MA Directing

Program Overview

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MA Directing

Overview

This programme trains directors who are highly creative, critically and socially engaged, and skilled to work in a range of performance styles and practices. Develop your own creative and ethical working methods, and unique style, as a director.

Why study MA Directing at Goldsmiths

• Goldsmiths is famous for producing theatre practitioners who have agency and critical capacity that makes them fit for work in existing theatre, screen and arts industries as well as being able to create, innovate, and initiate change in their own right as artists.
• MA Directing provides rigorous, diverse and socially aware director training for application in theatre and the arts sector in a 21st-century global context.
• This programme offers imaginative, technical and intellectual training across a range of methods, approaches and related practitioner and critical discourses for use in classical, contemporary, devised, site specific, and new theatre writing productions.
• You will receive an introduction to working in screen, audio and digital contexts and learn about performance theories, practices and methodologies in relation to your own performance practice and research as a director.
• You'll have professional development learning opportunities and reflexive practice embedded through all three terms of the programme and a wide range of directors will visit to lecture and teach over the year, including alumni.
• You will be introduced to a range of directorial methods, plays and styles of theatre from different cultures and periods in history.

Length

• 1 year, full-time

Fees

• Home - full-time: £16200
• International - full-time: £22000

Department

• Theatre and Performance

Opportunities for you

• The programme supports you in developing creative and ethical working methods that avoid discriminatory practices concerning your actors and collaborators, ensuring you can meet your duty of care in future roles such as director or artistic director of a theatre company or arts organisation.
• You will in various contexts as a director, be trained to lead workshops and have the opportunity to work as either an assistant director or assistant dramaturg to a professional director in the spring term.
• The programme will prepare you for a career in the cultural sector and a wide range of industry guests will visit over the year to deliver lectures, masterclasses and networking opportunities.
• On the Approaches to Direction I and II modules, you'll benefit from studio-based LAB work on direction in addition to seminars, talks from a wide range of professional directors, one-to-one tutorials and observation of your rehearsals throughout the year.
• You'll have the opportunity to work towards a final Independent Research Project which will include a public performance you have directed as part of the graduate festival and a written reflection on your practice research.
• MA Directing has been designed to work in synergy with MA Acting and you'll work closely with MA Acting students on several modules and projects over the year.
• As an MA Directing student, you'll have the opportunity to audit two major modules taken by MA Acting students to learn to embody methods you may wish to employ as a director, to ensure you have a thorough understanding of the actor's process.
• The training model used on the programme will place you, your identity, agency and well-being at the centre of the learning process.
• You'll be encouraged to develop critical, self-reflective, technical and professional strategies for driving an independent career path while working collaboratively.
• You'll also work alongside those studying MA Performance Making, MA Screen Acting and MA Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance programmes in a dynamic postgraduate community.
• Goldsmiths is a small and welcoming university which provides the intimacy needed for training in theatre, combined with a long history of intellectual and creative dynamism and critical enquiry.
• You'll benefit from the dynamic environment at Goldsmiths within reach of the imaginative and theatrical stimulus of London's cultural and creative locations.

Academic support

• Support for your learning and well-being is provided in a number of ways by the department and university support services who work collaboratively to ensure you get the right help to reach your best potential both academically and personally.
• You will be allocated a personal tutor who has overall responsibility for your individual progress and welfare. You will meet frequently with your personal tutor, either face-to-face, as part of a group, or electronically. The first meeting will take place at the start of the autumn term. In your meetings, you'll discuss progress on modules and discuss the academic discipline you are studying. This provides an opportunity for progress, personal goal setting, attendance checking and review of assessment marks in an informed discussion, strengthening your individual learning and success.
• The Department of Theatre and performance has a senior tutor who can support you with any issues that are negatively impacting your academic study and are beyond the normal scope of issues handled by your programme director or personal tutor.

Facilities

• You’ll have access to a number of dedicated facilities including a refurbished theatre and various studios and workshops.

What you'll study

Compulsory modules

• Approaches to Direction I (including LABS) - 30 credits
• Approaches to Direction II (including LABS) - 30 credits
• Devised Theatre - 15 credits
• Performance Theories & Practices I - 15 credits
• Performance Theories & Practices II - 15 credits
• The Director and the Text - 15 credits
• Independent Research Project - 60 credits

Optional modules

• Introduction to Screen - 0 credits
• Classical Acting - 0 credits
• Contemporary Acting - 0 credits

Teaching Style

• The teaching on the MA Directing programme is research-led. In tandem with studio-based practical learning, you will undertake theoretical modules to support your learning.
• You’ll learn from our dedicated staff team of highly experienced and sector-leading practitioners and scholars. You’ll also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses and networking opportunities delivered by industry guests.
• You’ll be taught in workshops, masterclasses, seminars, lectures and tutorials and will be expected to work independently and as part of a group. The MA Directing programme has been designed to work synergistically with the MA Acting programme; you will have the opportunity to work closely with the actors on a number of modules and projects over the year.

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees

• Home - full-time: £16200
• International - full-time: £22000

Additional costs

• In addition to your tuition fees, you will be responsible for meeting standard costs associated with your study. Find out more information on our study costs page.
• Workshop-based modules which involve performer skills should not incur a cost. However, for the Independent Research Project, there may be costs related to personal items, such as make-up, extra clothing (beyond our costumes department's range). These will be managed in accordance with similar postgraduate specialist programme expenses, where the department will reasonably cover a range of expenses to a capped amount per student.

Entry requirements

• Candidates undertaking the MA Directing at Goldsmiths are usually expected to hold an undergraduate degree in an Arts or Humanities area (with a degree classification at 2:1 level or higher).
• In terms of professional and relevant work experience, some familiarity with performer training and past presentation opportunities is required. Further and holistic criteria for entry to the programme emphasises: the discipline in collaborating with others, artistic risk-taking in opening up to the pedagogic practices and a commitment to exploring the research contexts to acting independently, commensurate with the level of postgraduate learning.

International qualifications

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

English language requirements

• If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 7.0 with a 7.0 in writing and no element lower than 6.5 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.

How to apply

• Apply directly to Goldsmiths using our online application system.
• Before submitting your application you’ll need to have:
  • Details of your academic qualifications
  • The email address of your referee who we can request a reference from, or alternatively a copy of your academic reference
  • Copies of** your educational transcripts****or certificates**
  • A personal statement – this can either be uploaded as a Word Document or PDF, or completed online. Please see our guidance on writing a postgraduate statement
  • One short self-taped piece of directed performance with an accompanying statement. You are permitted to direct yourself in this self-taped performance, or direct 1-2 actors.**** -****Please read our guidance for your self-tape and accompanying statement.

Selection process

• Admissions to this programme is via a two stage process. Stage one requires the successful submission of a self-taped directed performance that meet the specific conditions outlined in our audition requirements with an accompanying statement, in addition to your application form and transcripts.
• If you are successful at stage one, you will then be invited to an online interview which is stage two of our application process. Interviews will take place between November to May.

Similar programmes

• MA Acting
• MA Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance
• MA Performance Making
• MA Script Writing