MA Theatre and Performance Design
University of the Arts London
Key Information
Campus location
London, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
15 months
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
Request info
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Request info
Introduction
MA Theatre and Performance Design
MA Theatre and Performance Design offers you studio-based vocational training. As a freelance theatre and production designer the course will develop your skills and approach to collaboration, technology and storytelling.
Theatre is unquestionably a collaborative art form and, as such, collaboration lies at the heart of each project on this course, whether speculative or realised.
You will be immersed in the collaborative nature of theatre and performance practice, where theatre refers to every form of live performance which exists in the long history of storytelling. You will have the opportunity to build ideas, proposals and events with other makers.
The course will train you to become a theatre and production designer who makes dynamic, innovative environments that connect your audience to the performance. We will prepare you to contribute to the continuing development of the performance space as a place for social interaction and debate.
You will explore the production techniques and methods, both historical and contemporary, as employed by designers working in industry, to express the content of a live performance.
With a strong emphasis on live, real-time performance, you will learn skills related to organising and developing effective models for delivery. You will encounter performance design and fabrication techniques, as practiced in industry, to enhance your understanding of design and production processes. Advanced techniques and research ideas will build upon your vocational training. These will encourage transdisciplinary, practical approaches to creating potential future theatres of practice.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Several scholarship options are available. Please check the university website for more information.
Curriculum
Unit 1: Methods
You will investigate and form a distinctive view of the discipline by using creative research skills.
- Research skills will be supported by seminars setting out the field and parameters of research in this area to develop a critical awareness of the landscapes of cultural production
- You will create speculative design proposals using established industry tools to convey design ideas
- The project will be structured to emulate a professional commission and require you to apply and test your research interests
- You may also take part in a collaborative project with your peer group. This will end in a short, realised performance (live or virtual)
- Opportunities to explore technical software to promote idea-generation, problem solving, communication and dissemination
Unit 2: Practice
You will develop practical research methods to facilitate design proposal ideas.
- Research methods will assist you in identifying the practical means necessary for bringing a proposal to completion through collaboration with other theatre professionals
- You will focus on the relationships between different theatre skills when addressing a specific narrative
- Creative research skills will help you focus on specific areas of enquiry that challenge the discourses identified in the field of practice
Unit 3: Collaboration
This unit will develop your collaborative practice. You will build ideas, proposals and events with other theatre and performance makers and produce an ensemble design with peers.
The unit will extend the scale, scope and ambition of your practice and ideas.
- Outcomes will be presented in the form of drawings, sketches, an optional 3D scale model and/or any appropriate digital form, prototype models and/or any appropriate form of evidence
- You will focus on the critical scope of your practice to identify an area of personal research and interest. This research focus will be the foundation for a Final Design Project in unit 4. It may also inform the subject for a final creative research skill project in the form of a dissertation
- You will be encouraged to investigate and, where possible, establish a partnership with an appropriate professional mentor
- Crits, peer review and active dialogue will help the development of your practice and research
Unit 4: Realisation
You will complete a self-directed Final Design Project which has been explored through research during previous units.
- You will refine a principal area of exploration that motivates the final design project and then construct appropriate ways to present it
- The final project will be realised and exhibited in an agreed professional format, that may also include any other work produced throughout the year
- You will produce an advanced, scholarly piece of research as a dissertation
- If established, your professional mentor may assist and critique the ideas for your Final Design Project, monitor your progress at a mid-stage, locate its significance within the wider research field and provide an industry-based reaction on its effectiveness
- Your Final Design Project may be realised using an appropriate practical experiment. Documented evidence of this and any other preparatory work will be a key component in t he presentation of your Final Design Project
Note: 120 credits must be passed before the final unit is undertaken.
Program Outcome
- Artist and professional practice talks
- Creative research skills, presentation of research and writing
- Design of a learning agreement
- Documentation and dissemination of a project
- Group discussions, crits, seminars and tutorials
- Independent practice and self-directed research methods
- Lectures
- Negotiation and development of a design proposal
- Planning for a formal presentation of a design proposal
- Production planning meetings with tutors and technical staff
- Project related professional discussion or collaboration
- Workshops and inductions
Program Tuition Fee
Program delivery
MA Theatre and Performance Design is offered in full-time mode and runs for 45 weeks over 15 months. You will be expected to commit an average of 40 hours per week to your course, including teaching hours and independent study.