MA Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance

Goldsmiths, University of London

A unique programme for dramaturges and playwrights, this programme concentrates on the process of writing for live performance, together with an ongoing evaluation of the work in process.

Why study MA Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths?

• This Masters will help you establish a distinctive, individual approach as a writer and dramaturge. You will work on projects including site-specific work, writing for a specific audience, verbatim theatre and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• You will develop texts for performance, and refine your intellectual understanding of the diverse forms and contexts in which live performance can be made.
• You will be taught by experienced permanent staff, as well as visiting tutors, including Goldsmiths alumnus Ian Rickson (former Artistic Director of the Royal Court), April De Angelis, Duncan Macmillan, Penny Black, and Hanna Slattne.
• You will have the opportunity to work on an interdisciplinary project with MA Performance Makers and composers from the Department of Music. Your final project texts, performed and directed by industry professionals at the Soho Theatre in London, and attended by key industry representatives.
• Graduates from this programme are highly successful in obtaining commissions, dramaturgy posts and artistic directorships. All students receive Professional Orientation and career development support.
• You will be based in one of the world’s biggest artistic and performance hubs: London. The capital is world-leading in new writing and contemporary performance, and offers many platforms for emerging artists, as well as professional and creative networking.
• The programme has strong links to a number of London-based practitioners, international networks, and venues in the field of new performance writing (see our Key Associate Organisations). Many of these contribute directly to the teaching of the programme.

Skills

Playwriting specialists will become skilled in:

• the use of a range of techniques for the development and structuring of original material for live performance
• working to a brief in diverse professional circumstances
• evolving an individual creative vision

Dramaturgy specialists will become:

• familiar with a diverse range of techniques for generating and developing new work
• skilled in analysis of dramatic text and live performance
• skilled in formulating a distinctive contribution to policy and practice in one or more fields of new writing

Careers

Numerous playwrights completing this programme receive high-level professional development opportunities, commissions, awards and full-scale productions of their work at major new writing centres in the UK, USA and in continental Europe. Many also work for at least part of the time in the fields of script development (for theatre and television), and in theatre publication.