MA Theatre for Community and Education

• Practices:
  Theatre training and theatre-making applied
  Students will critically engage with practiced conventions of theatre training and theatre-making, including: Ensemble Development, Devised and Collaborative Theatre-making, Playback Theatre, Forum Theatre, Verbatim Theatre, Still Image/Role Play, Community Storytelling, Physical Theatres, Bodywork, and Movement training. Throughout this practical and intellectual activity, students will learn to question and identify the “applied” nature and potential of such activity, including those that might present difficulties and dilemmas.
• Pedagogies:
  Theory and Practice
  Students will explore the contemporary contexts in which the practices of theatre and theatre-making are applied, and learn to identify areas where it may be applied effectively including education, rehabilitation, crisis and professional development.
  

Context and critique:

• Theatre in Education
  Students will study ideas and concepts that make up the field of Theatre in Education (TIE). By also studying the socio-political landscape from which TIE emerged, students will develop a broad understanding of theatre in educational contexts. Included in this study will be the role of actor as teacher, and the conceptual, theoretical, and practical differences between theatre in/as/for education.
• Models of Education:
  Students will study broad and diverse theories of education and learning, and examine the contested roles of teacher, facilitator and leader within educational settings and practices. Part of this investigation will question the educational role of theatre in and beyond the national curriculum.

Practice and Application: 

• Workshop Skills
  Students will participate in practical workshops, developing an intellectual understanding of the role of teacher/facilitator/leader learning to apply appropriate practices to specific groups.
• Education Resources
  Students will explore various educational resources across the theatre education sector. Through research, students will identify the theoretical, practical, and creative process behind developing educational content that accompanies and enhances educational experiences.

Administration & compliance:

• Organisation and operations
  This component will explore administrative and legislative practice within cultural organisations. Students will learn specifics of corporate law, governance, and social responsibility. Relevant elements of safeguarding, Health & Safety, and strategic leadership will be explored and researched in order to facilitate various artistic works and projects in community and education areas.
• Marketing and Communications
  Students will gain a broad understanding of marketing and communication strategies. Case studies will be examined to discover differing models with specific focus on cases that realised significant movement in cultural engagement and/or participation.
• Funding and Planning
  Funding landscapes will be considered philosophically and politically with a view to informing practical and critical engagement. Relevant funding streams will be sourced and researched, culminating in written funding submissions and applications.Students will develop a practical understanding of project/activity budgeting and the knowledge of how to prepare and present a project/business plan. Focus will also be given to the role of the freelance practitioner, the issues specific to them, and their contribution to shaping the future funding landscape.Students will learn how to evaluate projects and report outcomes.

Diversity and inclusion: 

• Failure and Development
  This component will examine ‘cultural development strategies’ and the effects they have on various areas of theatre and culture including Engagement, Participation, and Access, Regeneration & Cohesion, Activism & Change, and Collaboration & Partnerships. Questions addressing specific concerns of diversity and inclusion will be addressed, driven by educational examples. More broadly, students will engage critically with the difficulties and dilemmas of terms, policies, and practices that are continuously contested and ask difficult questions of when art fails.

Local and Global Perspectives:

• Culture and cultures
  The local and global component will consider theatre for community and education from a local, national, and global perspective developing a significant resource in the production of a portfolio of case studies. Students will research and identify compelling work at all levels. In this way, students will learn of culture within cultures and address the complexities of various levels of cultural relativism.

Contemporary Arenas

• Sites and situations
  Students will explore the contemporary contexts in which the practices of theatre and theatre-making are applied, and learn to identify areas where it may be applied effectively. These may include areas of Education, Rehabilitation, Crisis, Health and Wellbeing, Corporate and Professional Development. 

  Using specific organisations and activities as case studies, including: Sojourn Theatre, Good Chance Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Clean Break Theatre, Contact Theatre, The Royal Court, Young Vic, amongst others, students will develop an awareness of the breadth and depth of the work, ideas, and issues active in the field.

Contemporary Praxes

• Participation Groups
  Students will examine various shapes of participation including Elders, Youth, and Intergenerational, those that might be recognised as ‘socially excluded’, ‘vulnerable’, or ‘at risk’, and examine the various educative, transformative, therapeutic, rehabilitative possibilities and difficulties of applied theatre practice for these groups. 

  Using specific organisations and activity as case studies, including: Sojourn Theatre, Good Chance Theatre, Cardboard Citizens, Clean Break Theatre, Contact Theatre, The Royal Court, Young Vic, amongst others, students will develop an awareness of the breadth and depth of the work, ideas, and issues active in the field.

Creative Learning

• Design Thinking
  Design thinking is regarded as a 21^st century approach to problem solving. It follows specific methodologies to arrive at creative solutions to diverse challenges. Students will explore this process, learning how to apply it to their practice, but also learn how they might facilitate this creative mode of activity for various participation groups.
  
• Microlearning
  This emergent learning strategy is variously applied through digital media. Students will be introduced to its overarching principles and conceive of how they might implement such a strategy towards a specific outcome.

Cultural Learning

• Heritage and Home
  By exploring various sites of heritage: museums, libraries, archives, archaeological sites and historic houses, students will learn ways in which individuals and organisations develop an individual’s understanding of themselves in relation to the world.
  
• Pedagogy of the Drum
  Students will explore the “Pedagogy of the drum”. The use of music, rhythm, and resonance to act as mediators between youngsters from favelas and policemen in Brazil

Dissertation: Students will define an area of interest that will lead them to creating a viable practice-based or written dissertation.