Staging Shakespeare – (M.A.)

Location

Streatham Campus, Exeter

Our unique Theatre Practice postgraduate programmes cover practice-based work in theatre and can be taken either as an MA, full-time over 1 year or part-time over 2 years, or as a 2-year full-time MFA.

The MA and MFA are divided into a number of flexible pathways. You can specialise in an area of your choice by following a specific pathway, select modules from different pathways to tailor an individual programme, or even take a module from outside Drama to complement the range of enquiry. All pathways are taught by leading academics in one of the largest and best equipped Drama departments in the country.

The programmes appeal to a range of prospective students: practitioners who want to develop their practice; graduates who are planning a career in arts education (schools, colleges, universities); and those who want to look more in depth into aspects of drama they have enjoyed and benefitted from through undergraduate studies.

As a student enrolled on one of these programmes, you will develop skills and techniques to further your vocational career, theoretical knowledge which will enrich and enhance your creative work, as well as the ability to critically interrogate your performance practice.

The Staging Shakespeare pathway

The Staging Shakespeare pathway provides a unique and exciting opportunity to study Shakespeare through practice. The pathway is suitable for students with a range of backgrounds.

Our collaborations with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and with actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company will give you access to some of the finest Shakespearian work in the world today and you will participate in practical work during a two-week residency at the Globe in London.

While some classes are seminar-based and some involve general questions of theatricality and performance, the pathway has a distinctly practical emphasis and most of your time will be spent exploring Shakespearean texts in the studio or rehearsal room. Modules focus both on original Shakespearean performance practices and on modern ways of staging the plays, and give you the opportunity to test your own ideas of staging and/or adapting Shakespeare for contemporary audiences.

Our teaching philosophy is rooted in the British system of postgraduate study, which balances structured learning with the flexibility which enables you to follow your own research interests. Within the pathway’s taught workshops, classes and production-based modules you will have the opportunity to select much of your own material and also a substantial practical project or dissertation of your own choosing.