MA Collaborative Performance Making

This one-year Masters programme aims to bring together early-career theatre practitioners to develop series of new performance works. These practitioners include:

• Stage Managers
• Production Managers
• Set Designers & Scenographers
• Lighting Designers
• Costume Designers
• Sound Designers
• Video Designers
• Directors & Choreographers
• Writers & Dramaturgs
• Puppeteers
• All-round Performance-Makers

Students form an ensemble at the beginning of the year and work together to devise, design and produce a series of new performances. The programme aims to offer a laboratory-style environment, which values, first and foremost, collaboration and process-based learning.  

Follow the MA Collaborative Performance Making Instagram to see recent work and projects.

This 180-credit Masters programme is comprised of four modules and runs from September to September. It is open to all early-career practitioners interested in making performance collaboratively. Building on your existing experience and skill set, you will work as a collective to create four shows over the year in different contexts and venues. You will discover how you work best in a group, what drives you and inspires you as a practitioner, and where your creative and practical strengths lie. You will also complete an individual research project, develop a professional portfolio and be assigned a mentor from a pool of professional practitioners with whom the School has strong working relationships. 

Collaborative Practice

As well as making two performances in different theatre venues within Guildhall School, you will embark on a project in collaboration with the Little Angel Puppet Theatre in London.

The programme also includes a three- to four-week intensive project based in an external theatre, intended to take you into an unfamiliar area of work. The idea is to offer an opportunity for creative collaboration, unconstrained by preconceptions or prejudices.  

Final assessment

Final assessment will include a folio which will illustrate the individual’s contribution to the various projects they have engaged with over the year.

Research

Students will be required to complete a specialist research paper. This allows students to independently develop a specialist area of research under the guidance of the module tutor and in consultation with staff who have expertise in the student's area of interest.

Integration

A final substantial self-reflective component will be submitted at the end of the programme followed by a Viva Voce.

Find out more about tuition fees, scholarships and funding information

In partnership with the British Council and the GREAT Britain Campaign, discover our scholarship for MA Collaborative Theatre Production & Design applicants from India and Mexico