Scenography

Are you a visual artist, a theatre designer, a theatre maker or director, a performance designer, a visual dramaturg, a multimedia artist, an architect or spatial designer, a curator of events, involved in scenographic art practice in any other way or ambitious to be so? Are you eager to develop your work through practice and research?

Master Scenography students at HKU Theatre are trained to transform any environment into a theatrical surrounding, through supervising and stimulating the development of their creative and intellectual capabilities.

The course is suitable for students who have just completed their Bachelor’s degree and are capable of conducting research independently and in a broad context, as well as for artists who have already been working as professionals at Bachelor’s level for several years. The study program offers you conceptual deepening and broadening of professional skills, and frameworks for research.

Upon graduation

MFA Scenography graduates are independent artists and designers capable of working in (artistic) team configurations, with an ability to initiate, organize and supervise projects themselves. They can accept all kinds of assignments in which ideas are required for a theatrical design of space.

Having an enterprising attitude, the scenographer is someone who likes to break out of established patterns and realize social value, who deals with uncertainty, is alert and on his toes, creative and contrary. The theatrical designer or performance designer has the ability to make an essential contribution to the significance of performances.

The MFA Scenography offers a strong, open network for students and alumni to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences. Its network includes a wide range of cultural partners in Utrecht as well as abroad. The MFA Scenography participates in an international network with partners such as Prague Quadrennial 2015 (which is the largest scenography event in the world, presenting contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres.

The MFA Scenography has a dynamic collaborative relation with Het Huis Utrecht and ILO.

The Master Scenography degree is a full-time course. The programme of 120 credits is distributed over two academic years. This is a program that will enable you to attain a high level of practical expertise and knowledge of scientific disciplines and professional theatre practices and how to apply them.

The Master’s programme gives you plenty of space to put your work and/or artistic practice centre stage for the duration of your studies. Cohesion is enhanced by the artistic research you do to develop your own work (investigation in both a practical and theoretical sense) and to develop your own artistic system (reflection). Research is done into and through the art work, in four distinct stages of research and development: play and experiment; collection of meaningful material; formulation of the artistic system; communication and presentation of research results.

Artistic research, in-depth knowledge acquisition and reflection are the starting points of our degree course. The curriculum base is formed by encounters with professional theatre makers with diverse artistic practices; through workshops, group projects, round tables, theoretical study and excursions.

There is an assessment at the end of every semester, when we examine how you are developing in terms of visual dramaturgy, and conceptual and theoretical reflection. The fourth semester is mostly taken up with preparing for graduation in which you independently initiate and present the results of your scenographic research in the form of a design or project. In addition, you present a theoretical thesis in which you place your own work and research ina wider context.

Upon submission of your documentation and portfolio, the Motivation and Project Proposal, will be considered for an interview. If it is not possible for foreign students to come to Utrecht for an admissions interview, the interview will be conducted by telephone or via Skype. To be admitted to our Master’s programme, you must demonstrate sufficient competence in the English language by submitting an official international IELTS or TOEFL test certificate. English Language Requirements IELTS band: 6 CAE score: (read more) Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) is part of the Cambridge English suite and is targeted at a high level (IETLS 6.5-8.0). It is an international English language exam set at the right level for academic and professional success. Developed by Cambridge English Language Assessment - part of the University of Cambridge - it helps you stand out from the crowd as a high achiever. 60 (Grade C) TOEFL paper-based test score : 550 TOEFL iBT® test: 80