Theatre Practice MA

Program Overview

It provides advanced skills development, artistic practice enhancement, and opportunities for community building within the performing arts. With its focus on world-renowned theatre practices and interdisciplinary teaching, graduates embark on diverse careers in theatre and beyond.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MA Theatre Practice program at the University of Exeter is a specialized training program designed for performers, theatre-makers, facilitators, educators, and scholars. It is an acclaimed and long-standing program that has produced renowned practitioners and theatre companies.

Objectives:

• Advanced Skills Development: Students will develop advanced skills in creating independent work and building creative communities.
• Artistic Practice Enhancement: The program aims to extend students' artistic practice, sharpen their critical skills, and teach them to contextualize their work culturally and historically.
• Community Building: Students will join a diverse, international community of artists, researchers, and students who are passionate about theatre's role in society and are leaders in their field.

Outline:

Program Content:

• World-Renowned Theatre Practices: Students will learn about world-renowned theatre practices from specialists.
• Practical Training: The program provides specialized training in movement, voice, text, adaptation, and devising.
• Collaborative Work: Students will be encouraged to work collaboratively and imaginatively across various types of performance.
• Cutting-Edge Performance Practices: The program integrates practical training with the study of cutting-edge performance practices.
• Advanced Research Skills: Students will cultivate advanced research skills.

Structure:

• Term 1: Students will explore the variety, richness, and range of theatre practices, with opportunities to focus on specific areas of interest.
• Term 2: Students will specialize, deepen, and hone their understanding of one or more key areas of practice.
• Dissertation: Students will conduct in-depth research in their chosen area of interest, guided by a supervisor.

Course Schedule:

• Toolkit Sessions: Regular sessions with visiting specialists, masterclasses, and training.
• Training Residency: Students can gain further skills through a training residency with a professional theatre organization.
• Full-Length Project: Students will create and perform a full-length project (solo or ensemble) with support from staff and the tech team.

Individual Modules:

• Cultural Adaptation: This module examines how performance is made across cultures and explores the influence of theatre-makers, applied-theatre practitioners, and theorists on international performance.
• Researching Theatre and Performance: This module introduces students to a range of skills for designing, preparing, and conducting their own research.
• Dissertation: Students will conduct in-depth research in their chosen area of interest, guided by a supervisor.
This can be fully written, or students can select a mixed-mode dissertation: performance and writing, workshops and writing, or work placement and writing.

Assessment:

• Balanced Assessment: Students will benefit from a balanced range of assessments, including presentations, essays, project proposals, annotated bibliographies, and performances.
• Practice-Based Assessments: The learning process throughout the term is an important part of practice-based assessments and is taken into consideration in the marking.

Teaching:

• Interdisciplinary Teaching: The program emphasizes interdisciplinary teaching, combining practical and theoretical elements.
• Expert Faculty: The program is led by expert faculty who are professional practitioners, directors, and researchers.
• Visiting Specialists: The program features a rich program of esteemed visiting speakers and practitioners throughout the year, offering workshops in clowning, puppetry, sound, and dance.
• Exeter Digital Archives: Students have access to the Exeter Digital Archives, one of the largest collections of recorded training and performance sessions in the world.

Careers:

• Diverse Career Paths: Graduates can pursue careers in acting, directing, performing, teaching, and technical roles.
• Beyond Theatre: Graduates also find work in other areas outside of theatre and performance, such as website design, press relations, magazine editing, copywriting, account managing, national health practice, law, and journalism.

Other:

• Training Methods: Students regularly train in Grotowski-based movement and voice work, Phillip Zarrilli’s psychophysical training, Asian body-mind practices (including yoga, t’ai chi, and butoh), Meyerhold’s biomechanics, polyphonic singing, and Viewpoints.
• Professional Collaborations: Program staff regularly collaborate with world-leading theatre organizations, such as the Grotowski Institute in Poland, the National Theatre of Greece, ArtsCross International, LADA-Live Art Development Agency, and the National Theatre Wales.
• Second in the UK for Drama, Dance, and Cinematics: The University of Exeter is ranked second in the UK for Drama, Dance, and Cinematics in the Complete University Guide 2025.

|---|---| | UK fees per year: | £12,000 full-time; £6,000 part-time | | International fees per year: | £24,300 full-time; £12,150 part-time |