University Lecturing
Steve served as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department
of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham from 1995
to 2003. For the Drama Department Steve created various practical courses,
ranging from Screenwriting to Stand-up Comedy. These three-hour workshops
usually ran for a period of ten weeks. He researched areas of academic
interest and taught study options, gave lectures and ran seminars on
areas such as Greek Theatre and the Broadway Musical. Steve wrote and
gave numerous lectures on the University Film Studies. He was also
a Drama Department core-course tutor.
Courses, Seminars and Lectures
Steve’s various practical workshops and talks
are now available for theatres, drama schools and other professional
bodies on a freelance basis. Steve’s courses for University of
Birmingham Drama Department included:
The
Broadway Musical
The themes and forms of opular musical theatre from Kern
to Sondheim (Study)
Comedy
of Manners
The comedy of manners acting style from Congreve to
Ayckbourn (Practical)
Screenwriting
Writing workshops on screenplay technique
(Practical)
It’s
All Greek To Me
The theatre presentation of classical Greek
drama and its modern interpretation (Study)
Stand-up
Comedy
The theatrical tradition of stand-up comedy from
Aristophanes to The Comedy Club (Practical)
Screenplay
Story structures and their applications to modern screenwriting,
including the theories of Aristotle, Propp, Egri, Campbell,
McKee, Polti and Bettelheim (Study)
Story
Story devising, specifically the use of alternative
story structures to create theatre (Practical)
Modern
Poetics
The Poetics and cinematic techniques of modern
film-making: story structures to editing, sound and cinematography
(Study)
In addition to his work in the Drama Department, Steve
was a lecturer on the interdisciplinary University Film
Studies course. Each lecture used a key film as a staring
point to examine a specific aspect of film study. Steve
presented individual lectures on a range of films, including:
Who
Framed Roger Rabbit
The film noir genre
The
Purple Rose of Cairo
Audience response and escapism
Hercules
The animation genre
The Godfather
The Godfather series – The gangster movie genre
Wayne’s World
Post-modern comedy
Die Hard
The action movie genre
Pleasantville
Satire and the representation of
television in the movies
Steve also presented lectures in the Drama Department
on a number of subjects, including the Restoration
Actor and Comic Rhythm. For the Comic
Rhythm lecture, Steve
focused on the musical, A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
 Recently Steve gave talks to The University of the
Third Age and ran the Comedy Acting workshop for
the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. |
