About the course
Theatre making at Hull has a strong reputation and a unique history.
The Drama department at Hull has been a centre of theatre making since the 1960s. It is the third oldest university drama department in the country with a global reputation and a unique history. Our graduates play key roles in the industry nationally and internationally. Our unique asset is the network of theatre companies and professional arts groups that emerged from the department and continue to work closely with us.
This newly redesigned MA in Theatre Making builds on this unique network and operates within it. It places a strong emphasis on internationalisation and Knowledge Exchange, and explores the modes of public engagement through the art. Thanks to the broad range of our staff expertise, this practical, community-focused programme is challenging, varied and at the forefront of research into theatre, place and space. The programme allows students to build on their artistic and academic portfolio and develop as practitioners working independently, in companies and with external partners in a range of performance styles and disciplines.
You’ll gain hands-on experience in making theatre in a range of settings, including schools, youth groups and care homes, and for a variety of audiences. You’ll also have opportunities to learn how to set up and run your own theatre company.
Our students love working in a close-knit, friendly drama community with excellent dedicated facilities and unrivalled access to theatre and rehearsal space. This includes the Gulbenkian Centre with its two performance spaces: the uniquely versatile Don Roy Theatre – hailed one of the most flexible theatre spaces in any European university – and the multimedia blackbox Minghella Studio. We have dedicated facilities and workspaces for our wide-ranging scenographic practice – from costume and props, through set design and construction, to lighting, sound and digital performance. These facilities are welcoming your talents and research interests, and will help you realise your theatre making inspirations. Take the virtual tour now and see for yourself.
Our specialist academic support staff are industry professionals with rich expertise in the practical aspects of making, from scenographic disciplines (light, sound, project, digital performance, costume, prop making) to stage management, dramaturgy and scriptwriting.
You’ll also benefit from industry and academic networks: the Prague Quadrennial, Hull Truck Theatre, East Riding Theatre, Absolutely Cultured, Back to Ours; nationally renowned companies such as the New Diorama Theatre in London, and graduate companies such as Middle Child, Silent Uproar, The Roaring Girls, Concrete Youth, Same Circle Productions; and with numerous academic partners and institutions.
Graduates from this MA course have a strong track record of success. Several theatre companies established themselves on the course, such as the award-winning The Roaring Girls or Concrete Youth Theatre Company. Other graduates have gone on to work as independent theatre makers, as performers, arts facilitators, producers, workshops convenors, Drama teachers or progressed to continuing study at a PhD level.
What you'll study
The MA Theatre Making integrates the theory and practice of theatre and performance on bespoke practical projects with and for external partners. The practical work on the programme is rooted in research (Practice-as-Research) and explores novel ways of embodied inquiry. The theoretical, practical, interdisciplinary and industry frameworks bring new insights and reinforce the collaborative and individual theatre making practice on the course.
Modules are core for all students and offer flexibility within them, dependent on individual students‘ expertise and experience, and on the external partners‘ impulses. Regular CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and mentoring sessions with numerous local, national and international industry partners are embedded in the curriculum.
The two modules in each trimester are interlinked in a tapered way. While all modules work on practical projects, one module approaches the competencies from the side of the public practice, and while the other complements them from the angle of academic study and critical theory.
Each trimester ends with a summative point that formalises the conclusion of the phase and integrates the tapered approach. It allows the student an exit point at the end of each trimester.
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.
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Critical Components of PaR
How can you become a researcher in theatre making? Learn what the life of an academic comprises, from such questions as the researcher’s relationship to and engagement with their peers, their institution, their society and their environment. You will also engage with methods of research carried out through practical work and will make a small-scale site-, place- or partner-specific performance.
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Commissioned Project with Industry Partner
How do you approach an industry partner? What can you offer them? How can you develop your own theatre making skills and competencies while working with an industry partner? Learn how to document your individual and group practice, how to place it within the context of the creative industries, and how to develop work that will benefit you as well as your industry partner.
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.
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Creating Cultural Agenda
How do you set up a theatre company? How do you make a business plan and apply for funding? Navigate the complexities of establishing yourself as an independent theatre maker. Learn about self-presentation, self-documentation, publicity, arts funding and grant writing. And you will be able to formalise your Continuing Professional Development plan and set up a mentor for yourself. You will also submit an application for funding towards your professional career after the course.
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Curated Programme for an Industry Partner
This module will get you involved with a partner instution and you will curate a programme of theatre events for them. As part of this programme, you will make a small-scale concept production to indicate how your programme fulfils your industry partner’s needs.
All modules are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.
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Research Project (MA Theatre Making)
How do you realise your own research project? Will it be a Practice Research project, a piece of theatre, a design, a script, a performance, an installation or a written thesis? In this module, you will realise an individual or collaborative project with your individual research agenda: a small scale PaR project or a portfolio with documentation and a critical commentary, or a written-only research thesis.
Assessment on the Programme
Practical theatre work
Group or individual practice that allows students to use the specialisms of their choice (performing, scenographic practices, dramaturgical practices and writing, facilitating, media production); the practical theatre work is an outcome presented to the target recipient and results from R&D, production meetings and rehearsal; the remit and specific needs, aims and objectives of the assessment and relation to module learning outcomes are formalised in a learning contract, which also allows and accounts for individual learning needs and any EDI issues of the participants.
Critical portfolio and CPD documentation
An individual assessment in a range of media: from written critical reflection, through logs, blogs and vlogs, profesional portfolios appropriate to the student’s specialism of choice, self-tapes, agency documentation, design books, maquettes and models, CVs, profiles on professional network sites, to professional websites; the remit and specific needs, aims and objectives of the assessment and relation to module learning outcomes are formalised in a learning contract, which also allows and accounts for individual learning needs.
Discursive assessment (presentation with Q&A)
Group or individual presentations in appropriate media (oral delivery, presentation slides, demonstrations of sample work, online presentation) with the opportunity of audience’s and interlocutors’ further questioning; this assessment models standard professional practices of pitching, presentation or hand-overs of R&D work; the remit and specific needs, aims and objectives of the assessment and relation to module learning outcomes are formalised in a learning contract, which also allows and accounts for individual learning needs.
Critical writing
An individual piece of critical writing in a range of research genres (critical essay, review, report, conference paper or presentation), meeting PG standards of research work (academic rigour, referencing, formal arrangement and delivery); the remit, aims and objectives of the assessment and relation to module learning outcomes are formalised in a learning contract or a detailed assignment, which also allows and accounts for individual learning needs.