Central has a wide-range of performers and performances at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with which you will have the opportunity to be involved. These include traditional acting, collaborative and devised theatre, musical theatre, performance arts, community theatre and puppetry. Through these opportunities, you will be able to develop your personal design aspirations.
You will work closely with students of other theatre disciplines in production teams, so that you understand, respect and work effectively with all the people that you are likely to meet in professional practice. These include the craftspeople and constructors who will realise your designs, and the stage management and production technicians who will bring your work to the moment of performance. Many of our graduates say that this interdisciplinary environment eases the transition from college to the workplace, as they are confident in their abilities to collaborate and communicate with their fellow practitioners.
You will develop necessary skills, including making models, producing technical and costume drawings, and you will put these skills into practice in realised projects in Central’s professionally equipped performance spaces.
One of the main aims of the course is to develop practitioners who have a strong sense of their individual direction and identity. From the first year, we encourage you to think conceptually: you will undertake theoretical design projects that invite you to challenge and test your ideas in a wide range of contexts, from opera to site specific installations.
Throughout your three years, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with a wide range of professional companies, allowing you access to many performance styles. This extends from live arts, through small and medium-scale devised and collaborative work, puppetry, circus and street theatre, text or character based play production, large-scale celebrations and events, and corporate presentations.
Year 1
You will complete a number of units that allow you to develop the core skills and a clear understanding of what performance and performance design are. This is done through a series of taught classes, workshops and realised projects. Contact with the professional world is part of the course from the start, and we take full advantage of our location, close to the heart of the world’s theatre capital.
Year 2
You will develop your individual design process to near-professional level through a series of assignments. These include both conceptual and realised designs on a variety of different types of production. Assignments could also include outdoor theatre, site-specific and new writing and placements within the profession.
Year 3
You may have the opportunity to design on major public productions within Central, as well as smaller scale professional productions, as appropriate. You will have developed some areas of professional interest and identity, and will have the opportunity to show selected pieces of work in the summer term exhibition for graduating students
