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University of the Arts London: Theatre and Performance Design

Institution University of the Arts London View institution profile
Department Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London
Web arts.ac.uk
Email info@wimbledon.arts.ac.uk
Telephone 020 7514 9641
Study type Taught

Summary

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.   

What to expect

  • To apply the skills and knowledge that support your practice to work across a wide range of disciplines, contexts and partnerships as practiced in the sector

  • Learn to identify and critique influences, traditions and cultures that make up and impact upon artistic endeavours

  • Seminars that develop a critical awareness of the landscapes of cultural production

  • Develop your own way of asking questions, researching and solving problems in a professional, historical and social context

  • Take part in a cross-course, mediated, ensemble design with your peers

  • To investigate, and where possible, establish a partnership with a professional mentor

  • To develop and present a final creative event project based on an area of personal research and interest

  • To produce a research dissertation

  • To have access to online and print resources from all 6 colleges of UAL colleges

  • Dedicated course support from a librarian at Wimbledon College of Arts. View the library services

  • Access to Wimbledon's shared workshops.

Key elements introduced to students on the course:

  • Skills in model making, technical and costume drawing techniques as a way of presenting and communicating ideas and designs

  • Historical, current and developing forms of practice and production within live performance, stage and costume design

  • Methods to catalogue design work through notebooks and sketchbooks

  • Illustrating research and design processes digitally

  • The performer/audience relationship

  • Collaborative skills to develop abilities to negotiate and communicate throughout the production process

  • Understanding the developing role of digital technology in theatre and production design

  • Approaches to responsive and immersive spaces and objects

  • New media and expanded technologies for performance

  • Researching associated partnerships and collaborations needed for effective project delivery

  • Transferable skills and knowledge applied to wider communities of practice

MA

University of the Arts London

 

About University of the Arts London
University of the Arts London has ranked second in the world in Art and Design for the fifth year in a row in the 2023 QS World University Rankings.

We have 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 businesses …

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