MA in Performance Making
In the past 20 years, some of the most exciting and innovative live performance worldwide has been performer-driven. This creative surge has been the work of solo artists, ensembles, auteurs and performer-directors, who have redefined boundaries and stretched the theatrical imagination into new spaces, both literally and figuratively.
1 year full-time or 2 years part-time.
Deadline: 30 January (December if you are applying for external funding). We advise early applications, but may consider applications after the closing date.
Interviews:
These will be held in February and March.
Course Convenor:
Anna Furse
Find out more about applying
Applicants should have an upper second undergraduate degree or professional equivalent. If your first language is not English, please check our English Language requirements.
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, Stationhouse 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.
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.
Please see Tuition fees.
Please see Staff research interests.
Contact the Department of Theatre and Performance secretary
Within the vibrant environment of Goldsmiths, and with all the stimulus that London offers culturally, practising or emerging practitioners are encouraged to develop creative, critical, technical and management skills and strategies for forging an independent and self-motivated career. You will conceive, research, construct and deliver your ideas and articulate what motivates these.
What you study
The teaching is rigorous and interdisciplinary. You study with distinguished international performers, dancers, directors, scenographers, writers, composers, and live artists as well as scholars within a praxis ethos where theory informs creativity. The emphasis throughout is on nurturing and encouraging collaboration across disciplines and cultures.
Physical training, scenographic/environmental exploration and hands-on introduction to technologies - lighting, video and sound - support studies in composition and artistic experimentation. You learn to contextualise your own practice in the historical and contemporary field and are required to write analytically and critically. You archive your practice digitally and by the end of your studies will have developed a portfolio of projects on which you have worked in a creative team. You are offered professional orientation with the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) www.thisisliveart.co.uk
'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
Artists contributing to the programme from the UK include:
Sally Jacobs
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie
Graeme Miller
Mischa Twitchin (Shunt)
Geraldine Pilgrim
Julia Bardsley
Chitra Sundaram
Nick Parkin
and internationally, for example:
Maja Mitic (DAH Teatar,Serbia)
Jola Cynkutis and Khalid Tyabji (Poland, India)
Steve Paxton (USA)
Chirine El Ansary (Egypt)
La Ribot (Spain)
Patricia Bardi (Netherlands)
In 2010 the programme is working in association with ArtsAdmin at Toynbee Studios, where several of its tutors are among its associate artists.
The Performance Research Forum, curated by the convenor, programmes internationally distinguished professional practitioners and companies to lecture/demonstrate/perform. MA Performance Making students assist in these events. Guests have included Ron Athey, Rosemary Butcher, Rose English, Tim Etchells, Franko B, Raimund Hoghe, Kasuko Hohki Sally Jacobs, Fadil Jaf, Julian Maynard Smith, Ko Murobushi, Orlan, Steve Paxton, La Ribot, Yvonne Rainer and many more.
Find out more about this programme on the Frequently Asked Questions page or see information on the MA's Graduates and Endorsements or its extra-curricular events.
Register your interest
If you register your interest in this programme we will keep you informed about open days and send you relevant further information. If you subsequently decide to apply for this programme you will be able to use the same login details to apply.
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK
Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7919 7171
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