Mountview’s MA in Theatre for Community and Education is a creative and challenging ensemble experience in the transformational power of theatre arts.
In a society where access to the arts is at risk of being marginalised, this course develops the next generation of interdisciplinary theatre practitioners who will lead the way in providing meaningful arts experiences for all.
The holistic programme is aimed at practitioners interested in the potential of theatre arts to address social, political and educational issues in a broad range of settings. It invites creative reflection into the power of storytelling for social transformation, considering the role of arts in education, migration and exile, health and building communities.
It is a professional training, vocational experience and a philosophical education, welcoming applicants from all backgrounds, including those practicing in youth, community and/or education settings and performers looking to develop and diversify their career. Throughout the course you will develop critical skills in facilitating, devising, leading, producing, discussing and teaching creatively and imaginatively. Study involves workshops, lectures and seminars as well as independent collaborative and solo practice/research.
Teaching takes place one day a week with one long study weekend per term. The course is taught by a range of highly experienced practitioners and visiting tutors and offers a balance of theory and practice in its learning strategy. Lecturers hold expertise in a variety of areas, such as applied theatre, dramatherapy, diaspora consciousness, marketing and communications, international politics, funding community projects, and theatre in the criminal justice system.
Practical areas of study include collaborative and ensemble techniques, decolonial feminist approaches, forum theatre, arts for wellbeing, ritual theatre, trauma awareness, devised theatre, ecological transformation, and ethics in artistic practice. You will gain experience running theatre workshops in local schools in the Peckham area. You will also learn from a range of world class organisations such as Clean Break, Brixton House, Unicorn Theatre, Turtle Key Arts, Access all Areas and Candoco Dance Company. Assessments are varied and include essays, talks, education packs, presentations, practice and dissertation.
Students engage in a wide range of texts such as Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks, The Moving Body by Jacques Lecoq, Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa and Theatre for Living: The Art and Science of Community-Based Dialogue by David Diamond.
The dissertation project is defined by your area of interest and can be practice-based or written. Training may involve placements within a variety of world-class arts organisations, such as Springboard Youth Academy, Theatre Peckham, The Migration Museum, Raze Collective, the Tate Modern, Peckham Harris Secondary School, Radio Platfform and Rideout Creative Arts for Rehabilitation.
The course is led by Maria Askew, an award-winning theatre director, performing artist and educator who has worked internationally with groups and individuals from a broad range of sectors, including healthcare professionals, refugee and migrant communities, as well as in the creative/cultural industries, in education with schools, colleges and universities, and with NGOs and charities. Maria’s research explores the intersections between artistic, political, and social transformation.
Why choose this course?
This is a unique programme that allows you to explore ways of working with light. You will have the opportunity to learn and work with world-leading designers, learning from their working methods and practices, before moving on to develop and test your own practice as a performance maker working with light. On completion of the course you may wish to work as an independent lighting designer for performance, or return to your own specialist practice with an enhanced understanding of how light can be used in performance.
The course is international in nature and ambition, and is strongly supported by a range of key industry partners.
The programme is aimed at lighting specialists who want to develop and expand their practice in designing with light, as well as non-specialists who want to expand their knowledge of working with light, such as directors, designers, choreographers, dancers, musicians and artists.
The programme includes 8 weeks of practical workshops in fully-equipped performance spaces, led by four world-leading lighting designers. For 2020-21, these will be: Andi Watson, Michael Hulls, Paule Constable, and Willie Williams (subject to confirmation). You will work with each of the designers one at a time, learning from their working methods and processes.
The programme also offers a range of practice-based opportunities to explore collaborative and inter-disciplinary creative processes, work placements at a range of partner organisations both in the UK and abroad, and an opportunity to further develop your personal practice through an individual or collaborative realised lighting design project.
Location: Lewisham
This drama masters reflects the contemporary professional world which calls for flexible, innovative practitioners who are willing and able to work across the full range of theatre and media. These roles might range from mainstream professional organisations to applied and community contexts.
Whether you are an experienced artist wishing to have the time and space to develop your practice, or starting out in your career as a theatre maker, drama practitioner, story-teller or educator, the MA Drama course will help you fulfil your potential.
The course has a high level of practical exploration, under-pinned by critical reflection, with excellent support and supervision. The over-riding ethos is on reflective practice: making work, writing about it, watching work, and exploring different approaches thoughtfully.
Though the emphasis is on theatre, there are opportunities to work through other media for those students with appropriate experience and aspirations.
This Master’s programme is based at USW’s purpose-built campus, in the creative centre of Cardiff.
The MA Songwriting and Production course is delivered in the context of a thriving contemporary music and cultural scene in Wales. This innovative Songwriting and Production programme will inspire you to develop your own artistic voice, and make serious connections within the world of songwriting.
As well as offering numerous opportunities for collaboration, the course embraces the DIY philosophy of being able to fully produce your own original songs.
Designed for those interested in songcraft and studio production, you’ll learn a range of traditional and contemporary songwriting approaches, and have access to our well-equipped studios, rehearsal and writing rooms.
Your major project is reviewed and judged by an industry panel that includes our course ambassador, Gruff Owen CEO of Libertino Records.
Songwriting & Production and Blended Learning:
In most cases we prefer to be on campus, experiencing our songwriting workshops and creative events in real time. However, just like the rest of the music industry, we have had to rethink our approach and embrace new models to help minimise the risk. This has been an invigorating refresh, and one that has brought about new habits to embrace more permanently such as asynchronous songwriting co-writes, overseas guests beamed in via satellite, remote mixing and mastering etc.
