The MA Theatre Making is intended for graduates from theatre and performing arts degrees and other related subjects, as well as emerging theatre artists who want to further pursue their experimentation with advanced theatre-making practices as an individual and/or company.
The challenging interdisciplinary curriculum will help you develop skills in a range of approaches to making performance, drawing on techniques from directing, devising, ensemble performance and performance art.
You will test ideas and various creative roles through intensive laboratory projects; conceive, develop and manage a full-scale creative project at an advanced level; and engage in critical discourse through academic study to support your work as a 'thinking practitioner'.
The course also equips you with the ability to document and reflect on your practice, provides you with industry knowledge such as fundraising strategies and marketing, and gives you the opportunity to develop a portfolio with which to launch into professional artistic work.
A wide range of expertise
You will benefit from studying with a staff team of leading specialists in the field of theatre and performance, whose teaching is informed by their own creative practice and world-leading research across subjects such as contemporary performance practice, community/participatory performance, arts and health, physical theatre, comedy and popular performance, theatre and conflict, Shakespeare, and European theatre.
Students regularly connect with the Department's exciting activities in a range of areas, including participatory dance theatre (Moving Memory); autism, identities and creativity (Playing A/Part); Chekhov technique in and beyond theatre (The Chekhov Collective UK); activities and performance projects linked to the European Theatre Research Network; our Funny Rabbit Comedy Club; performance opportunities offered by the Gulbenkian Theatre; and much more.
Join a supportive creative community
Drama at Kent is distinctive for developing and supporting innovative arts professionals, both through our programmes and our bespoke Graduate Theatre Company Scheme. We celebrate our alumni's achievements and contributions to the arts and to communities, including Olivier Award winners, companies leading in inclusive practice, internationally recognised playwrights and actors, industry-shaping producers, and so much more. You can hear from our alumni directly via our ProperJob Gradcast, the podcast that asks how Kent Drama alumni have built their career as artists.
Become part of a vibrant academic network
Postgraduate Drama and Theatre studies at Kent is a vibrant hub for the development and supervision of creative practice and research. We encourage postgraduate students to make use of our close links and contacts with local, national and international (especially European) theatre companies, venues, artists and research projects, to enhance their research- and professional development.
Drama at Kent was amongst the first Departments in the UK to offer, since the late 1990s, MA and PhD degrees by practice-as-research. Our international staff team of leading and emerging researchers and practitioners has an excellent reputation for research and supervision, ranking in the top ten of UK institutions for research excellence in our subject in 2022.
Excellent facilities
The School of Arts' award-winning Jarman Building offers professional standard drama facilities, along with social spaces and a dedicated centre for postgraduate students. In addition to the two performance studios and the Gallery in the Jarman Building, Drama & Theatre facilities across the Canterbury campus include two further theatre spaces - the 113-seat Aphra Theatre (a courtyard-type gallery theatre space) and the Lumley Theatre, which is a flexible and adaptable studio space - as well as further rehearsal facilities in Eliot College and an extensively equipped construction workshop and costume collection.
