Theatre Directing MA

This course is in clearing with spaces available

Overview

Course options

Select year

MA

  1. MA Theatre Directing

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 10200 For the MFA, the Year 2 fees are: £6,800
  2. MA Theatre Directing

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 2 years
    • 1700 Per 30 credit module
  3. MA Theatre Directing

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 15420 For the MFA, the Year 2 fees are: £10,280

MFA

  1. MA Theatre Directing

    • Home Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 10200 For the MFA, the Year 2 fees are: £6,800
  2. MA Theatre Directing

    • Home Applicant
    • Part time, 4 years
    • 1700 Per 30 credit module
  3. MA Theatre Directing

    • International Applicant
    • Full time, 1 year
    • 15420 For the MFA, the Year 2 fees are: £10,280

Course modules

Select year

Director and the Text

Devised Project

Contemporary Performance Making

Research Methods in Creative Practice

Performance Platform

Mental Wealth: Practitioners and Praxis

Creative Practice

MFA Professional Platform

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Your future career

Your future career

The work you will be doing with theatre professionals and the constructive help and advice you will receive from professional actors throughout your course is all geared towards helping you establish yourself in the industry.

Your final degree show will act as your showcase to attract agents and develop your professional networks. 

By having your own mentor in the last six months of your course, you will not only gain important insight and advice about the technical aspects of acting but you will receive invaluable help in developing important contacts.

Because our Staging Performance module is mentored by a theatre company, this could also open doors to performing your own work. It certainly has for previous students.

We believe our course helps nurture independent-minded, creative individuals – people like Tom Drayton, who graduated in 2014, has set up his own theatre company and is also busy with freelance work, including running workshops for children.

He produced the first ever free production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd on the Edinburgh Fringe and, during his UEL studies, he directed and produced the acclaimed Twentysomething: a reading list, which focused on the plight of recent arts graduates following the economic recession.

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.

I was attracted to the MA Theatre Directing course because not only does it concentrate on text-based theatre but also various methodologies and different ways to create a performance.

UEL has a buzzy atmosphere, great libraries, and supportive and inspiring lecturers. The specialist facilities get ten out of ten.

The Black Box studio is a professional theatre production space at University Square Stratford. I love our performances there at the end of every term."

Orsolya Nagy

MA Theatre Directing student

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. Our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts 
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services 
  • Careers workshops and employer events 
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

See more details

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support 
  • We are ranked 6th for graduate start-ups 
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations 
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment 
  • London on our doorstep

What you'll learn

The MA Theatre Directing course takes a practice-based approach as it explores different directing methodologies - naturalism, realism, intercultural performance and contemporary devising practices.

You will gain the skills needed to create innovative and exciting performance work and to be able to operate as a professional theatre director and independent creative producer.

Your modules will feature Director Training, which looks at the key building blocks of working with an actor on voice, body and offers an in-depth Stanislavskian approach for the director working with text.

The Staging Performance module develops your skills as an independent producer and builds up to your performance, for which you'll be mentored by a professional theatre company.

You will study a range of contemporary performance practices as well as honing advanced research skills as you prepare for your dissertation piece - a final directorial showcase performance to be enacted in a professional venue.

How you'll learn

One of the great strengths of our course is that you will be taught by artists steeped in professional practice and the theatrical arts, headed by your course leader, Dr Dominic Hingorani.

Dominic is a professional playwright, academic author, producer and director and co-Artistic Director of Brolly a cross-arts company supported by Arts Council England. He has recently written and produced a national tour of a new play for teenagers Guantanamo Boy and a new opera Clocks 1888 the greener.

Dominic originally trained as an actor and worked on stage in the United States with Sir Ian McKellen and performed on TV and film.

Another teacher is Dr Jorge Lopes Ramos, the multi-award-winning joint artistic director of the internationally acclaimed Zecora Ura, an independent and innovative theatre group based in Rio de Janeiro and east London.

As well as their support, we'll allow you to work alongside an experienced professional director who, if you want, will act as your mentor.

Through our unique partnerships, you will have opportunities to engage with a variety of professional companies from London International Festival of Theatre to Columbia College, Chicago.

You will also benefit from a programme of talks by distinguished speakers. Recently, our students heard from British movie star Terence Stamp and the artistic director of Theatre Royal Stratford East, Kerry Michael.

Dr Hingorani says, "This course was created especially for those wishing to pursue a professional career in the theatre and develop the skills to be an independent creative artist.

"Our teaching ethos is tailored to the individual student to develop their own unique creative voice, underpinned by academic rigour and an understanding of professional art practice, delivered in industry-standard studio facilities.

"I can't think of a more exciting place to start your career, build your networks and access world-class professional theatre than in London."

How you will be assessed

All modules lead to performance and the final showcase dissertation performances take place at Stratford Youth Zone, a professional venue with excellent technical and front-of-house facilities.

Depending on your course modules, your assessments may include coursework essays, collaborative and individual presentations, professional placements, seen and unseen examinations, reports, portfolios, essay plans and creative work.

Campus and facilities

University Square Stratford

Who teaches this course

This course is delivered by the School of Arts and Creative Industries.

The teaching team includes qualified academics, practitioners and industry experts as guest speakers. Full details of the academics will be provided in the student handbook and module guides.