MA Performance Design and Practice

Course summary:

This course brings together artists, directors, writers, researchers and designers to set the agendas that will drive performance practice in the 21st century. Graduates go on to professional practice, working as influential directors, writers and producers in theatre, TV, film, opera or dance, or progress to research degree study.

This course is part of the Drama and Performance Programme.

Great reasons to apply:

• This course brings together directors, writers, performers, researchers and designers from different performance contexts, alongside those from other related disciplines such as fine art, architecture, fashion, film making etc. in order to set the agendas that will drive performance practice in the 21st century
• In the second half of the first year you will normally participate in student-led collaborative projects, culminating in public performances, created by student groups.
• In the second half of the first year you will normally participate in a student-lead collaborative residency, culminating in a series of public performances, created by the student groups. These residencies will normally take place in mainland Europe
• Many of our graduates form their own creative companies and partnerships and go on to work in art, design and performance in a range of roles, including festivals, art centres and venues around the world
• Our graduates work in theatre, television, film, opera or dance, go on to direct, write or produce or progress to research degree study
• You'll be encouraged to question how your work relates to the broader context of performance practices with a focus on the interconnected contexts of experimental theatre practice, live art and dramaturgy through design.

Anyone Interested.

Course details:

MA Performance Design and Practice responds to and engages with tradition and change in the arena of contemporary performance and experimental theatre practice. The postgraduate course contributes to the debates surrounding the core territories of performance making, design and time-based practices. MA Performance Design and Practice also acknowledges the hybrid nature of contemporary performance work and promotes a critical exploration of conventional fixed boundaries between fine art performance and theatre. Central to the MA Performance Design and Practice ethos is a recognition of international models of performance design and practice - models that have shaped the debates challenging many of the established definitions, functions and roles identified with performance making. From these debates key practitioners, organisations, events and texts have emerged. It remains a core aspect of the postgraduate course ethos to give you direct experience of these models and materials through an inspirational learning placement outside the UK.

Focusing on the sphere of performance culture where ideas and orthodoxies are in flux, the postgraduate programme brings together fine artists, directors, writers, researchers and designers to set the agendas that will drive performance practice in the 21st century.

About the course:

• MA Performance Design and Practice lasts 60 weeks structured as two consecutive periods of 30 weeks each, (ie, two academic years) in its ' extended full time mode .'
• MA Performance Design and Practice is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises 3 units. In the first year, Unit 1, (60 credits) runs from Week 1 & 15, while Unit 2, (60 credits) runs from week 16 - 30. Unit 3 (60 credits) follows after the completion of Units 1 and 2 and runs throughout the second year for 30 weeks.
• Students successfully achieving Units 1 and 2 may exit at this point with the award of Postgraduate Certificate.
• All three units must be passed in order to achieve the MA but the classification of the award of MA is derived from the mark for unit 3 only.

In year one you are expected to be able to commit an average of 40 hours per week. In year two your study is predominantly self-managed but you are expected to commit an average of 20 hours per week. Across the two years you therefore commit an average of 30 hours per week.

MA Performance Design and Practice encourages you to question how your work relates to the broader context of performance practices while developing approaches to design, composition/ authorship and performing located within the broad and interconnected contexts of experimental theatre practice, live art and dramaturgy through design.

Fees & Funding:

• Home/EU fee Tuition fees for 2019/20

University of the Arts London (UAL) is Europe’s largest specialist art and design university. Its unique creative community is made up of six renowned Colleges, each with its own world-class reputation: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts.

UAL is the world’s sixth best University for Art and Design in the QS World University Rankings 2018. Offering an extensive range of courses in art, design, fashion, communication and performing arts, UAL is the main talent pipeline to the UK’s creative industries.

Home to a diverse community of over 18,000 students from 129 countries, UAL has a track record for launching and furthering careers. Our graduates can be found in every part and at every level of the creative and cultural sectors, from heads of global business to self-employed practitioners, and on shortlists for awards ranging from the Turner Prize to the Oscars.

Building on UAL’s association with some of the most original thinkers in the arts, students and staff are inspired to challenge convention, generate new ideas and nurture talent. Home to award-winning staff and students for more than a century, UAL’s Colleges are at the forefront of learning, creativity and practice in their specialist subjects. This close-knit College structure offers opportunities for learning and enquiry for people at all stages of their creative development.