The 2024/25 course will begin on 9 September 2024, with full term dates to follow once confirmed.
MA Site-Specific Theatre Practice
Validated by University of East Anglia
One year (full-time)
Site-specific theatre engages with the history, atmosphere and architecture of a location to inspire performances which are unique to that specific place.
The first course of its kind in the UK, Mountview’s MA in Site-Specific Theatre is created and led by Geraldine Pilgrim, a leading practitioner in the creation of site-specific theatre.
Aimed at practitioners with a fine art or theatre and performance background, this one-year practical course encourages artists to diversify their skills and explore their creative limits.
A maximum of six students are accepted each year.
Graduate Destinations
Previous students have gone on to devise their own performances and create their own companies since graduating, and have also worked with companies and artists including Dante or Die, Dash Arts and Dream Think Speak.
Course Leader and Guest Practitioners
The course is led by Geraldine Pilgrim, a leading practitioner in the creation of site-specific theatre, who has been making site-specific performances and installations for over 20 years. Her work has utilised sites including empty office blocks, schools, hotels, swimming pools, factories, hospitals, stately homes and public parks.
Students also benefit from sessions with professional practitioners from an eclectic range of theatre and performance backgrounds. In the past this has included specialists in Commedia, lighting, sound, movement in space, ASMR, animating objects, immersive game theatre, writing for performance, design, AR/VR, and creative producing.
Past guest lecturers and artists have included:
- Didi Hopkins
- Tim Spooner
- Tassos Stevens
- Athina Vahla
- Fred Defaye
- Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson
- Josephine Burton
- Felix Cross
Course Content and Delivery
The course structure includes:
- Salons, seminars and masterclasses
- Site visits
- Practical realised projects
- A UK or international site residency
With a strong emphasis on learning through practice, the training covers practical skills and creative realisation as well as theoretical and methodological investigation.
All modules are compulsory and there is continuous assessment as well as submitted essays, journals, presentations, realised exercises and performances.
Each student undertakes a work-based learning placement with an artist or company and is matched with a professional practitioner to provide mentorship on their final performance.
Performance projects and production
There are opportunities for students to develop their practice and to create and realise site-specific performances throughout the year, including:
- A collaborative project, in which students work together to create a site-specific performance.
- A directing exercise in which each student creates and directs their own site-specific work performed by fellow students.
- A week-long residency away from the course base, at the end of which students collaborate on a performance responding to the residency site.
- Practical dissertations and final show. Students are supported to conceive, direct and design a fully realised site-specific performance.
Previous locations for work have included Archway Whittington Hospital, HMP Holloway, Aylesbury Estate Adult Learning Centre, Rye Lane and Alexandra Palace
View examples of previous students’ work here.
SITE PRACTICALITIES AND INVESTIGATION
- Seminars with Production Professionals from a disciplines including Production Management, Lighting and Sound Design, Dramaturgy, Site-Specific Design and FX (including video mapping and AR/VR)
- Inspirational visits including heritage sites and outdoor landscapes that extend the students visual repertoire and understanding of architecture and style
SITE-SPECIFIC CONTEXTUAL STUDIES
- Salons and seminars from leading practitioners, focusing on methodologies, practice and innovation. Inspired by the salon sessions, the student will write a research focused essay arguing toward their own artistic viewpoint.
PRACTITIONER FORMS AND SKILLS PRACTICE
- Practical Masterclasses and Workshops from visiting practitioners
- A London-based collaborative site-specific performance
The 2024/25 course will begin on 9 September 2024, with full term dates to follow once confirmed.
DIRECTING & SITE RESIDENCY
- Individual site-specific projects in which students devise their own project and direct other students, often in exciting outdoor locations
- A residency in the UK or Italy, where students work collaboratively to respond to the
residency site and research, create and realise a site-specific performance
SITE-SPECIFIC CONTEXTUAL STUDIES
- Work-based learning placement with an artist or company resulting in a presentation of their learning experience
The 2024/25 course will begin on 9 September 2024, with full term dates to follow once confirmed.
SITE-SPECIFIC PRACTICAL DISSERTATION
- Students will research, develop, direct / design, creatively lead a team and produce a substantive piece of site-specific theatre in a given site
- Students will document the process and deliver supporting written materials towards this practical dissertation
USEFUL INFO
Application Fee | Free |
2024/25 UK/EU Students Course Fee | £11,205 |
2024/25 International Students Course Fee | £18,995 |
Additional Costs (e.g. cultural trips) | £180 |
Fees are subject to annual review. One term’s notice will be given of any increases.
Funding and ScholarshipsAdmission onto the course is by interview. Applicants must be aged 21 years or over at the start of the course. Students who do not hold an undergraduate degree will need to undertake an access assignment to establish suitability for undertaking the MA.
If an applicant requires a student visa and their first language is not English, they will need to prove their knowledge of the English language before applying for their student visa. This must be demonstrated by passing a Secure English Language Test (SELT) from an approved provider or having a GCSE, A level, Scottish National Qualification level 4 or 5, Scottish Higher or Advanced Higher in English, gained through study at a UK school that they began when they were under 18.
Mountview welcomes applications from people with disabilities and is keen to support all applicants to achieve their best. If applicants have any special requirements or access needs, these should be discussed with the course leader/administrator.
Mountview is committed to a comprehensive policy of equal opportunities for students in which individuals are selected and treated on the basis of their relevant merits and abilities. No applicant will receive less or more favourable treatment on grounds of sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnic origin, disability, religion and marital/parental status or any comparable grounds.
You will take part in a first round interview with the course leader at which you will discuss your interests, influences and previous experience. This may take place online or in-person.
Interviewees should bring a portfolio of previous work and/or ideas and inspirations. The portfolio should include three elements:
- Example of a completed project (speculative or realised)
- Images or ideas for other projects
- Examples of companies/artists that the applicant admires
These three elements may be based on Site-Specific, theatre production or art installation project
There is no application fee.
Find out more about Mountview’s auditions and interviews.
"Geraldine Pilgrim is the reason site-specific work is known and loved in the UK – whenever you see a site-specific piece, or ‘immersive theatre’, you’re seeing the influence of her groundbreaking work."