BA (Hons) Theatre Design Course
Course Overview
Three Years, Full Time
Our undergraduate course is aimed at providing you with a
stimulating and challenging introduction to design theory and its
practical application in relation to performance. Our
well-established teaching team is made up of highly experienced
professionals who will provide you with tuition in a broad range of
practical skills including technical drawing, CAD, pattern cutting,
costume construction, millinery, tailoring, model making, puppetry
construction and manipulation, scenic art and props making.
Research and reflective practice will form an important part of
your work, and throughout the course you will participate in
historical and contextual studies, including lectures, seminars
field trips relating to the history of theatre, art, architecture,
design and costume and your own practice. The programme is highly
flexible, allowing you to concentrate on particular areas of
interest through advanced skills classes, conceptual projects and
performance-based work in your second and third years.
Preparing for Work
The programmes provide you with training in specialist areas of
set and costume design and realisation, equipping you with the
relevant knowledge and skills to maximise your employment potential
within the theatre, film, television and related performance-design
industries.
Our graduate employment rates are outstanding and our graduates
have a reputation for the high level of professionalism they are
able to demonstrate upon graduation. In recent years, RWCMD
students and graduates have also experienced great success in the
prestigious Linbury Prize for Theatre
Design. Very recent graduates are currently working as designers
with companies such as The Royal Ballet, Royal Northern Ballet, The
Royal Shakespeare Company, West Yorkshire Playhouse, No Fit State
Circus, Diversions Dance, and the BBC (Doctor Who,
Torchwood). Our costume and set realisation graduates are
also working at the highest level within the performance
industries.
At the end of your course you will have the opportunity to
present your work to potential employers in exhibitions in Cardiff
and London.
In the winter of 2011 our new campus will open and students
will be taught in a suite of world-class training and performing
facilities. The new facilities include a two Theatres and an
Exhibition Gallery to showcase the work of Theatre Design
students.
Production Work
In the unique setting of an active music and drama College, you
will be able to contribute to our busy programme of public
performances including mainstream and alternative theatre, opera
and musical theatre. The College has at present one large scale
flexible theatre space, one studio theatre, and regularly stages
productions at external professional venues, providing valuable
opportunities for you to work in a variety of performance contexts.
As a department, we also mount a major site specific production
each summer involving puppetry in performance.
Professional Links
All College productions and projects are supervised by designers
and design practitioners from within the industry, and you will
also work alongside professional theatre directors, reflecting the
practices and conditions of the professional environment.