Masters Degrees (Scenography)

ABOUT MA SCENOGRAPHY

Some of the major innovations in performance practices over the past hundred years have been drawn from scenographic developments. This MA/MFA approaches scenography from multiple practical and theoretical perspectives to create new opportunities for performance design experimentation and authorship.

This is a dynamic course for highly motivated artists and practitioners looking to extend their practice and for those wishing to develop design-led processes for and within performance. Students will engage with scenography through immersion in the process of relating bodies with space, sound, light and objects.

Students will discover, discuss and engage with past and present approaches to performance design informed by a variety of disciplines, for example, video, puppetry, architecture, choreography, sound and scientific enquiry. Existing skills and practice will
be challenged, extended and refined as students investigate speculatively the creative use/misuse of tools and media. Concerned with the body, movement, spatiality and temporality, the course includes a particular attention to, and interrogation
of, the scenographer’s subjective and physical approach to design processes.

There is a mix of collaborative and independent work, exploring the interplay of conceptual and practical thinking. This includes undertaking experimental and laboratory-based case studies, as well as studying the histories and theories of perception, representation and aesthetics within historical and philosophical frameworks.

Drawing on the expertise of current staff and visiting fellow researchers and practitioners, students explore a range of methods in the design studio/rehearsal room and the lecture theatre and have the opportunity to present their work through performance and exhibition. Students work within Central’s existing studio system alongside other courses and, through negotiated learning agreements, in professional contexts.

ASSESSMENT

This is by practical conceptions and realisations, written assignments and research presentations.

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The MA in Theatre for Young Audiences combines writing, puppetry, scenography, adaptation, facilitation and academic study. We’ll equip you with the practical and analytical skills to enter the burgeoning field of Theatre for Young Audiences.

The course was designed for practitioners and researchers including actors, directors, scriptwriters, producers, scenographers, and others with a relevant background in theatre and performance.

We foster collaborative work, immersing you in the operational life of one of the most innovative Theatre for Young Audiences venues in the country. You’ll graduate with invaluable artistic, academic, and professional contacts.

COURSE STRUCTURE

The MA consists of four 30-credit modules and one 60-credit module delivered over three trimesters. This totals 12-months of full-time study or a 24-months of part-time study.

You’ll gain an understanding of:

• Practical methodologies and processes for creating theatre for young audiences, including writing, puppetry, adaptation and scenography.
• The broader context of theatre for young audiences, grounded in an understanding of the creative capacities of children.
• The performance field, through examination of the work of key companies and playwrights.
• Educational pedagogy in the creative arts for young people, including workshop facilitation and experiential learning techniques.
• The arts industry, including producing and funding strategies alongside the infrastructure of the theatre for young audiences field.

MODULES

In the first trimester, you'll take two modules: Research Methods and Context, and Performance Practice 1 (Writing and Dramaturgy, Puppetry).

In the second trimester, you will take two modules again the first being Performance Practice 2 (Devising, Adaptation, and Scenography), and Professional Engagement.

In the final trimester, you'll take the 60 credit module, the Thesis Project, to complete your course.

For more information on course modules, please go to our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-theatre-for-young-audiences/

TEACHING METHODS

We deliver the course through seminars, practical sessions, workshops, lectures and online. In addition to the rich teaching offered through Bath Spa University resources, we incorporate an ongoing programme of activity at the egg.

ASSESSMENT

You’ll be assessed by written and practical work, such as performances, workshops, demonstrations, scripts, reflective essays, research essays and presentations. Your final thesis project can be practical, written, or a combination of the two.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The MATYA will equip you with the performance, applied, academic and entrepreneurial skills to pursue a career in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences. Particularly invaluable are the industry contacts, experience, and professional platform gained through the course’s partnership with the egg.

Graduates of the course move into work within theatre companies and as writers, directors, producers, or academics.

COMPETITIONS

You’ll have the opportunity to pitch your thesis project to the egg for inclusion in their Incubator showcase for an audience of leading industry professionals.

For more information on opportunities and facilities please go to our website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-theatre-for-young-audiences/

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Introduction

MA Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Arts is designed to support and further theatre design practice-based research. Students will develop advanced level scenographic speculative methods, either collaboratively or as auteur.

Content

What students can expect from the course:

- To research practitioners past and present and form a distinctive view of their position in the discipline

- To collaborate with other postgraduate student directors, choreographers or other theatre makers to practice and test their abilities to negotiate and communicate at an advanced level

- To maintain an online research folio to develop a professional ‘shop window’ for their ideas

- To interrogate contemporary scenography through the established modes of industrial practice in set and costume design, though students may also investigate various specialisms in their studies, such as lighting, projection or sound

- Work closely with a mentor who will challenge and advise students throughout the development of their final self-motivated Action Research Project

- Specialist tutorial and technical support from across Wimbledon’s renowned Theatre Programme, focusing on the production and research in both industrial and academic contexts

- Established contacts with complementary London-based Director and Choreographic MA courses support the delivery of collaborative study components

- Direct access to the Jocelyn Herbert Archive and engagement with the college’s theatre design-related special exhibitions and conferences

- Direct access to scenographic curatorial practice at a national and international level

Structure

Unit One:

In Unit One students engage with the field of Theatre Design through researching practitioners past and present, to form a distinctive view of their position in the discipline. To support their work they'll have access to a wide range of expertise within the areas of scenic and costume design at Wimbledon College of Art.

Students will share opinions about bodies of generally held views and attitudes to Theatre Design in an attempt to reach a collective consensus or understood divergence. Synergies and differences between addressing bodies and spaces in digital and analogue contexts will be a focus for debate and provide a platform for discourse between both MA Theatre courses and the wider Postgraduate communities at Wimbledon and across the Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Graduate School.

Unit Two:

In Unit Two the course will structure a partnership between students and a Postgraduate director, choreographer or other theatre maker to practice and test their abilities to negotiate, collaborate and communicate at an advanced level.

All students will be expected to engage with each other’s ideas and proposals through periodic supportive group critiques and formative peer assessment targeted specifically at Units One and Two. Students will maintain a Research Folio on line that began in Unit One and develop a professional shop window for their ideas, including reviews of study visits to events and performance environments.

Unit Three:

In Unit Three, students and their tutors will be asked to identify a professional mentor, who will both advise and challenge them when appropriate during your final self-motivated Research Project. Along with student tutors, mentors can monitor the work’s conception at an intermediate stage of development and provide an industry-based reaction to its sophistication and effectiveness within negotiated parameters.

Students will be expected to make a research-motivated experiment in either real or virtual space to underpin their work. Innovative impact-driven methods of documenting and presenting ideas will be encouraged for a final proposal, usually combining both web presence and an exhibition context.

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The MA Dance Masters by Research contributes to a longstanding tradition of postgraduate study in dance at Chichester. Offering dance graduates as well as dance artists, at different stages of their artistic lives, the chance to undertake a Masters Degree in the UK’s leading Practice as Research department. The programme enables students to develop their own research interests and, supported by tutors design a programme of dance research that addresses specific areas of interest.

Course content
The MA Dance Masters by Research enables students to develop their own research interests and, supported by tutors design a programme of dance research that addresses specific areas of interest, as an example, projects might explore areas such as; Dance and Postmodernism, Community Dance Practice, Dance in Education, Popular Dance, Site-Specific Dance Practices, Dance and technology, Dance Film, Dance and Interdisciplinary Arts Practices, Dance History, Dance and Politics.
Guest lecturers on the MA include scholars, practitioners and curators all working in innovative areas of dance research.

Our facilities
Our dance facilities include four superb dance studios, a fully-equipped 250-seat theatre and a 110-seat studio theatre. In addition, there is a newly refurbished large gymnasium space together with two new sprung-floor spaces in the new academic building. Our students will use the facilities within our dance technical team to enhance their understanding of scenography, sound and cameras, and the editing suites to support their choreography and creative practice situated in the Learning and Information Zone of the library.
Over the past few years, we’ve redeveloped both of our campuses so that you have the best facilities available for your degree. We pride ourselves on the quality of the learning environment we can offer our students.

At the Bishop Otter campus there is an integrated approach to the provision of learning resources and support. We offer a substantial collection of books, journals and other materials to help you further your research. A range of study areas for group and quiet study including Wi-Fi areas for laptop use are available, or you can use our open access PC and Mac areas. We use an electronic learning environment with an expanding portfolio of online library resources from anywhere at any time.
The Learning Resource is the hub of the learning environment. It has two upper floors of library resources, one for silent study and one for quiet study, both of which have recently been refurbished. On the ground floor, you’ll find the Support and Information Zone, Media Centre, Otter Gallery, Costa Coffee and a variety of IT resources.

The Bishop Otter LRC also offers:
o 130 open access PC workstations
o 45 Apple iMacs
o Ample printing facilities
o Netbooks available on loan
o Professional editing suites
o Media loans counter
o Wi-Fi and plug points throughout

Where this can take you

This course is suitable for you if you are a dance / arts professional, teacher, recent graduate or a dance artist who wishes to extend their research skills.

It will offer you …
o an opportunity to work with nationally and internationally established dance scholars and practitioners
o time to deepen your understanding of your professional skills through practice, research and scholarship
o Professional Development
o deepening your ability to articulate what you do in written and spoken form
o a stepping-stone toward PhD study
You will develop skills in…
o critical thinking
o working independently (via dissertation projects)
o research and the articulation of that research in writing
It will give you…
o preparation for further study i.e. PhD or professionally-related qualifications
o a qualification that can aid in obtaining work within educational and HE institutions
Indicative modules

Core modules:
Independent Research Project module:
Your research skills will be facilitated through the formulation and realisation of a self-directed research project in broadly based dance practices, which underpin the MA programme. You will be expected to contextualise your work in the light of contemporary developments in dance research.

Dissertation module:
The Dissertation emphasises independent research where you select an area of investigation with the advice of tutors. This may arise from earlier modules studied on the degree. The research may focus on performance practice, professional practice (i.e. teaching and community dance practices) applied critical, historical or epistemological issues.

Optional modules
In addition to the two core modules, students are required to select two optional modules, these normally include options such as; Artist as Producer, Pedagogical Skills, Body in Site, Dance Writing and Criticism, Performing Politics.
Assessment for this programme employs various methods chosen as the most appropriate for demonstrating achievement of the learning outcomes for each module. All modules are assessed by means of programme work in the form of essays, practical choreography presentations, ,reports, presentations, learning journals, portfolios, online tasks and group working.

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This unique MA will enhance your critical understanding of the musical theatre as a popular entertainment genre- http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-musical-theatre/

It will help you to sharpen your practical skills as a creative artist. On a practical level, it will assist you in working as a freelance writer, composer or producer of musical theatre.

The MA focuses on the dramaturgy of the musical as a key factor in the future development of the genre.

Expert professionals are regularly employed as visiting tutors, to maintain direct links with the industry.

You follow one of the two pathways as either:

-producer
-writer or composer

You undertake an analytic case study of a musical or production, a placement project and dissertation (producers), and a creative project involving either book and lyrics or music for a short original musical (writers and composers). Producers share some classes with students on the MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Theatre and Performance Secretary.

Modules & Structure

You undertake an analytic case study of a musical or production, a placement project and dissertation (producers), and a creative project involving either book and lyrics or music for a short original musical (writers and composers). Producers share some classes with the MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy.

You elect to follow one of two pathways on the programme – Producers, or Writers and Composers. In each case, the programme involves five separate modules:

1. Genre study – autumn and spring terms, both pathways.
This module runs for 20 weeks. It begins in autumn with an historical survey of the development of the American musical, from ‘Showboat’ (1927) to ‘Sweeney Todd’ (1979). It continues in the spring term with a look at new forms of musical theatre that have resulted from the fragmentation of the classic tradition of ‘book’ musicals, with the innovation of the ‘concept’ musical, the impact of rock musicals, the ‘invasion’ of Broadway by the British ‘megamusical’ and the subsequent globalisation of the market by Cameron Macintosh and Disney.

2. Case study – autumn and spring terms, both pathways.
This module involves a 15-week introduction to the different structural components (book, music, lyrics, choreography, scenography) and industrial factors (producers, marketing, technology, conomics)
determining the production of musicals today. The module is taught by a range of professional and academic experts with a variety of different perspectives on the subject.

3. Shared complementary/contextual module 1 – autumn term.

Students choose one of these modules:

4. Shared complementary/contextual module 2, - ‘Musical Theatre and Society’
5. Creative project/dissertation – spring and summer terms, both pathways.

Assessment

Genre study is assessed by two 3,000-word essays; the case study is assessed by means of a 4,000-word essay. The nature and form of creative projects, dissertations and research/placement projects are agreed with the Module Convenor during the programme.

Skills

You will develop a critical understanding of the collaborative processes involved in the creation of musical theatre in the UK and USA.

Composers and librettists/lyricists will achieve an enhanced ability to engage with the integration of dramaturgical and musical components of musical theatre writing, and a comprehension of the various factors involved in working within the industry.

Producers will acquire an overall perspective on the industrial and organisational factors involved in musical theatre production, including methods of theatre marketing, systems of arts funding and policy, and a working knowledge of the strategies involved in producing a small-scale musical.

Producers will also develop skills of leadership and teamwork and the ability to develop and critique their own approaches to working in musical theatre production.

Careers

Typical careers for graduates of this MA include:

musical theatre composer
librettist
lyricis
tproduce
marketing manager
production assistant

Funding

Please visit http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/fees-funding/ for details.

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This unique international laboratory programme brings diverse individuals into collaborative research, acknowledging the challenges of creating original, performer-driven theatre in today's complex, globalised culture- http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-performance-making/

In over 3 decades there has been a creative surge in hybrid live performance worldwide. This has been the work of solo artists, ensembles, auteurs and performer-directors across creative fields, who have redefined boundaries and stretched the artistic and social imagination into new spaces, both literally and figuratively.

Within the vibrant environment of Goldsmiths, and with all the stimulus that London offers culturally, practising or emerging practitioners develop compositional, critical, technical and management skills and strategies for forging independent and self-motivated careers. Our graduates work as practitioners, teachers and cultural leaders worldwide.

On the programme you will conceive, research, construct and deliver your ideas and articulate what motivates these. Teaching is rigorous and interdisciplinary. You study with distinguished international artists as well as scholars within a praxis ethos where theory informs creativity and vice versa. The emphasis throughout is on encouraging collaboration across disciplines and cultures, and on contextualising practice within its social, political and architectural environment.

Physical training, scenographic/environmental exploration and hands-on introduction to technologies (lighting, video and sound) support composition and artistic experimentation. You identify your own practice within the historical and contemporary field, and write critically and creatively. You archive your practice digitally, and on graduation will have developed a portfolio of projects. You are guided on professional development by the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and the Institute for Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship (ICCE) at Goldsmiths.

The programme enjoys a wide international professional network of organisations, commissions, venues and festivals of benefit to students. You study both at Goldsmiths and ArtsAdmin. Click here for a full list of artists associated with the programme as permanent and guest tutors.

"The MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths attracts artists from all over the world seeking to develop their skills, creativity, pragmatics and independence. Taught by distinguished professionals, it encourages original, collaborative research into new forms, new imperatives and new contexts for live performance. As such it makes an invaluable contribution to the culture of performance."

Lois Keidan, Director: Live Art Development Agency, London

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact the Department of Theatre and Performance Office.

Modules & Structure

This is a praxis programme on which you gain 180 CATS (credits).

Practical Study- 30 credits
Performance Making A and B- 60 credits
MA in Performance Making Dissertation- 60 credits
Contextual Theory- 30 credits

Skills

You will become conversant, confident and skilled in a range of methodological practices as well as compositional strategies for independent theatrical, dance theatre and live art creation.

Your critical and analytical skills in interpreting artistic practice will be tested in a range of verbal, written and oral ways. Your study of your own body as a creative instrument will be complemented by learning the principles of scenography and film narrative.

You will research intellectually and produce theoretically informed writing. You will learn to contextualise your own practice and interests in the contemporary field of performance both in the UK and internationally, and to articulate such practice.

Overall you will learn how to research, construct and deliver your ideas performatively and how to advocate your own projects to producers, venues, funders and other agencies.

Careers

Graduates work in a wide variety of professional contexts globally as commissioned performance makers, directors, project leaders, programmers, teachers and academic researchers.

The programme has launched international production companies and collaborations whilst the many organisations employing them include:

Dreamthinkspeak
Station House Opera
Marie Gabrielle Rotie Productions
The Clod Ensemble
Corridor
Lift
The Royal Court Theatre
The Gate Theatre
The Globe Theatre
Goossun Art-Illery
Northern Stage
The Royal National Theatre
The Beijing Academy
BAC
Bernie Grant Arts Centre
Artsadmin
Shunt
Hackney Empire
Greenwich Dance Agency
The Convenor’s Company
Athletes of the Heart

And a range of international commissions and festivals including Edinburgh Festival and Brighton Fringe.

What some of our alumni are doing now

http://www.taniaelkhoury.com
http://www.niabarge.com
http://www.liveartgardeninitiative.org.uk/mariallanderas.html
http://www.2divide.weebly.com
http://www.palimpsest.weebly.com
hekayet.com/chirin.htm
http://www.zoukak.org

Funding

Please visit http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/fees-funding/ for details.

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ABOUT MA/MFA ADVANCED THEATRE PRACTICE

The MA/MFA Advanced Theatre Practice is a well-established course aimed at drawing together those wishing to play a leading role in tomorrow’s new performance and theatre-making worlds. As participants in this course, students will be part of a carefully selected group wanting to pool their resources and imagine the theatre of the future.

At the start, students are likely to bring their existing knowledge and practical experience, for example, as a Performer, Designer, Visual Artist, Writer, Director, Musician, Puppeteer, or Dramaturg. Alternatively, students may have another body of knowledge and experience that they are keen to hone with others in the creation of new performance work.

Whatever their existing skills, participants will have a passion for innovation and company work, and be ready to challenge and extend specialist practice through collaboration with others. Students on this course may be performers with good physical and vocal skills, for example, wishing to extend their ability to create new work through contact with puppetry and object theatre, writers and directors. Or a student may be a dramaturg, wishing to develop academic knowledge with others in the rehearsal room; or a designer with experience in
lighting, sound, scenography, or visual media for performance wishing to work with colleagues in non-hierarchical situations.

Participants may bring knowledge and experience from other academic disciplines, such as science and mathematics, film and animation, anthropology, choreography, or composition, which they are keen to develop in an experimental theatre-making environment, through improvisation and play. While practical and research interests arise from particular disciplines, engagement with this course will be as a participant in an innovative collaborative laboratory for practical experiment.

ASSESSMENT

Practice is assessed throughout the first three terms through continuous assessment of contribution to the rehearsal/development process
combined with essays reflecting on this work in the broader context of contemporary theatre practice. Peer assessment also forms a part of the assessment process. The course will prepare students for the sustained independent project, where they will take a performance work that they have made with colleagues to a documented encounter with a public audience during the summer.

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The goal of this program is to train the urban interior designer, the professional who designs the public realm: squares, streetscapes, in-between areas, urban landscapes, terrains vagues; both existing and future ones to be determined, taking into consideration both container and content.
Such urban voids are equipped, furnished, connected, and networked. This kind of professional blends the skills of the architect, the designer, the interior designer and the curator. The quality of the public realm in contemporary cities increasingly depends on the ability to offer hospitable spaces meaningful on their own and suitable to multiple purposes.

Please visit http://www.polidesign.net/en/urbaninteriordesign

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