Creative Producing MA

University of Kent

This degree is heavily embedded into the Theatre making industry and is useful for those wanting to develop careers as producers, directors, venue managers, writers, agents, company and production management, marketing, event management, casting agents, among many others.

The programme is based in Theatre, but is also relevant in many other areas such as Film and TV, as well as general business and commerce. The content is focused on the professional skills of the producer, giving a broad but in depth understanding of the commercial, creative and contemporary issues needed to succeed in the business we call Showbusiness.

This MA in Creative Producing is the first programme ever offered in Theatre producing in a UK university. Created in 2002 as Producing, Promoting & Managing Theatre it then changed into the shorter present title in 2006. It has built strong links and recognition within the industry and many companies actively seek to work with our students and graduates.

As a participant you will experience an intense taught period over the first term where you will learn the business and personal skills needed to develop, negotiate and create business and artistic plans, through a mix of workshops, seminars and lectures. You are stimulated to develop further your own individual creative approaches to Theatre, exploring ideas and critical awareness. We do this through looking at the current state of play within the world of Theatre; we invite key people to give talks and workshops, starting you on the road to building effective future networks. This is assessed through a mix of presentations, written case studies, and group research projects.

In term 2 you then work more independently on the application of your skills you can choose to have a work placement or in depth company analysis, this is assessed by regular blogs and a reflective or analytical written report. You then develop your own creative idea as a business plan, assessed through a full written submission and a presentation pitch to a panel of experts. Instead of the Business Plan you can choose an optional module from the School of Arts that you can demonstrate will support the focus of your studies and dissertation. Over the summer you will then work on your agreed dissertation.