Playwriting MA - Kingston University

Playwriting MA
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
www.kingston.ac.uk/pgplaywriting

Playwriting MA
About the course
Course overview
This course is for aspiring and experienced playwrights, performance writers
and dramaturgs who are keen to establish their unique voice in response
to recent innovations in contemporary theatre and performance. While
the course acknowledges the continuing centrality of a particular dramatic
tradition that was first articulated by Aristotle, it also recognises that once
‘alternative’ forms such as visual and physical performance, live art and postdramatic
theatre have equal validity in contemporary culture. We believe that
writers have an important role driving such movements, and in forging the
theatrical forms of tomorrow.
What you will study
Playwriting and theatre-making skills: teaching on this course includes a
foundation in the traditional writing skills of characterisation, dramatic structure,
dialogue and action. You also receive basic training in other practical skills
such as design or performing in order to extend your understanding of stage
craft and your abilty to collaborate with other theatre-makers. Through this,
you will also be introduced to alternative approaches to theatre-making,
for example through improvisation, scenography and collaboration. Your
creative skills are honed through a series of practical tasks (both in class and
independent), supported by guidance and feedback from your tutors and,
where appropriate, peers.
New writing in context: studying plays (as scripts and in performance) in
the light of current debates in new writing and scholarship develops your
knowledge of the playwriting ‘industry’ and the contexts in which traditions
and innovations of playwriting evolve. This also equips you with the academic
skills you will require to conduct your own research (for creative and/or
scholarly projects) and to analyse both professional practice and your own
work. These skills are developed through tutor presentations and research and
analysis tasks (both in class and independent), supported by guidance and
feedback from your tutors and, where appropriate, peers.
• Specialist skills in playwriting in a variety of modes
• Aspects of stage craft
• Plays and creative methodologies, analysed in their historical, ideological and
cultural contexts
• Research, analysis and academic skills (including practice-as-research and
reflective writing), in relation to plays and creative methodologies
Support
An allocated personal tutor tracks your progress and offers one-to-one
tutorials at key points of the teaching year (for example, following the return of
assessment marks and in preparation for your Capstone project). All Drama
tutors offer office hours when they are available to meet students about
specific matters or projects. Further support is provided by CASE (Centre for
Academic Skills and Employability), Information Services (help with conducting
research and bibliographic referencing) and the Faculty postgraduate office
(timetables, assessment hand-ins).
Careers
You complete the Playwriting MA by writing the play which will act as
your ‘calling card’ to the theatre industry. Guidance and feedback from
tutors and visiting professionals helps you develop this script in a way that
best represents your imagination, craft and original vision. A ‘showcase’
performance in the autumn of your graduation introduces your work to invited
members of the theatre industry. The course thereby optimises your position
as an upcoming playwright. The course also facilitates employment in the
theatre industry. Many of our early-career graduates are now employed
within professional theatres including the Royal Court, the National Theatre
and the Barbican, with others also working elsewhere in the cultural sector,
for example at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Theatre and Performance
Galleries or as independent festival producers and artists. Graduates have
also gone on to PhD study, continuing their engagement with new writing
through practice-based or ‘traditional’ research. This course provides entry
into higher education teaching and research.
Research areas
This programme emerges directly from the Drama department’s research
expertise in contemporary theatre-making. Teaching staff Winsome Pinnock,
Ian Brown and Colin Chambers have forged their research interests from
their professional practice as playwrights and in new writing. Course leader
Alex Mermikides’ recent publication with Jackie Smart, Devising in Process
(Palgrave, 2010), has influenced the collaborative approach to theatre-making
employed in the teaching of this course. Research in Kingston’s Drama
department is based on the belief that theory and practice are interrelated,
and that the best theatre practice emerges from a thorough knowledge of
historical and contemporary practice and their conceptual contexts.
Special features
• These programmes are very practical – you will be creating short scripts
from your first weeks. A series of practical projects allows you to develop
advanced skills and techniques for writing for performance and to evolve
your personal vision and voice as a creative artist.
• You will be taught at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, giving you an insight
into the day-to-day running of an important producing theatre with
an exciting programme of performances and related events. You will
regularly come into contact with the Rose’s creative team and the visiting
companies, both formally and informally.
• Tutors are highly experienced both as educators and as practitioners.
The practical teaching is always relevant to the latest developments on
the theatre ‘scene’.
• Your academic teaching will be complemented by visiting professionals,
who will keep you up to date with the latest developments in the field.
• You will also enjoy a lively programme of workshops, seminars
and tutorials, together with independent creative time and
extracurricular activities.
• The courses reflect current shifts in professional theatre-making,
particularly the growing interaction between new writing and
collaborative (devised) theatre and practice.

www.kingston.ac.uk/pgplaywriting
Course content
The course comprises of four 30-credit modules and one 60-credit module.
All modules are core.
Creative Practice is a practical module, designed to help you identify
the sort of theatre/performance you want to make, expand your ‘toolkit’
of techniques with which to realise it and inspire creative projects that you
will develop over your time with us or beyond. You participate in a series of
practical workshops based on significant performance traditions such as
classical drama, postmodern performance and physical theatre, and their
related methodologies and theory.
Critical Contexts supports your ability to analyse examples of professional
practice (primarily play scripts, scripts in performance and creative
methodologies) in the light of current debates in new writing or related areas
of scholarship. You also learn to analyse, articulate and reflect upon your own
practice and identity as a playwright. The module promotes the intellectual
curiosity that we believe is integral to sustaining your creative practice.
The Playwright in Context engages you in the analysis of selected play
texts as inspiration for your own practical experiments. The plays you study
are chosen by tutors or visiting playwrights to reflect significant themes in new
writing, for example ‘the playwright and social engagement’ or ‘the playwright
and science’. On completion of the module, you will have developed two
contrasting short plays that employ and extend techniques used in plays you
have studied. Visiting playwrights have included Laura Bridgeman (There is no
Name for It) and Georgia Fitch (Fit and Proper People, Adrenalin Heart).
Professional Practice exposes you to professional skills such as writing to
a set brief, pitching ideas, working in unfamiliar contexts, writing for particular
audiences and sustaining creative collaborations. You will participate in one
or more projects, working with professional practitioners towards a publicfacing
outcome such as a performance. Previous projects include a production
at the Camden Fringe Festival, a community play with children from a local
housing estate and radical adaptation of Shakespeare. Visiting professionals
have included Selma Dimitrejevic (Bush Theatre, Greyscale Theatre), Jonathan
Holloway (Red Shift Theatre), the Rose Theatre company (led by Sir Peter Hall),
Mitch Michelson (the Circus Space) and Moon Fool company.
During the summer of your final year, you work on a Capstone Project which
will usually take the form of a full-length playscript, accompanied by an essay
(you may also submit a dissertation on a topic agreed with your tutor). You
are guided through this process by an allocated supervisor, who will meet you
at regular interval to steer your progress and give feedback on early drafts.
Students are also encouraged to support each other through this period with
regular group meetings and workshops. This will be the culmination of your work
on the course to date, bringing together the learning and the skills you have
developed. It also facilitates your entry into professional practice or further study.
Teaching staff
Alex Mermikides (course leader) is a senior lecturer in drama. She has
worked as a dramaturg and assistant director with Lightwork theatre
company, which fuses live performance and digital technologies, and has
written for the stage (eg One Last Surviving at the Lyric Studio, Hammersmith,
and Cuckoo at the BAC) as well as for radio (The Angel of Islington for BBC
Radio 4). Alex co-edited with Jackie Smart an anthology, Devising in Process,
which explores the creative processes of eight British theatre companies
(published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010).
Colin Chambers is professor in drama. Formerly a journalist and theatre
critic, Colin was literary manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
from 1981–1997, where he worked with more than 80 playwrights. As well
as writing theatre histories and biographies, Colin has also written, translated
and adapted plays. His books include the award-winning Peggy: The Life
of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent (Nick Hern Books, 1997); The Continuum
Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre ed. (Continuum, 2002); Inside
the RSC (Routledge, 2004); and Here We Stand: Politics, Performers and
Performance – Paul Robeson, Isadora Duncan and Charlie Chaplin (Nick Hern
Books, 2006).
Winsome Pinnock is a senior lecturer and a renowned playwright. Recent
stage plays include: The Wind of Change; Leave Taking; A Hero’s Welcome;
A Rock in Water; Talking in Tongues; Water; and One Under. Winsome has
also written/adapted radio plays for BBC Radio 4: Her Father’s Daughter,
Water, Let Them Call It Jazz (adaptation of a Jean Rhys short story), and
Something Borrowed. In addition, Winsome has contributed to the television
series Chalk Face and Eastenders and the screenplay Bitter Harvest.
Winsome has won the George Devine Award and the Carlton Television
‘Best play of the year’ award. Her specialist subjects include scriptwriting for
theatre, autobiography, editorial process, fiction and history, prose fiction, and
television and radio.
Jim Reynolds is a lecturer in drama. He has worked as a youth theatre
director on National Theatre Connections, staging The Ice Palace at the
Kilburn Tricycle (2003) and Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Incredible Wife at the
Hammersmith Lyric (2006). He has also worked as a teacher of acting for The
Harris Agency, and as a devising director for Otherwise, in a lottery-funded
community project performed at the Cockpit Theatre. Jim has published on
Howard Barker’s work as a director in the anthology Theatre of Catastrophe
(Oberon: 2006), on acting with objects in Performance Research (2007), on
Robert Lepage’s Lipsynch in Platform (2008), and on the film adaptation of
graphic novels in the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance (2009).
Jackie Smart is principal lecturer in drama at Kingston University and
co-editor with Alex Mermikides of Devising in Process, which explores the
creative processes of eight important British theatre companies (Palgrave
Macmillan, June 2010). She has published chapters and articles on a number
of other theatre and dance companies. Before taking up an academic post,
Jackie founded, managed and directed productions with Theatre Cocktail, a
company that focused on adapting literary texts for theatre performance and,
in 2000, while in a post at Salford University, she formed Quisling, a physical
theatre company, with choreographer Lisa Cullen.
Ian Brown is professor and head of research in drama. He has a long career
as a playwright and poet, and in the development of theatre and new writing
initiatives, for example as drama director of the Arts Council of Great Britain
and, more recently as chair of the Scottish Society of Playwrights. He has
edited and published many books on Scottish drama and literature.

www.kingston.ac.uk/pgplaywriting
Playwriting MA
Entry requirements
To be considered for this course, you need to demonstrate one or more of
the following:
• A second-class degree or above, or equivalent, in a related subject
(for example drama, theatre studies, performing arts, creative writing,
English literature)
• Experience of dramatic writing (please supply up to five pages of
a playscript)
• Work experience in a professional theatre
• International students are required to have an IELTS score of 6.5, with 7.0 in
writing, or an equivalent qualification.
Prospective applicants are encouraged to meet the course leader prior to
making their application. Eligible applicants are usually invited to an interview
(phone or Skype interviews for overseas applicants).
Duration
One year full time or two years part time
Assessment
Formative assessments take the following forms:
Creative Practice: play scripts
Critical Contexts: academic essay
Playwright in Context: play scripts and short essay
Professional Practice: portfolio of creative tasks including a play script
Capstone Project: full-length play script and essay OR dissertation
Attendance/delivery
This course is taught in the evenings (usually 5–8pm) with full-time students
attending two classes a week and part-time students attending one class a
week between late September and early May. Occasional extra sessions (for
example workshops, lectures, theatre visits and tutorials) will be scheduled
as part of the teaching programme, particularly on the Professional Practice
module. During your final summer (from May to September), supervisory
meetings and peer-support workshops are arranged on a more flexible basis.
Expect to spend at least 28 hours a week (full time) and 14 hours a week (part
time) on independent writing, reading and research tasks. The workload tends
to peak at assessment points (usually January, May and September). As the
January and May assessments may include group-created tasks, additional
meetings/rehearsals may take place at the Rose Theatre or the University
outside regular teaching times.
Please contact the postgraduate admissions office for further details.
Location
Teaching takes place at the Rose Theatre, Kingston and at the Drama
department of Kingston University (Penrhyn Road campus), which are
about 10 minutes walk apart. Both the University (Kingston or Surbiton
train stations) and the Rose Theatre (Kingston train station) are within the
London travel-pass zone, are easily accessible from London (25 minutes
from Waterloo) and surrounding areas such as Surrey and Middlesex.
Further information
Contact details
Please contact the Faculty’s Admissions Office for an application form
or with any further queries.
Admissions Office (Postgraduate Courses)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Kingston University
Penrhyn Road
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey KT1 2EE
T: +44 (0)20 8417 2361/2378
F: +44 (0)20 8417 2292
E: fasspostgrad-info@kingston.ac.uk
www.kingston.ac.uk/pgplaywriting
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