Performance Making

Entry requirements

We welcome candidates to the programme who are interested in exploring their own creative practice through performance making, and who demonstrate a competence for independent research and a keenness to work collaboratively. You are expected to have some experience in the fields of theatre and performance, usually evidenced in a personal statement and expanded in an interview. Otherwise you should be able to show an understanding of how performance might complement your unrelated creative experience.

Qualifications

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject.

You might also be considered for the programme if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level.

Months of entry

September

Course content

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

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. Explore the 2023 MA Performance Making show, Verge Festival.

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.

Learn through creative and experimental teaching

You’ll learn from our dedicated staff team of practitioner-researchers. You’ll also benefit from guest lectures and workshops delivered by internationally distinguished artists and scholars.

You’ll be taught in workshops, seminars and lectures and will be expected to work independently in response to weekly creative tasks, reading and other research, as well as rehearsals and performance design.

You’ll have access to our fully-equipped theatre, five studios and our design spaces, which include a sound and media studio and well-equipped workshops for set construction and costume making.

Classes will also take place on field trips to London arts organisations and venues, or other specially selected locations in and around the city.

You’ll be part of the vibrant and creative environment of Goldsmiths, with easy access to the exciting and culturally diverse city of London, providing you with a broad international network of arts organisations, performance venues and festivals.

You’ll benefit from being in London, the heart of British performance, with access to a wide range of lectures, seminars and other practice research events offered in and around London’s universities and other cultural institutions. This will broaden your knowledge and understanding of current research and practice in performance.

Information for international students

We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme. If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate-level study.

Fees and funding

Find out more about postgraduate fees and explore funding opportunities. If you're applying for funding, you may be subject to an application deadline.