Theatre and Performance,MA

Birkbeck’s MA Theatre and Performance allows you to specialise and gain an award in Dramaturgy, Writing for Performance, or Theatre Making. These routes make it a highly distinctive degree designed for emerging and continuing theatre professionals looking to develop their creative practice, build analytical capacity and gain hands-on industry experience.

Why choose this course?

• The course is taught by world-leading artists and academic researchers while working closely with Birkbeck’s pioneering industry partners such as Camden People’s Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre and the Dramaturgs’ Network.
• It is ideal if you are interested in learning about or working in theatre and the performing arts, including writing for performance, digital and screen-based arts, dramaturgy and literary management.
• Through gaining important experience in theory and practice, it allows you to build your career prospects, develop your creative and critical skills, deepen your contextual and cultural understanding, sharpen your professional goals and make valuable connections within the industry.

What you will learn

You will explore the dynamic relationships between text, performance, writing and dramaturgy through a combination of:

• dramaturgical practice
• playwriting and writing for performance
• theatre and performance making
• critical writing about drama, theatre and performance.

You will also examine historical, philosophical and theoretical materials and ideas to understand contemporary theatre and performance and the ways in which they are shaped by current concerns, traditions and legacies.

Depending on your interests and career aspirations, you will specialise to gain one of the following awards:

• MA Theatre and Performance: Dramaturgy - in which you will develop the skills of a professional dramaturg, working in a variety of creative contexts, and learn from academic experts and guest artists such as Tim Crouch and Zoe Svendsen
• MA Theatre and Performance: Writing for Performance - in which you will develop your playwriting and writing for performance skills, learning from leading writers for stage and screen, including David Eldridge and Daragh Carville
• MA Theatre and Performance: Theatre Making - in which you will develop your theatre-making skills, learning from academic experts, guest artists and our partner Camden People’s Theatre

How you will learn

This course is available to study full- or part-time. It has an evening timetable with classes in the evening. You will learn through lectures, seminars and practice-based studio sessions. You will also benefit from the experience of guest lectures and workshops with leading industry professionals, and attendance at theatre and performance events, and you will have access to performances, readings, exhibitions and symposia across Birkbeck, including via Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre and other research centres.