Master in Dramatic Arts Drama – Directing

The “directing” track (language: Dutch, English or French) – we tend to prefer the broader neologism “theatre maker” – focuses on the development of your individual work and will take the form of a coherent hands-on research track that will be elaborated by means of two fully-fledged artistic projects (public presentations). This track presupposes considerable experience in the concerned artistic activities. 

This MA programme is hosted by the theatre department of RITCS | School of Arts, which also organizes BA programs in acting, directing and theatre technique (production, light design, set design, sound and video). Our MA programme welcomes prospective candidates with a Bachelor degree in Performing Arts. The RITCS Master of Theatre is internationally acknowledged and accredited by the NVAO.

You will work in an interdisciplinary environment aimed at the development of your personal work as a performer or director, whether this work is developed individually or in close collaboration with other artists. You will work within the broad field of (music) theatre and performance art. The backbone of this tailor-made MA programme will be taken up by your practice-based artistic research, which will be developed in permanent negotiation with an audience and the broader context of the arts world. At the end of the academic year the graduation projects are presented in a festival which the school organizes in collaboration with Bronks (www.bronks.be), Kaaitheater (www.kaaitheater.be) and KVS (www.kvs.be).

Accompanied by renowned theatre makers, you gain insight into the various techniques and media connected to the performing arts through workshops. In the theory classes, you analyse the different theatre traditions and contexts and develop your own conceptual framework. But it is mainly on the stage where you examine what the theatre of the future might look like and where your own urges and desires lie from which you want to address an audience.

In these workshops we ask how we can introduce society into the theatre, which urgencies of our time we can get to people through theatre and what is needed today to stimulate the public’s imagination. Can theatre bombard the digital society with a vital experience? Can we still make Shakespeare urgent or should we rather connect Breakdancers and Dada? What do we put at stake and how do we get someone to play? Can we create a place through theatre where it is pleasant or challenging for the spectator to stay?

In practical exercises with your fellow students from other disciplines, you convert your acquired expertise from the techniques and your findings from the workshops into performances.
You are a maker who steers, coaches and inspires playfully, but also dares to lose track, scans your own boundaries and constantly (re)discover yourself. Throughout this process you learn to be the instigator of theatre projects with a particular and significant signature.

This training makes you resilient for a fascinating and influential career in the theatrical field.