Refine your existing skills and knowledge on a programme built to foster innovative, confident and well-prepared researchers. Benefit from close guidance while researching 20th century or contemporary theatre, live art, and popular or interdisciplinary performance – whether through creative practice, or textual or archival study.
| Duration | 12-18 months full time, 24-36 months part time |
| Course type | Full-time, Part-time route available |
| Location | Plymouth |
Graduate destinations include PhD study, professional performance/art-making, arts administration and management, research assistant, community development work and teaching in secondary and further education.
The ResM can be studied either full or part time. You will study the modules 'Researching Performance' and 'Research in the Arts and Humanities' and attend individual tutorials with your supervisor and regular research seminars, leading to either a written thesis or one combining critical writing with creative/professional practice. We may also agree together that you should take other or additional modules or engage in specific training opportunities.
Researching Performance (MAPR700)
This module introduces the resources, practical skills and methodologies specific to research in performance (including theatre, live art, crossform performance, etc.). It will consider a range of concepts and theoretical frameworks that are relevant to Performance Studies including practice as research, critical writing, analytical approaches and documentation.
After completing your taught modules, you will continue with independent research, guided by your thesis supervisor. Throughout this time spent working towards your thesis, you will be considered a full member of our research community and completely supported until you successfully complete your degree.
Dependent upon your performance in the first year, you may apply to transfer directly into our PhD programme after 12 months (full time) or 24 months (part time), instead of submitting a ResM thesis.
Your thesis will be 25000 words in length (or the equivalent if it includes practice). It may be assessed entirely through written work, or through a substantial practical project that addresses particular research questions and is accompanied by an extended contextual essay. We’re pleased to support research that is embedded in and conducted through a professional performance practice.
You will also participate in a viva voce, or oral examination. This will form part of your examination process and normally takes place between one and three months following submission of your thesis or its written elements.
You’ll need a good 2:1 or first class honours degree in an area of study appropriate to your project proposal (e.g. theatre and performance, drama, dance, live or fine art, performance writing, etc.) or equivalent (for instance, you may have studied something else as an undergraduate but have established an artistic practice since then).
You will also need to provide evidence that you are ready to pursue the project you propose in your application. This will take the form of a sample of critical writing, and if relevant, documentation of relevant creative or professional practice.
If English is not your first language, you must have proficiency in written and spoken English (normally a minimum test score of 6.5 for IELTS, or equivalent). Given the nature of the programme, you’ll be expected to read and engage with complex theoretical texts and debates for which fluency in English is essential.
Please visit tuition fees for postgraduate research for information about fees. The ResM Theatre and Performance is in Band 2 for fees purposes.
If you are a full time student, you will pay full time fees for one year. If you have not submitted your thesis by the end of this period, then you may pay for an optional six month 'writing up' period (that is, half of the 'writing up' fee indicated on this page).
If you are a part time student, you will pay part time fees for two years. If you have not submitted your thesis by the end of this period, then you may pay for an optional one year 'writing up' period.
You are responsible for meeting all of the costs related to your own research project, beyond the resources available in the department.
This programme is eligible for a postgraduate loan.
With an emphasis on cross-disciplinary, innovative practice and an array of specialisms on offer, our ResM Theatre and Performance provides a nurturing environment in which to progress your career and pursue specific research interests. We particularly welcome proposals for postgraduate research projects in the following areas of our expertise:
With varied experience and research interests, our students are encouraged to integrate diverse ideas and practices in a multidisciplinary performance research environment.
The University of Plymouth committed £7 million to building The House, a purpose built theatre on campus.
A state-of-the art building, built to the very highest technical and sustainable specification, this award winning facility is a fully-accessible building with a 200-seater auditorium, a studio theatre and rehearsal spaces.
Since we began our Research Masters programme in Theatre and Performance in 2007 (first as a MRes and now as a ResM), our graduates have gone on to an array of careers including professional performance makers and interdisciplinary artists, funded doctoral study, and teaching in further and higher education.
Many choose to combine these areas as a portfolio career of teaching, performance-making and further research.
