Performance Making

Goldsmiths, University of London
Postgraduate MA Full-time 1 Year Drama

About this course

This international MA programme gives you the opportunity to develop your practice as an independent and collaborative performance practitioner. It invites you to explore and experiment with live, digital, intermedial and socially and politically engaged performance.

Why study MA Performance Making at Goldsmiths Develop your own performance practice

  • The MA Performance Making programme fosters a creative-critical, experimental and interdisciplinary approach to performance. You’ll study with and learn from a diverse range of practitioners from different creative disciplines, exploring your own practice through performance-making.

  • You’ll gain both practical and critical skills in composing performance, while being encouraged to question, challenge, and reconfigure what performance-making is.

  • During your studies, you’ll be guided to create a portfolio of performances and writings that are designed to let you experiment, take risks and push your own boundaries in a rigorous and supportive learning environment, expanding and transforming your practice.

  • You’ll have the opportunity to take part in a final-year degree show, showcasing your work and celebrating the culmination of your studies.

    Practice as research approach

  • Performance-making is a mode of enquiry that considers performance as a strategy to think about art, culture and the contemporary world. This practice-as-research approach is embedded throughout the programme.

  • You’ll be encouraged, guided and supported to become an articulate practitioner and a creative thinker; able to conceive, make, critique, and write about your own or others’ performance.

    Study collaboratively and independently

  • You‘ll engage with performance-making as a collective act, and collaboration is built into the structure of the course. You will work with and alongside fellow students and staff with different specialisms. This international community of colleagues and collaborators will enrich your studies.

  • You’ll also undertake independent practice and research, giving you the opportunity to focus on your specialist areas of interest in performance-making.

    Gain skills and experience in scenography

  • A hands-on introduction to performance technologies (lighting, sound, media) will give you the skills and confidence to integrate scenography into your performance-making.

  • You'll learn from a dedicated team of theatre designers and technicians both in class and as you develop and put on your assessed performances.

  • Throughout your masters, you’ll learn production management, curation and event organisation culminating in a student-led public performance festival in the Summer Term.
  • Study Options

    This course is available in 2 study options:

    Full-time Shown above

    Duration: 1 Year

    Qualification: MA

    Location: London

    Part-time

    Duration: 2 Years

    Qualification: MA

    Location: London

    Career Prospects

    Graduates from this course typically go into the following occupations:

    2317 Teachers of English as a foreign language
    3416 Arts officers, producers and directors
    2319 Teaching professionals
    3414 Dancers and choreographers
    3413 Actors, entertainers and presenters
    2324 Early education and childcare services managers

    Course Details

    Qualification
    MA
    Study Mode
    Full-time
    Duration
    1 Year
    Start Date
    2025
    Academic Year
    2025
    Campus / Location
    London
    Scheme
    Postgraduate
    Subjects
    Drama