The programme contains four taught modules and a further dissertation/portfolio component.
You'll have a range of choices throughout the degree enabling you to design a pathway that is most relevant to your academic, business and career ambitions.
Attendance is mandatory for all taught sections of the programme. To encourage collaborative learning we try to teach all students together wherever possible, irrespective of their particular pathway.
You will also take one of the following modules.
Module title |
Credits |
Radical Performance
Radical Performance
30 credits
Radical Performance attempts to probe the creative innovations in theatre, performance, and live art practices that intersect with notions of 'radicality'. The topic is approached through an examination of the various creative elements that have underpinned theatrical experiments, challenges, and resistances. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and philosophical aspects, this course aims to enhance students' abilities to critique the ethics and efficacy of radical performance.
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30 credits |
Disability Theatre
Disability Theatre
30 credits
This module will explore Disability Theatre in the UK, focusing on the role that theatre and drama play in the development of a more inclusive society. Students will study the context in which Disability Theatre takes place and develop an understanding of the distinction between the “social” and “medical” models of disability and how this impacts on practice. The module will examine how a range of theatre and performance practices can address the barriers faced by people with physical, sensory and communication impairments, people on the autistic spectrum and people with learning disabilities. Students will develop critical frameworks to study a range of practices; topics covered include: the aesthetics of access, multi-sensory work for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, participatory arts, outdoor performance and institutionalisation. Students will be encouraged to engage with contemporary practice and debates and there will be two guest speakers, Tim Webb (Artistic Director, Oily Cart) and Jenny Sealey (Artistic Director, Graeae) - both leading practitioners in Disability Theatre.
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30 credits |
Contemporary African Theatre and Drama
Contemporary African Theatre and Drama
30 credits
In this module, you'll focus on contemporary literary drama and dramatists from the Anglo-phone, Franco-phone and Luso-phone language zones in Africa. One of our major aims is to remove the tendency in previous African theatre and performance scholarship to study these theatre traditions and genres as separate, while in fact, the impulse behind them was essentially the same, and their hybridising strategies follow the same path.
You'll investigate the impact of different forms of colonisation on the creation and direction of the theatre. You'll explore the influences of the indigenous traditions and the function of theatre within African societies - you'll specifically look at theatre and politics, the role of the dramatist in Africa, the playwright and the state, theatre under apartheid and totalitarian regimes, theatre and liberation struggles, theatre and the universities, African audiences, video drama/movie (theatre, technology and innovation).
The module encourages you to explore and extend your perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. You'll be encouraged to research one of the themes identified above, giving you the opportunity to explore a specific concern in contemporary African dramaturgy and theatre and performance practice.
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30 credits |
Cultural Theory, Performance, Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Cultural Theory, Performance, Interdisciplinary Perspectives
30 credits
This module focuses on a selected number of fundamental concepts, categories of thought and methodological issues and problems pertinent to cultural theory and its relation to performance.
The module is based on the premise that performance activity is a social and cultural practice. As such, performance is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its complexity. These terms are provided by interdisciplinary work, which, in this course, will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, the sociology of culture, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, political science, philosophy, aesthetics, and theories of signs and of artistic genres.
Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is dialogically interrelated with the practice of practitioners. It thus uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses theory to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. Apart from the inclusion of contemporary practitioners in the module structure, as indicated below, you'll be expected to engage with performances available to them in London and elsewhere during their studies, and discuss them in the seminar, as appropriate.
The interdisciplinary principles of the module highlight the interdisciplinary dimensions of what is, nevertheless, discipline-specific to drama, theatre and performance studies. The module is designed to allow you to carry the conceptual and methodological grounding provided by this core module across to the options offered by the MA in Performance and Culture. It is also designed to link intellectually with other MA programmes available at Goldsmiths College.
The module is structured on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are cross-referenced, cumulative, and require depth. Its structure fosters initiative in research, independent research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Performance and Medicine
Performance and Medicine
30 credits
This pioneering module (there is no such course in existence) will explore the broader context – historical, cultural, ideological, economic – informing the emerging field of performance (theatre, dance, Live Art, music, digital art) that has addressed/collaborated with/applied both medicine and medical issues through creative practice, in the UK and internationally. Within the context of the growing field of Medical Humanities, the theoretical perspective is framed by Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, in which he articulates the medical gaze and ‘medical couple’ and the rise of the European medical institution. Exploring the field from an interdisciplinary and culturally diverse optic, studies will cover a range of topics that explore mental/physical health, medical institutions/protocols and medico-performance practices, through lecture and seminar:
- Exploration of the braiding of medicine and art across histories;
- Consideration of Shamanistic traditions of healing;
- Comparison of non-Western to Western medical perceptions of the body and illness;
- Exploration of the history of Renaissance European anatomy theatres;
- Investigation into classical/modern/contemporary dramatic texts about medicine/medical characters;
- Practices that overlap healing and the arts (drama therapy/dance therapy);
- The affective turn and the neuroscientific turn respectively as recently applied to thinking through and about creative practice;
- Critical analysis of a range of evidence of medico-artistic practices particularly during the past two decades: artists, projects, contexts, organisations, funding bodies and cultural policies that address how medicine and performance have been, and might be, conjoined in creative innovations, processes and productions.
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30 credits |
Asian Theatre
Asian Theatre
30 credits
Theatre or the practice of drama has an extraordinarily long, ruptured and variegated history in India. The module will examine this history of practice along a few different lines - classical, colonial, traditional, regional, English, Parsi, urban, contemporary and global. We will begin with a critical study of the unique aesthetic theory of Rasa concerned with production and communication of theatrical experience by the actor and its reception and enjoyment by the spectator. It is the core proposition of the Natyasastra (lit. Drama Principles), the drama manual from India, ascribed to a sage called Bharata, dated 200 BCE-200 CE and recognised as the world's oldest treatise on dramaturgy. The study will draw upon commentary from scholars as ancient as Abhinavagupta, as modern as Adya Rangacharya and as trangressive as Richard Schechner, and more, and take a look at renowned plays from pre-Christian eras and early Christian eras such as 'The Clay Cart' and 'Sign of Shakuntala', the latter being the first ever translated Sanskrit play leading to the creation of early 19th operas and ballets based on the story. We will then swiftly move to gain familiarity with still current traditional forms of theatre, often akin to storytelling with words, movement and dance, such as Ram Lila, Bhagavatha Mela, Koodiyattum and Kathakali.
A second part of the module will focus on urban and urbanisation of forms and means of production and presentation examining the impact of the colonial period which re-introduced written plays after a gap of nearly 1200 years when non-written, improvised theatre was favoured. A regional sweep will take in the focus and politics of theatre practice and plays in regional languages in the '60s-'70s through the works of playwrights such as Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, and Habib Tanvir, who were also translated into English and other languages. Bombay's Parsi theatre will come in for special consideration for their Gujarati theatre and contribution to India's English theatre featuring Brecht and Chekov and more. Conversely, we will look at India's popular regional language translations and re-renderings of Brecht and Shakespeare in urban and rural modes -- the latter most recently at the Globe to Globe festival in London.
The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity. These terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion and practice workshops.
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30 credits |
Eastern European Theatre
Eastern European Theatre
30 credits
What is the significance of distinguishing European theatre culture(s) between East and West? What histories are recalled or forgotten in making this distinction? When did Eastern Europe, or East-Central Europe, become identified as distinct from "the West" - by and for whom? Prior to being the "Other Europe" of the Cold War, and the "New Europe" of the 1990s, "Eastern Europe" was a colonial designation of Prussian and then Nazi empires. And prior to this, these terms designated confessional empires, distinguishing Catholic (then Lutheran) and Orthodox regions, as also Teutonic and Slav domains, while today the nations of the "European home" are all partners of a European Union. Is all Europe "Western" today, with a capital in Brussels (or even Frankfurt)? Is Eastern Europe like Shakespeare's legendary Bohemia, with its imagined deserts and shorelines? Or is it like Jarry's Poland at the end of the nineteenth century - somewhere that is remembered culturally, but which doesn't exist politically? How is a geographical region - with its histories of empires (including the Ottoman), nationalities, minorities, and changing borders - thought of in terms of its theatre practices? This module will explore the emergence of a new critical discourse about "Eastern Europe" (principally in the context of the visual arts) and reflect on ways that twentieth century "art theatres", "experimental" or "laboratory" theatres, National theatres, "director's theatre", ensemble theatre, repertoires, "classic" and "contemporary" plays, have been understood in English translation(s) as "East European".
Amongst topics to be considered will be: the relation between romanticism and modernism; realism, socialist realism, and the avant-garde; the impact of two pan-European wars and the aftermath of foreign occupation; censorship, exile, "inner emigration", and dissidence; organisations and festivals for exchange, such as the ITI, UNIMA, IETM, and BITEF; the haunting figure of "Hamlet"; and besides the dramatic canon, examples of cabaret, performance art, and puppet theatre. Amongst artists (besides Craig), we will consider the example of two, exiled Poles as professors of theatre at the College de France (Mickiewicz and Grotowski); the particular history of Stanislavsky in Poland (in the contrasting legacies, pre- and post-war, of Limonowski and Witkacy, Grotowski and Kantor); the legacies of Brecht and Müller, both during and after - but also across - the division of Berlin (where, in a real sense, 1945 only occurred in 1990); the European Yiddish legacy, with the example of Ansky's The Dybbuk (read with Derrida, Krall, and Warlikowski); the changing situations of Vaclav Havel's theatre work; and the example of two theatre critics, historians, and theorists, Jan Kott and Dragan Klaic. The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity.
The terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Corporeality, Embodiment, Alternative Spaces
Corporeality, Embodiment, Alternative Spaces
30 credits
The emphasis is on the interrelationship between the issues discussed in class and students' analysis of live and video performances, as well as of performance in the fieldwork of special interest to them. This module cross-refers to the theoretical and conceptual knowledge acquired in modules in the Autumn Term and builds on these acquisitions. As in these preceding modules, practice and conceptual reflection go hand in glove, and the perspective is interdisciplinary. The main groupings of concern here are corporeal and very much of the present: rituals (including urban ritual), shamanism, healing and performance, dance, hybrid forms (especially movement-based hybrids), and manifestations in alternative spaces such as site-specific performances, street and square performance, festivals, multi-ethnic performances, community theatres, and theatres of exclusion, including theatre of the homeless. The module encourages students to explore the multiple performances available to them in London and which will extend their perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. You will be encouraged to do some fieldwork in a chosen performance area, which will give you the opportunity to explore types of current performance that challenge well-accepted practices and notions and extend your understanding and analysis of sociocultural dynamics.
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30 credits |
World Shakespeares
World Shakespeares
30 credits
This module will be concerned with the adaptations, re-readings and responses to the drama and performance of Shakespeare from around the world, in particular the non-English speaking world.
Adaptations, reinterpreting, and reworking of plots and characters have been employed in many instances by writers to re-read historiography and intentions of/in political and cultural contexts. This exercise or reinterpretation is often designed to respond to the text or to transcend contexts of Shakespeare, and to comment on contemporary affairs. In most parts of the world, dramatic re-readings of Shakespeare tend to review metaphysical or existential agendas in the texts from a political and materialist position, to challenge ideas about literary influence and intertextually question historical perspectives. The aim of this module is to explore the methods employed in creating this drama and performances in terms of political and cultural contexts, and how each not only recreates its environment but also responds to Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. The module is designed to provide a base theoretical underpinning and practical grounding to help achieve the stated aims of the MA programmes as a whole as well as introduce the interpretations of Shakespeare to the students. It also aims to address the tendency to view adaptations of Shakespeare as direct dramatic responses to the plots and characterisation. The module will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops, using the texts by dramatists as well as drama and performance from different parts of the world, including such as Federico Garcia Lorca, Bertolt Brecht, Welcome Msomi, Femi Osofisan, Wale Ogunyemi, Heiner Müller, Vishal Bhardwaj, Augusto Boal, Gonçalves Dias, Ching-His Perng, Sulayman Al-Bassam, and Julius Nyerere.
The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Between 2020 and 2022 we needed to make some changes to how programmes were delivered due to Covid-19 restrictions. For more information about past programme changes please visit our programme changes information page.