Reasons to study Scenic Arts (Construction, Props and Painting)
• Gain construction skills in wood and metal; using hand tools and machinery. Learn scenic painting techniques and explore prop making in a range of materials.
• Gain advanced skills with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and 3D modelling using resins and silicon
• Learn in our spacious workshop which includes CAD facilities, paint frame and specialist fibreglass and plaster room.
• Hone your craft, through manufacturing scenic elements to a brief for staged productions in College and London venues, collaborating with other programmes as part of a creative team.
• Develop your own areas of specialism through individual project work, productions and work placement preparing you for a career in the theatre and performance industries.
• Share classes and projects with students from other programmes to learn about the performance, arts and events industries and how to use experimentation, enquiry and creative research in your work, and prepare to build a successful career.
Career opportunities
Our graduates have gone on to work as freelance scenic painters, prop makers, carpenters and engineers, and to work for scenery construction companies for theatre, film, television, entertainment, museums and themed attractions.
You may also be interested in:
Design for Theatre and Performance, BA (Hons)
“It is challenging but when you finish the show you can say “Yes, I built that!” It’s an enormously satisfying feeling.” Gareth Shippen Scenic Arts, 2017 Graduate
Location: Sidcup
Costume Production BA (Hons)
Reasons to study Costume Production
• The Costume Production programme will provide you with the understanding and skills needed to pursue a successful career in the production and management of historical and contemporary costumes and accessories either based in-house or as a freelancer.
• Learn about period and contemporary costume construction, pattern-cutting, running wardrobe and dressing, specialist skills in corsetry, dancewear, fabric breaking down, millinery and wig dressing.
• Work on live performances within the College, in London and beyond. As a vital member of the collaborative team, you will work with designers, directors and performers.
• Work on a module for Film and TV to understand the costume department’s role within this ever growing industry.
• Develop the skills to supervise and manage wardrobe departments in large and small theatres including budgets and time management.
• Share classes and projects with students from other programmes to learn about the performance, arts and events industries and how to use experimentation, enquiry and creative research in your work, and prepare to build a successful career.
Career opportunities
Our graduates have gone on to work as costume makers and supervisors in wardrobe departments, for theatre, opera companies, circus, film and cruise liners companies.
You may also be interested in:
Design for Theatre and Performance, BA (Hons)
“I’d recommend Costume Production as it’s a really unique course. It’s very realistic as to how the actual industry works.” Rachel Woolcott, Buyer & General Assistant, Royal Opera House
Location: Sidcup
The Production Arts and Design programme has been designed to create a high-level conservatoire learning environment for aspiring scenic artists, prop makers, stage carpenters, costume makers, and set and costume designers.
Welcome to Production at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Production consists of both the BA Production Arts and Design and the BA Production Technology and Management programmes. Production students will work very closely with each other in the classroom and on RCS productions.
The Production Arts and Design programme has been designed to create a high-level conservatoire learning environment for aspiring scenic artists, prop makers, stage carpenters, costume makers, and set and costume designers. You will learn in an environment where your technical knowledge is as important as your creativity and individuality.
You will be accepted based on your profile in one particular area, taken from the five subjects on offer (scenic art, set construction, costume construction, prop-making, and set/costume design). You will follow an individually-negotiated pathway based on a major and minor study to ensure a quality learning experience and afford you the opportunity to engage with the broad and diverse range of performance programmes.
The opportunity to work with film-makers, dancers, musicians and actors is unique and the facilities in which we do this are second to none. The Wallace Studios at Speirs Locks has purpose-built production workshops and design studios and the Renfrew Street building houses five public performance spaces including a fully-equipped proscenium arch theatre and a black box studio theatre. The combination of professional venues, extensive workshops, construction spaces, design studios and the latest stage and workshop technologies provide a fantastic learning environment.
As our standards are rooted in industry practice we have exceptionally strong links with professional partners from across the UK and beyond. We have very close relationships with the key Scottish national companies, such as Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet as well as the majority of regional theatres such as the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. We work closely with industry to ensure the expertise you acquire is current, competitive and of the highest professional standard.
- Specialist tuition from established team of professional design practitioners
- Input from visiting professionals from around the world
- Design positions in up to two College productions ranging from drama to musical theatre and opera
- Professional work placement opportunities
- Public exhibition of your work for one week in Cardiff and four days in London, including industry nights for an invited audience of potential employers
- Final component a formal Dissertation at the end of Year 2 or the completion of a reflective portfolio based on your professional engagement after three years with support and mentoring from College tutors
Through intensive practical and performance-based training delivered in a conservatoire setting, this course provides a challenging introduction to the theory and practice of performance-related design in preparation for a career in the theatre and/or its related industries.
First year modules introduce a broad range of practical skills including technical drawing, CAD, Sketchup, model making, pattern cutting, costume construction, millinery, tailoring, scenic art and props-making. Practical projects include collaborative Costume, Props and Puppetry.
A Foundation of Design module during the first term, provides structured introductions to the theoretical and professional processes relating to research for design, practical design development, and the realisation of finished designs.
Research skills are developed through lectures, seminars and field trips focussing on important developments in the history of theatre, art, architecture, design and costume. You will be required to present your research through seminars, essays, and a third-year Research Project.
In the spring term of the first year, you will work individually and as a part of a team to create a ‘costume as performance’ event in collaboration with stage management students.
A series of conceptual and specialist study projects then enable you to apply your skills and explore your creative identity unhindered by practical limitations. You will design set and costumes for a classic text in a given traditional theatre, working with a tutor in the role of director and with additional staff providing practical guidance. You will also explore puppetry techniques, equipping you for possible placements within the large-scale, site-specific productions staged each summer by the Design for Performance department.
Under the guidance of your tutors, you will identify particular strengths and interests to develop through advanced skills classes, conceptual projects and performance-based work throughout the second and third years.
As a member of a team on College productions, you will be expected to shoulder increasing levels of responsibility as you progress through the second and third years of the course. In the second year, you will work in roles such as design assistant, scenic artist, prop maker, costumer maker or milliner, depending on your area of specialism. During the third year, possible roles include that of designer, or a senior role within the realisation team for a College production.
The third provides you with the opportunity to undertake work placements across the industry. The final module of the course is the development of your professional website and the presentation of a major exhibition of your practical and project work, collated and refined over the three years. You will work individually and as part of a group to create a showcase for potential employers in Cardiff and in London.
Studying on the Design for Performance pathway of the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice course, you will:
- Be prepared to work creatively and professionally as a set and costume designer
- Receive intensive design training with industry-wide interaction
- Develop skills through speculative and realised performances at Central
- Collaborate with performers, directors, other designers and production team.
The course develops practitioners with a strong sense of direction and identity, and an ability to think conceptually. From the first year you undertake speculative design projects that will challenge and test ideas in a broad range of performance contexts, from text-based drama to opera, dance, site-specific performance and installations, under the guidance of professional directors, designers and choreographers.
Are you interested in Hair, Make-up or Costume? Then step this way!
The Extended Diploma in Production Arts covers Theatrical Hair, Make-up and Costume Design for performers. You will have links to our Hairdressing, Beauty, Art and Design and Fashion teams. You will study units such as: Fantasy Hair, Period Hair & Wig Making, Applying Make-up, Special Effects Make-up & Prosthetics, Designing Costumes and Period Costumes for Performance. During the course, you will work with Performing Arts students to create and apply Hair, Make-up and Costume for a variety of performances.
Some of the major innovations in performance practices over the past hundred years have been drawn from scenographic developments.
Drawing from past and present approaches to performance design, these Scenography courses are concerned with exploring dynamic and innovative interplays between the body, space and time further informed by a variety of disciplines including sculpture, digital media, puppetry, choreography, film, architecture and sound.
Some of the major innovations in performance practices over the past hundred years have been drawn from scenographic developments.
Drawing from past and present approaches to performance design, these Scenography courses are concerned with exploring dynamic and innovative interplays between the body, space and time further informed by a variety of disciplines including sculpture, digital media, puppetry, choreography, film, architecture and sound.
MA Theatre and Performance Design at Wimbledon College of Arts invites you to engage with contemporary ideas and research within the field of theatre, performance and entertainment, and will prepare you for the continually evolving nature of the industry.
MA Theatre and Performance Design offers you studio-based vocational training. As a freelance theatre and production designer the course will develop your skills and approach to collaboration, technology and storytelling.
Theatre is unquestionably a collaborative art form and, as such, collaboration lies at the heart of each project on this course, whether speculative or realised.
You will be immersed in the collaborative nature of theatre and performance practice, where theatre refers to every form of live performance which exists in the long history of storytelling. You will have the opportunity to build ideas, proposals and events with other makers.
The course will train you to become a theatre and production designer who makes dynamic, innovative environments that connect your audience to the performance. We will prepare you to contribute to the continuing development of the performance space as a place for social interaction and debate.
You will explore the production techniques and methods, both historical and contemporary, as employed by designers working in industry, to express the content of a live performance.
With a strong emphasis on live, real-time performance, you will learn skills related to organising and developing effective models for delivery. You will encounter performance design and fabrication techniques, as practiced in industry, to enhance your understanding of design and production processes. Advanced techniques and research ideas will build upon your vocational training. These will encourage transdisciplinary, practical approaches to creating potential future theatres of practice.
