Program Overview

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Technical Theatre Arts BA(Hons)

Master your passion for bringing stage and live events to life.

Key Details

• Location: Penryn Campus
• Course duration: 3 years
• Attendance: Full-time / Professional Placement
• UCAS code: W484/PY63

Course Overview

Play a vital technical and creative role in the success of live performance productions. Working in our professional studios and production spaces, you’ll master the skills to captivate audiences.

You’ll learn from practising technical specialists and creative academic staff, becoming an expert in lighting, sound, visual technologies, set construction and stage management. With endless opportunities to work on real events – in collaboration with other students or through our public performance venue – you’ll graduate with real experience to take into industry.

You Will:

• Gain an all-round technical grounding in live sound, lighting, stage management, rigging and scenic construction
• Receive a critical insight into the cultural sector, exploring how performance technologies and professional practice influence each other
• Work in state-of-the-art facilities with access to both core industry technology and some of the latest equipment
• Broaden your skills by collaborating with students across a broad range of disciplines including popular music, contemporary dance, and musical, devised and traditional theatre
• Gain industry-recognised safety accreditations

Course Details

Technical Theatre Arts BA(Hons) | Falmouth University

On this Technical Theatre Arts degree, you'll have the opportunity to gain a BA(Hons) degree over three years or study Technical Theatre Arts BA(Hons) with a professional placement year option.

As part of this Technical Theatre Arts degree, you’ll be taught by practicing technical specialists, academic staff and creative technicians. You’ll also have the opportunity to gain nationally-recognised qualifications in equipment use, processes and health and safety.

Year One

• Stagecraft 1: You’ll develop studio and workshop-based technical and production skills in a range of disciplines, including conventional lighting, sound and theatrical set construction techniques.
• Performance, Culture and Contexts: You’ll explore critical theatre history, evaluating its cultural and cross-cultural impact.
• Professional Development: In this module, you’ll explore the core aspects of the role of a production practitioner.
• Stagecraft 2: Here, you’ll begin to specialise and develop further discipline-based practical and design skills, including:
  • The use of professional control systems and creation of media
  • Planning documentation, including the use of 3D computer-aided design and lighting visualisation software
  • Sound effect production and digital mixing
  • Contemporary stage rigging and construction techniques
  • Organisational stage management techniques and practices
• Practical Production: Through a range of live performance projects, you’ll examine ways in which you can enhance audience engagement and participation in theatre and cultural events.

Year Two

• Venue & Production Management: This module studies industry best practice in safety, compliance, sustainability and well-being. You will gain an understanding of UK Health and Safety law and how it applies to live performance venues and productions.
• Digital Performance Technologies: You’ll gain an understanding of emerging digital practices through engagement with research and practical experimentation. You’ll work with computer-based technologies such as projection mapping and motion capture, digital audio and video editing, post-production techniques and the use of networking and communication technologies.
• Design Project: You’ll explore design conceptualisation and innovation, developing large-scale creative design briefs to professional standards.
• Collaborative Project: Engaging with peers from other creative disciplines, you’ll collaborate to make an original piece of performance work, exploring new perspectives and techniques and operating as a technical creative maker.

Professional Placement (Optional)

You can choose to take an optional professional placement during your degree. You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the Employability team. Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying.

Year Three

• Production Management, Design and Realisation: You’ll develop and hone organisational and managerial skills through the realisation of design and production briefs and larger-scale performance projects.
• Industry Horizons in Technical Theatre: You’ll undertake a research project or dissertation that identifies potential opportunities and new directions for technical theatre innovation. Research is also applied to real-world contexts, providing insights that will inform and guide you in your career choices and preparation for future industry demands.
• Professional Project: Practice: In your final year, you will plan, prepare and deliver a ‘professional project’. This can take a range of forms but is based on the study of and interaction with industry organisations through work-based learning, a placement and/or event projects.
• Professional Project: Research: This module, which is linked to the Practice module, allows you to engage with research into industry themes and approaches as part of your practice. Your Professional Project is an example of practice as research, and the two are entwined in your development as a practitioner.

How You'll Learn & Be Assessed

How You'll Learn

Through industry-focused lectures, practical workshops and learning projects, you'll gain the theoretical understanding, professional insights and practical skills to carve a successful career in stage and live events production.

How You'll Be Assessed

• Assessment Methods: You’ll be assessed through a combination of practical skills, competencies and written work.
• Facilities: You'll have access to:
  • 11 equipped performance studios
  • Recording studio with four control rooms
  • 11 practice rooms
  • Computer labs for CAD and audio software design
  • Scenery workshop
  • Technical resource stores with a wide range of microphones for recording and live voice and music as well as a range of other performance technologies and emerging technologies, such as VRML and Motion Capture
  • Digital Audio Workstations, PA Systems, mixing desks, lighting kits, portable dimmers, cameras, projectors and musical instruments

Careers

Our technical theatre graduates have worked as:

• Lighting designers and programmers at Indigo at The O2, St Just Ordinalia, the Tim Minchin tour, Wireless Festival and for Bianca del Rio
• Venue technicians at The Royal Opera House, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Harlequin Theatre
• Sound designers/operators at Cascade Theatre and Millstone Sound
• Set and prop designers/makers at Hall for Cornwall
• Festival and production company stage managers at Glastonbury Festival, WOMAD, Miracle Theatre, Rock Oyster Festival, Hall for Cornwall and Falmouth International Festival

Fees, Costs & Funding

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees for students starting the course in September 2025

• Annual Tuition Fee: £9,535 per year (Full-time UK)
• Annual Tuition Fee: £17,950 per year (Full-time EU/international)
• Annual Tuition Fee: £1,905 per professional placement year (Full-time UK and EU/international)

Typical Course Costs

• A laptop will be an essential piece of equipment along with a reliable broadband connection
• Personal Protective Equipment: Protective footwear (steel toe cap boots / shoes or equivalent) and gloves
• Personal toolkit: Adjustable spanner, screwdrivers, torch, clothing for practical classes
• Books and consumable items: Approx £100 - £150
• £80-£150 - optional subsidised formal industrial training
• £500-£1,000 - optional placements
• Public Programme season tickets (student rate) costs found: AMATA Live Pass
• £25 - Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) student membership

Ask a Student

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