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RAE 2008
100% of RU’s submitted work in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies was recognised either internationally or nationally for its originality, significance and rigour, with 60% of that work regarded as being either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. More information.

This programme starts in September 2010.

Summary

This programme provides opportunities to engage in performance as an interdisciplinary and connective practice, spanning the fields of live art, theatre, dance, lens-based and digital media, visual, site-specific and socially-engaged art. Moving fluidly between practice-based and theory-oriented approaches, you will participate in the dynamic dialogue between research and cross-disciplinary creative practice that is increasingly shaping a significant body of work in the arts.

Key areas of study

• Interdisciplinary performance practices
• Paradigms of performance: philosophy and performance, visual and cultural theory
• The artist as cultural agent: producer and provocateur
• The art of the project: conception, realisation, documentation and development
• Creative cooperation: the politics of collaboration and collectivity
• Terms of engagement: key networks, institutions, audiences, and publics

Rather than offering an overview or general introduction of such an expansive field, tutors and visiting artists facilitate themed, speculative investigations into emerging paradigms that are shaping contemporary artistic and academic practice. Similarly, as part of a small student group, you will explore shared interests as the programme develops during each year, with the cohort determining the direction of its own enquiries. These interests and concerns are then further pursued through the conception, research and realisation of individual and collective projects. The emphasis is on independent, student-led learning that relates closely to new forms of contemporary professional working practice and the growing crossover between academic and cultural sector activity.

Indicative ‘intensive’ themes might include the following:

• Global Intimacy: Differences, Rights and Violence
• What is the Contemporary?
• Performance, Excess and Failure
• Trauma, Memory and Forgetting
• Nature Performed
• Duration and Ephemerality
• Magic Moments: Performance and Utopia

Special features

• Programme unfolds through a series of 1–2 week ‘intensives’ over the year, alongside group and individual supervision.
• Intensives led by internationally renowned artists with extensive teaching experience. 
• Emphasis on collaborative, collective and individual modes of study, production and presentation.
• End-of-year festival/symposium event curated and produced by the year group at a leading London arts venue.
• Writing and text-based projects developed via themed issues of our postgraduate e-journal.

The development and enhancement of your own creative practice is at the core of the programme. You will conceive and realise creative projects, taking your interests in fresh directions and acquiring confidence in new ways of working. While investigating the artistic, social and political frameworks of performance making and reception, you will explore ways to productively interrogate the assumptions and values of your own critical and creative horizons. Central to this aspect of your study will be engaging with the conditions that shape different institutional and economic environments within which contemporary performance practice circulates, both in the UK and aboard.

The cornerstone is the end-of-year, student-led and produced festival/symposium event, open to the public and held in collaboration with a leading London live arts venue. As well as working as part of a collective to realise this event, students will also develop their own research-led projects within it. This event will also provide opportunities for you to gain experience in curating, marketing, editorial and audience outreach work. There is a strong emphasis on creative collaboration, critical dialogue and inventive practices of public presentation. You will be involved in editing and producing our themed postgraduate e-journal, with the opportunity to experiment with different approaches to writing in your individual contributions. The programme offers opportunities for extended exchange with high profile performance makers, producers, curators and theoreticians active in the field, and may include residential work abroad.

Who is this programme for?

• Early-career artists with an interest in performance seeking to re-connect with research-driven practice.
• Recent graduates of BA programmes in any arts or humanities field interested in developing their critical and creative practice with a view to careers as independent artists, performers, writers, curators, and producers.
• Graduates, at whatever stage, looking to pursue academic careers in theatre and performance studies.
• Prospective students from outside the EU looking for an academic programme that is closely connected to the London, UK and international live arts scenes.

Length of programme

full-time: 1 year

Number of places

full-time: 15

Number of Credits

180

Fees

Band 2

Further information

Enquiries Office
Email: enquiries@roehampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 8392 3232