University degrees: Postgraduate
Course length: 2 years full-time
Course city: Melbourne
A professional coursework degree, the Master of Design for Performance gives you skills, knowledge, and experience in designing scenery, props, costumes and/or lighting for live performance, including theatre, dance and opera.
Learn from both theoretical and practical training to practice your own craft professionally. As collaboration is at the heart of design for performance, your creative ideas will develop through artistic collaborations with directors, choreographers, designers, and other performance makers at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
Practical training and facilities help to develop advanced skills in a range of 2D and 3D visualisation techniques both analogue and digital. These skills are employed to develop, document and communicate ideas, and produce realised designs on stage.
Get the support to find the professional area of your choice – industry placements where you can observe and assist professional designers in the performing arts. Your creative partnerships with your peers may also lead to future professional collaborations.
This course also provides a pathway to a PhD.
Gain an introduction to the theory and process of design for live performance. A range of approaches will be explored through considering current and historical thinking about the role design plays in live performance, developing your conceptual skills and applying these in a series of studio-based projects.
Take on practical workshops and group projects, developing skills in collaboration and design realisation. Collaborators may include other designers, directors and choreographers.
Develop the fundamental skills and techniques for documenting and communicating designs for stage including, model making, perspective drawing, digital visualisation and CAD drafting.
Gain an understanding of historic and current performance practice in context and develop your research skills, including practical experience in locating resources (local and global) for specific inquiries. Visiting practitioners will also discuss their philosophies and approach.
Develop skills in utilising computer graphics software to communicate design concepts and produce items for actual use on stage including printed props and on-screen graphics.
Gain an understanding of design in your specialist area: live performance or screen. The investigation may include an internship on a professional production, attachment to a practicing designer or research into the industry you are preparing to enter.
Through a series of guest lectures and projects, gain a deeper understanding of the industry you are about to enter. Learn how to promote yourself to gain employment, fund your own practice and develop the skills you will need to manage a successful career.
