MA theatre Lab

course overview

The MA Theatre Lab is validated by King’s College London.

The RADA MA Theatre Lab is a full-time one-year course running over four academic terms. The aim of the course is to enable students with a strong background in performance to develop and explore their skills in an experimental framework. There is a strong emphasis on devised and group work, and students are taught to approach the process of developing performance from a post-Stanislavskian framework.

As well as equipping the student with the skills necessary to contribute to the widest range of theatre and performance practice, it provides the framework within which the student can explore, experiment and reflect critically upon the practice of acting and performance.

The course is built around three primary strands: Acting and Performance Practice and Methodology, Skills Development and Scene Study.

Acting and Performance Practice and Methodology

Working from the foundation of the Stanislavski system, students are introduced to the approaches and responses of later practitioners, including Grotowski, Brecht, Copeau, Michael Chekhov, and Sanford Meisner. They are encouraged to use these as a basis for their own experimentation in developing performance practice. Students also study Theatre and Performance Contextual History, supporting their practical work with a theoretical approach. This will place special emphasis on the links between historical improvisational and physical practice (eg commedia) and the developments in experimental theatre, new writing and performance since the middle of the twentieth century.

Skills Development

Skills Development assumes a prior performance background, but also takes into account that students may be coming to the course with experience in different kinds of performance. The skills classes – in conjunction with the Scene Study work - aim to build on the students’ strengths, while also improving areas where the student is less experienced. Voice and Movement training forms the fundamental of the skills-based work, which is also supplemented by work in improvisation, circus skills, singing, and dance.

Scene Study

Scene Study draws together the skills being developed in acting classes and skills classes, and provides a forum for students to develop and experiment with the techniques they are learning. Each term, students use Scene Study to explore ideas and work towards an internal, workshop performance in response to a theme or topic determined in consultation with the course tutors.

the programme

The MA Theatre Lab is taught over a period of three 12-week terms of 20-25 hours per week of intensive tutor-guided study, and further time is allowed for the student’s own rehearsal work as part of a developing group and for research and reflective practice. The course balances a desire to expose students to a wide range of practices while also allowing them to specialise and develop skills at a deeper level. Students may at times be divided into groups to focus on particular areas of the curriculum; these choices will take into account the student’s needs and interests. In the summer there will be a full time six-week block of teaching, leading to a dissertation presentation.

the training includes:

Classwork
Student classwork culminates each term in a workshop-style, internal performance, devised through the Scene Study and Performance classes. In addition to their practical coursework, students complete written assignments providing a critical analysis of their work and theories of performance.

Dissertation
In the final term of the course, students work in groups to create their own experimental piece. The rehearsal process, the performance and the accompanying written portfolio make up the student’s dissertation work, qualifying them for the MA degree.

Prospectus

View a full copy of our current PROSPECTUS.