Master of Arts - Theatre and Performance Design
- 1 year
- Duration
- 30,890 GBP
- Price
- September
- Start
- June
- Deadline
- Master
- Degree
- Campus
- Format
- London / United Kingdom
- Location
Program description
The MA Theatre and Performance Design at Wimbledon College of Arts offers studio-based vocational training to become a skilled theatre and production designer. The course develops your collaborative approach, technical abilities, and storytelling to create dynamic, innovative performance environments. With a strong emphasis on live performance, you'll gain practical skills in developing, organizing, and delivering productions. Collaboration is central, providing opportunities to build ideas and events with other makers. The program prepares you to work across a wide range of disciplines, contexts, and professional partnerships within the sector.
Program structure
- Unit 1: Methods
This unit focuses on developing your own critical perspective on the discipline through creative research and seminars that map the field of cultural production. You will create speculative design proposals, test ideas using industry tools, and potentially collaborate on a short realized performance with peers. The work also involves exploring technical software and examining key themes of climate, social, and racial justice in relation to theatre and performance design.
- Unit 2: Practice
This unit builds upon your foundational research to fully realize your design proposal, challenging established discourses in theatre and performance. You will collaborate with other theatre professionals to explore how different techniques shape narrative. A key focus is integrating principles of climate, social, and racial justice to critically inform your creative practice and outcomes.
- Unit 3: Collaboration
This unit is dedicated to expanding your collaborative practice by developing ideas, proposals, and events with fellow theatre and performance makers. You will create an ensemble design with your peers, presented through drawings, models, or digital forms, to scale up the ambition of your work. This collaborative research will serve as the foundational groundwork for your final design project in Unit 4, and you will be encouraged to seek a partnership with a professional mentor.
- Unit 4: Realisation
You will undertake a self-directed final design project, synthesizing the research developed in previous units. The completed project will be exhibited in a professional format, potentially alongside other course work. If you have secured a professional mentor, their guidance and critique will help situate your practice within the broader research field and industry context.
Price
Tuition fee:
- 30,890 GBP per education*
*Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.
You may need to cover additional costs which are not included in your tuition fees, such as materials and equipment specific to your course.
Requirements for applicants
The standard minimum entry requirements for this course are:
- BA (Hons) degree or equivalent academic qualifications
- Alternative qualifications and experience will also be taken into consideration
- Personal statement
- Portfolio of work
Entry to this course will also be determined by the quality of your application, looking primarily at your portfolio of work and personal statement.
Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases.
The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:
- Related academic or work experience
- The quality of the personal statement
- A strong academic or other professional reference
- A combination of these factors
Each application will be considered on its own merit, but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.
English language requirements
-
IELTS level 6.5 or above, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking
About the university
The University of the Arts London (UAL) produces and encourages the creativity essential for a better future. Its colleges have been at the forefront of innovative education since 1842, creating work with a lasting impact on people and the planet, driven by curiosity, imagination, and purpose.
London is fundamental to UAL's identity, providing a vital context where the university connects and exchanges ideas with individuals from all walks of life. Globally, its creative network influences education, culture, business, and society.
Through innovative research and creative instruction, UAL's faculty and staff bring fresh perspectives to education. The university enables students to build the careers they desire by working with them at every level - from pre-degree to postgraduate, and from short courses to online learning.
UAL's colleges
Ranked second in the world for art and design, UAL comprises six distinct colleges:
- Camberwell College of Arts
- Central Saint Martins
- Chelsea College of Arts
- London College of Communication
- London College of Fashion
- Wimbledon College of Arts
Together, they form a community of creatives, innovators, trailblazers, and storytellers, united in their mission to reimagine the future.
Courses in the visual arts, animation, screen, communication, fashion, media, and performance are available at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
