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University College Cork

Theatre & Performative Practice

The MA in Theatre & Performative Practices at UCC offers students a unique opportunity to develop their individual and collaborative creative and critical theatre practices, within an Irish context.

The MA offers professional artists, recent arts graduates, and those interested in a rigorous exploration of theatre and performative arts practice, a dynamic practice-based and intellectually demanding learning environment.

The MA is distinctive within an Irish and international context, because of its unique commitment to experimental and interdisciplinary processes of collaboration and composition, through and in combination with a lively programme of internships and residencies. The MAs innovative course ecology organizes exploration around the fundamental processes of theatre practice; body, voice and context. A focus on the spiral interplay of attention, perceiving and making, makes this MA a space that generates innovative theatre and cutting-edge content.

The MA in Theatre & Performative Practices is designed to produce flexible, empowered theatre artists who rock the boat and invigorate the cultural life of Ireland, Europe and beyond.

The MA in Theatre & Performative Practices is taught through a lively combination of studio-based training, critical seminars, internships, workshops with visiting theatre artists, critics and theorists, as well as engagement with the departments research and practice seminar - Perforum, and through a plural and multi-level engagement with festivals, events, installations and performances throughout the year. Bring your leotard and your Lyotard, and a bottle of water.

Why Choose This Course

The MA in Theatre & Performative Practices at UCC offers students a unique opportunity to develop their individual and collaborative creative and critical theatre practices, through and in combination with a lively programme of internships and residencies.

Entry requirements

Applications will be considered from graduates of Theatre, Drama and / or theatre-related disciplines. Applicants will normally have an honours primary degree (2.2 or above), and should be able to demonstrate an established commitment to theatre and / or performative practices. Applicants with significant professional-level drama and theatre experience will also be considered. Completion of the Higher Diploma in Theatre & Performative Practices (2.2 or above), also qualifies students to apply. Applicants will be asked to attend a workshop and/or interview with staff from Drama and Theatre Studies. Screen arrangements may be made in the case of applications from international students.

Non-EU Candidates

Non-EU candidates are expected to have educational qualifications of a standard equivalent to Irish university primary degree level. In addition, where such candidates are non-native speakers of the English language they must satisfy the university of their competency in the English language. To verify if you meet the minimum academic requirements for this programme please visit our qualification comparison pages.

For more detailed entry requirement information please refer to the International website .

Duration

1 year full-time; 2 years part-time;

The part-time option will be taught during evening hours over 2 year.

Careers or further progression

Skills and Careers Information

What can I do after I graduate with an MA in Theatre & Performative Practices?
After you graduate you will be qualified and work-ready for multiple aspects of the creative industries, both those specifically related to theatre and performance, as well as broader aspects of cultural production, administration and the creative industries. This MA trains students in skills of making and producing theatre and performative events, in lively collaboration and always in context. These are skills which are critically and dynamically transferable to the professional worlds of theatre, dance and cultural industries.

Occupations associated with the MA in Theatre & Performative Practices

Our previous students work in multiple aspects of contemporary theatre, dance and the cultural industries. These include Creative Cultural Producers (Theatre Production, Dance Production, Festival Production), Arts Managers, Arts Administrators, Theatre Directors, Chroreographers, Performers, Playwrights, Writers for TV & Film, Community Artists working in Theatre, Dance and Visual Art as well as related industries of Journalism, Library Management, Teaching and Academia.

Subjects taught

All students take 35 Core credits, 10 Elective credits, and a Final Project of 45 credits.

Part 1 (45 credits)

Core Modules (35 credits)
These core credits form the central shared programme of critically rigorous and creatively adventurous theatre and performative practice:

DR6001 Collaborative Theatre & Performative Practices 15 Credits Semester 1
This module focuses specifically on collaboration as a founding practice of contemporary theatre and the processes of performativity. The module includes a major internship with theatre or performance company.

DR6002 Composition Theatre & Performative Practices 15 credits Semester 2
This module focuses specifically on composition as a founding process of making work within contemporary theatre and performative practices. The module includes working with a major company or artists on a performance or spectacle event.

DR6003 The Business of Theatre & Performative Events 5 credits Semester 1
Students are introduced to the business of show business, by exploring the professional elements within the working life of a theatre artist / producer / administrator.

Electives (10 credits) Semesters 1 & 2
Drama & Theatre Studies Modules:
DR6024 Directed Study in Theatre and Performance (5)
DR6025 Special Studies in Applied Theatre (10)
DR6026 Advanced Theatre Practice (10)
DR6027 Playwrights & Writing in Contemporary Theatre (10)

Modules from other Departments in CACSSS:

DH6004 Conceptual Introduction to Digital Arts & Humanities (5)
FX6004 Film, Feminism and Psychoanalysis (10)
HA6006 Theory for Art History (10)
HA6007 Modern Art and Modernity (10)
HA6009 Contemporary Art (10)
MU6035 The Body in Creative Arts Practice (10)
MU6037 Music and Cinema (10)
MU6031 Sound Studies and Musicology (5)
MU6034 Multidisciplinary Debates in Musicology and Ethnomusicology (5)
MU6036 Music and Popular Culture (10)
MU6038 Noise (5)
MU6041 Agora (5)
SS6021 Principles and Practice of Community Arts (10)
SS6029 Development Education and Community Arts (5)
SS6024 Arts and Social Action (5)
WS6002 Feminist Theory (10)

Part II (45 credits)

Final Project Module 45 credits Semester 3
Students choose one of the following options:
DR6004 Practice Research Project 1: Theatre & Performative Production
DR6005 Practice Research Project 2: Theatre & Performative Process
DR6006 Research Dissertation in Theatre & Performative Practices

Assessment method

Students on the MA in Theatre & Performative Practices are assessed through a combination of continual assessment of contribution and achievement in process as well as final performance, through critical reflections on process / performance, as well as critical writing about theory, history and context of theatre and performative practices. Their choice of final project dictates how they will be assessed, and are weighted variously between creative practice and critical writing.