MA Creative Producing

This MA in Creative Producing is heavily embedded into the theatre-making industry and is useful for those wanting to develop careers as producers, directors, venue managers, writers, agents, company and production management, marketing, event management, casting agents, among many others. It is based in the Department of Drama and Theatre at Kent, but is also relevant in many other areas such as Film and TV, as well as general business and commerce. The content is focused on the professional skills of the producer, giving a broad but in depth understanding of the commercial, creative and contemporary issues needed to succeed in the business we call Showbusiness.

As a participant you will experience an intense taught period over the first term where you will learn the business and personal skills needed to develop, negotiate and create business and artistic plans, through a mix of workshops, seminars and lectures. You are stimulated to develop further your own individual creative approaches to Theatre, exploring ideas and critical awareness. We do this through looking at the current state of play within the world of Theatre; we invite key people to give talks and workshops, starting you on the road to building effective future networks. This is assessed through a mix of presentations, written case studies, and group research projects.

In term 2 you then work more independently on the application of your skills. You can choose to have a work placement or in depth company analysis, this is assessed by regular blogs and a reflective or analytical written report. You then develop your own creative idea as a business plan, assessed through a full written submission and a presentation pitch to a panel of experts. Instead of the Business Plan you can choose an optional module from the School of Arts that you can demonstrate will support the focus of your studies and dissertation. Over the summer you will then work on your agreed dissertation.

Visit the website https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/1212/creative-producing

About the Department of Drama and Theatre

Postgraduate Drama and Theatre studies at Kent has a very strong reputation for research and supervision in contemporary theatre and performance.

The wide-ranging interests of our international team of leading and emerging researchers (from the UK, Australia, Italy, Greece, Germany, France and other countries) include research strengths in contemporary performance, applied theatre, Shakespeare, 18th-century theatre, multimedia performance, popular performance, directing and dramaturgy, and physical performer training.

Our distinctive focus at Kent is on theatre as practice, whatever the topic, area, mode and methodology of research, and we encourage postgraduate students to make use of our close links and contacts with local, national and international (especially European) theatre companies, venues, schools and artists, both for research and to encourage professional postgraduate development.

Research areas

Histories: Art, Drama and Film Research Cluster

The Histories: Art, Drama and Film research cluster brings together staff and post-graduate students from across the School of Arts whose research involves a cultural historical approach to their field. Whether it is in theatre, film or art history, the cluster promotes and enables cultural historical research by holding a regular research seminar and supporting student-led initiatives, such as organizing conferences. For the range of world-leading research carried out by members of the Histories research cluster - from Raphael to Doris Day - please see the staff profiles and news feed.

Performance and Theatre Research Cluster

The Performance and Theatre Research Cluster’s mission is to create a warm and dynamic research community, welcoming everybody from fresher to professor. We are a delightfully broad church, with well-established expertise in a very broad range of subjects, including theatre history, performance and health, theatre and cognition, physical acting, applied theatre, performance and philosophy, performance and politics, European theatre, Greek theatre, Modernist theatre (especially the Bauhaus), theatre and adaptation, audience studies, cultural industries, variety theatre, puppetry, dance theatre, popular performance and stand-up comedy. As well as traditional academic research, we have led the field in creative practice-based research – and continue to do so.

Identities, Politics and the Arts Research Cluster

The interdisciplinary Identities, Politics and the Arts Research Cluster brings together arts researchers and colleagues in other disciplines who share interests in issues of identity, community, diversity and agency. We recognise how the arts explore, expose and address the co-mingling of identity with larger political agendas across nationhood and borders, neurodiversity, advertising, health policy, indeed any area of contemporary life.

Careers

Our graduates now work as producers in the West End and Broadway, they have opened new theatres in Cape Town, become performer’s agents in New York and Los Angeles, run theatres across the UK, they work as casting agents, theatre managers, umbrella organization administration, large scale opera company managers, theatre marketing, TV and Film development among many other specialisms. Visit a West End producer and it is likely they have working for them, or know of, someone who has graduated from this programme.

Find out how to apply here - https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/apply/

Visit the MA Creative Producing page on the University of Kent website for more details!