MA IN PERFORMANCE AT RHODES FOR 2011

Applications have opened for MA’s in Choreography, Contemporary Performance, Dramatic Writing, Directing, Design for the Theatre and Applied Theatre at Rhodes University.

An exciting addition to the post graduate programmes offered by the Rhodes University Drama Dept is an MA by coursework which specialises in performance. The existing MA coursework programme will be re-structured from 2011 to place more weighting on the creative, performative component of a student’s chosen specialisation, and to emphasise an investigation of practice as research, as an alternative to a thesis.

In the first year of the coursework, the student will begin with a series of seminars and two written research projects as well as two practical projects. Each candidate will engage with practices and discourses of their selected specialisation in order to develop and refine an individual theatre praxis, which will entail practical assignments, workshops, presentations and productions culminating in a major production, thesis or project presented in June of the second year of their studies. The remaining six months of the second year will be taken up by a written explication of the production thesis.

The final marks will be divided as follows: Practical Research Project (70%) + Research Papers (30%) = 100%

This new coursework programme actively engages with the current notions of Practice as Research and compares favourably with other Masters by Coursework programmes offered at other South African as well as overseas tertiary education institutions.

Lecturers who will have an input into this course include: Andrew Buckland, Juanita Finestone-Praeg, Athina Valha, Heike Gehring, Anton Krueger, as well as a range of distinguished visiting lecturers and practitioners. The location of the University in Grahamstown makes the annual National Arts Festival an accessible resource and platform for exploration and exposure.

Deadline for applications is October 31 2010 (Late applications may also be considered, depending on circumstances.) For further information, contact Andrew Buckland, Head of Department of Drama, Rhodes University, on 046 603 8538 or email: a.buckland@ru.ac.za