been transformed into dramatic argument through character and situation. The second and third items challenge you to embody, stage and adapt those arguments, first for a live setting to audiences who are present, using the theatricality of space and objects to communicate meaning, and secondly for a screen audience, using the language of camera and the intimacy of screen acting to communicate meaning.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Essay

Identify and review the cultural, political and social critiques informing contemporary (including First Nations) acting texts.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Performance

You will present a staged version of a scene or scenes from your chosen work, demonstrating understanding of ideas and how they can be represented in staging and characterisation.

Assessment: Recorded/rendered Creative Work

A scene, or scenes, developed and tested for live performance will be independently adapted for film, recorded in the television studio, edited and then uploaded as a recorded creative work. 

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.

The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Requirements to Study

Requirements

All students are requested to visit and review the Health and Safety information on the HiQ web pages (CIESJ Tier 1 HSE requirement) 

This unit also requires a Tier 2 CIESJ Health and Safety Induction which is provided by the technician on site in the theatre, workshop or studio. 

Resources

Resource Materials

Recommended text(s)

Other unit readings and reference material will be available online.

Safety and protective equipment

Proper clothing appropriate for active studio work is required, including closed-in shoes.

Risk Assessment Statement

For risks associated with using campus buildings or QUT facilities, refer to the HiQ Health and Safety information. For CIESJ Tiers 2 and 3 Health and Safety requirements, you will be instructed on safe procedures and the required safety gear for all studio and workshop processes that are demonstrated.

As all performance-makers understand, creating a performance potentially carries with it certain physical and/or emotional risks, both in the rehearsal room and in the theatre. Indeed, taking risks is an integral component of the art form’s processes. Some rehearsal warmups and exercises, and some performance events may include physically or emotionally strenuous activities. Managing this risk to ensure working conditions are safe, is always a high priority in the production process. It is therefore extremely important that if you are aware of personal physical or emotional vulnerabilities that make you feel unsafe or at risk in any way, you should immediately inform teaching staff or other supervisors, so that your situation can be evaluated, and appropriate rectifying action can be taken. 

Theatres and other performance spaces are also potentially dangerous places, particularly backstage during performances when low light conditions prevail. You will be warned by the stage manager, the production manager or the director of any specific risks that you will need to be aware of, when your project team first moves into the theatre. Whenever moving into a new performance space, you should always conduct your own risk assessment, and notify your team or director of any hazards you have personally identified. 

Every effort is made by QUT staff to ensure that you work in a safe environment. Conversely you are absolutely expected to follow all safety rules, procedures and directions, and to ensure that you do not put at risk the safety of others, or yourself, or of the highest artistic fulfilment of the project in any way. 

Course Learning Outcomes

CA02 Bachelor of Creative Arts (Acting)

1. Cite and discuss a broad and coherent knowledge of historical and contemporary cultural contexts for creative practice, including the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, Essay, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
2. Identify and demonstrate knowledge of the techniques and concepts underpinning your field of creative practice.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, Essay, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
3. Demonstrate complex problem solving through iterative experimentation and the creative and critical development of ideas and outcomes.
   Relates to: ULO4, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
4. Demonstrate technical proficiency and a knowledge of contemporary digital practices and technologies in one or more disciplines and apply these in creative and critical settings.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, ULO3, Essay, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
5. Communicate independent learning clearly and coherently in diverse modes relevant to your field of creative practice.
   Relates to: ULO3, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
6. Communicate, represent, and promote your work in ways relevant to your creative field.
   Relates to: ULO2, ULO3, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
7. Discern, critically analyse, and synthesise knowledge in complex creative and critical settings.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, ULO4, Essay, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work
8. Demonstrate respect for cultural and social differences, sustainability, and work with integrity across all practice and professional settings.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, ULO3, Essay, Performance, Recorded/rendered Creative Work