Text and Performance

MA Text and Performance is a highly distinctive degree delivered by one of the most exciting and impactful departments in the UK. Taught by world-leading academic researchers, artists and industry professionals, you will explore the dynamic relationship between text and performance through a combination of:

• writing for and about theatre and performance
• theatre practice
• performance making
• academic study.

This postgraduate degree is ideally suited to those interested in learning about or working in theatre and performance, the live arts, digital and screen arts and an array of other career paths.

This degree is offered in association with Camden People’s Theatre and guest artists, enabling you to develop highly employable skills from a professional theatrical context, including access to invaluable industry resources and career development opportunities.

In the studio and workshop, we use voice, movement, playwriting, directing and dramaturgy techniques to create new theatre and performance. In lectures and seminars, we examine historical, philosophical and theoretical materials and ideas to understand contemporary theatre and performance and the ways in which they are shaped by current concerns and traditions and legacies. You will also have opportunities to engage with digital, visual and screen art practices and some students choose to make digital artworks, including films, for their dissertations.

This unique course is supported by the creative and critical interests of Birkbeck staff and the theatre-making expertise of associate artists that include Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre Fellows. Learning from theatre professionals, you will develop skills that enable you to generate innovative theatre and performance and to work in the creative industries. You will also develop research skills, supported by the Graduate Research in Theatre (GRiT) seminar series, which will support you in pursuing further study, including PhD research.