Performance Making W462 MA

Program Overview

MA Performance Making at Aberystwyth University fosters innovative performance-makers through an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses live, site-specific, and object-based processes. Guided by renowned practitioners and academics, students explore diverse compositional practices, undertake creative production projects, and engage critically with performance theory. The program culminates in a major practical research project that showcases their artistic vision and professional development.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

MA Performance Making at Aberystwyth University is designed to support your development as a performance-maker and creative thinker. The course offers an enquiry-based and interdisciplinary approach, enabling you to experiment with a range of performance practices including live, site-specific, intermedial, scenographic, and object-based processes. Located between the Cambrian Mountains and Cardigan Bay, Aberystwyth offers an inspiring natural and cultural environment with plenty of possibilities for research and creation. It’s one reason why Aberystwyth has an established international reputation for site-specific and intermedial performance making. You’ll be taught in a dedicated co-working studio space which is yours to use throughout the course to propose, test and try ideas. The course culminates in a major practical project. Taught by a team of internationally recognised practitioners and academics, you’ll develop your portfolio and profile as a performance-maker through sustained practical experiment and critical reflection.

Contact Time:

Approximately 7 hours per week in the first semester. In the second semester, you will undertake a creative practice project involving 4 hours per week of supervision alongside independent working. Added to this will be a further 2 hours per week on another module. During semester three, you will arrange your level of contact time with your assigned supervisor.

Modules:

Year 1

• Compositional Practices (TPM1340): 40 credits
• Creative Production Project (TPM1540): 40 credits
• Engaging Publics (TPM1820): 20 credits
• Research Project (TPM0860): 60 credits
• Space, Time, Material and Form (TPM1020): 20 credits

Assessment:

Assessment takes the form of a presentation, a group performance event, an individual performance project produced as part of a collaboratively realised mini-festival, a critical portfolio, a critical evaluation, a professional portfolio, a project proposal and a written essay. In the third semester, you will complete a practice-based research project. The practice-based research project can be submitted as either an individually conceived and developed or a collaboratively conceived and developed performance work.

Teaching:

The taught part of the course is delivered through seminars, workshops and practical sessions. During semester three (June-September), you will arrange your level of contact time with your assigned supervisor. In addition to scheduled teaching times, you will have access to a dedicated co-working studio space to pursue independent study and creative practice.

Careers:

Our graduates are well prepared to work within a breadth of creative and related industries. They have gone on to work as freelance practitioners (directors and performers), and with companies and organisations including National Theatre Wales and Trafalgar Entertainment.

• You'll acquire specialist skills in research, creation and public engagement.
• Located in an extraordinary and inspiring natural and cultural environment.
• You’ll take part in workshops and masterclasses with visiting artists and our annual programme of departmental research seminars.
• You’ll join a department with an established reputation for experimentation in performance and scenography - we were the first in the UK to offer undergraduate degrees in Performance Studies and Scenography.
• You’ll have access to the magnificent collections and archives at the National Library of Wales, just a five-minute walk away.