Stage Design & Scenography and Musical Theatre BA

STAGE DESIGN & SCENOGRAPHY

On this course you will be trained to design and make immersive worlds for different audiences. It’s about exploring drama and performance through the interactions between bodies, environments and creative technologies. How can light function as an actor? How can a set be built by sound alone? How can we subtly direct our audiences without them knowing? What are the ethical challenges of creating a performance solely for one person? As worldbuilders, you will learn about the different approaches to designing and creating your own immersive performance environments, supported by technical training that will prepare you for the creative sector.

Your three years begins with an introduction to immersive performance practices and scenographic design before you journey into the exciting challenges of audience participation and interaction. Moving outside of the campus, the city of Liverpool itself will become a site for performance, echoing the work of immersive practitioners such as Punchdrunk, dreamthinkspeak and Shunt. Your final year will involve a push into new and experimental performance technologies, presenting performance projects in virtual worlds and the development of escape rooms and other ludic practices. This will culminate in you selecting either to complete a placement within an arts organisation or to take the lead as project manager of a major performance project of your own devising. This final year will also require you to complete an independent research project on a topic of your own choice.

This course is for those who are passionate about theatre and performance but are more interested in working behind the scenes.

MUSICAL THEATRE

Liverpool is a vibrant city, tapping into the momentum and energy of a diverse creative scene that stems from a long history as an international port city. Musical Theatre continues to play an integral role in its ever-changing theatrical landscape.

This degree allows the study of Musical Theatre from performative, as well as directorial/production points of view. With us, you will study the creative and conceptual interactions that exist between words, music and movement, that underpin the threefold performative relationships between music, dance and acting that communicate and express the art form of Musical Theatre.  

You will explore core repertoire themes and historical context, and small-group practical seminars will allow you to develop dance and acting techniques. These will be underpinned by student-led tutorials and one-to-one singing lessons.

The course is led by a team of Musical Theatre specialists, who have first-hand production and performance experience - both in the West End and regional theatres - ensuring our students receive up-to-the-minute insights and guidance.