menu icon
Book your open day visit nowClick to book open day

Different course options

Full time | Goldsmiths, University of London | 1 year | 23-SEP-24

Study mode

Full time

Duration

1 year

Start date

23-SEP-24

Key information
DATA SOURCE : IDP Connect

Qualification type

MA - Master of Arts

Subject areas

Musical Theatre

Course type

Taught

Course Summary

This unique Masters will enhance your critical understanding of musical theatre as a popular entertainment genre.

It will help you to sharpen your practical skills as a creative artist. On a practical level, it will assist you in working as a freelance writer, composer or producer of musical theatre.

The MA focuses on the dramaturgy of the musical as a key factor in the future development of the genre.

Expert professionals are regularly employed as visiting tutors, to maintain direct links with the industry.

You follow one of the two pathways as either:

  • producer
  • writer or composer

You undertake an analytic case study of a musical or production, a placement project and dissertation (producers), and a creative project involving either book and lyrics or music for a short original musical (writers and composers). Producers share some classes with students on the MA Arts Administration and Cultural Policy.

Skills

You will develop a critical understanding of the collaborative processes involved in the creation of musical theatre in the UK and USA.

Composers and librettists/lyricists will achieve an enhanced ability to engage with the integration of dramaturgical and musical components of musical theatre writing, and a comprehension of the various factors involved in working within the industry.

Producers will acquire an overall perspective on the industrial and organisational factors involved in musical theatre production, including methods of theatre marketing, systems of arts funding and policy, and a working knowledge of the strategies involved in producing a small-scale musical.

Producers will also develop skills of leadership and teamwork and the ability to develop and critique their own approaches to working in musical theatre production.

Careers

Typical careers for graduates of this MA include:

  • musical theatre composer
  • librettist
  • lyricist
  • producer
  • marketing manager
  • production assistant

Modules

Regular producers classes in Autumn and Spring terms will develop a student's understanding of the social, economic, industrial and institutional factors involved in artistic production. By means of a combination of seminars and workshops, students acquire knowledge of the interrelationship of various kinds of production technique and scenographic technology insofar as these affect the dramaturgy of a musical. Producing students will undertake a placement in the Easter vacation or the Summer term, which will be the subject of a short critical reflection. From the beginning of Spring term, each student will work as a producer on a 15-minute musical, being responsible for collaborating with a writer/composer in order to present a semi-staged production for a workshop presentation in Week 7 of the Spring term. In Summer term, the producers will begin planning the preparation of the 45-minute workshop presentations for production in mid-September. Late in June each student will arrange experimental workshops to test draft material from a musical they are producing, which will then be presented to module tutors in producing and writing/composition. The producers will jointly have responsibility for organising a showcase 'festival' of new musicals and for supervising the budgeting, casting, design and direction of the showcase productions.

Tuition fees

UK fees
Course fees for UK students

For this course (per year)

£10,350

International fees
Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

£22,640

Entry requirements

Students should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject. Students might also be considered for some programmes if they aren’t a graduate or their degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that students have the ability to work at postgraduate level.