MA Course Descriptions
MA in Shakespeare Studies: Text and Playhouse
This course explores aspects of Renaissance drama within the historical context of the London theatre industry. Special attention will be paid to the design, architecture and operations of the Elizabethan playhouse. Equally, the course will uncover the structure and order of the theatre companies and their repertories. The new Globe playhouse, as the primary learning tool, will provide the students with some idea as to how plays were commissioned, cast, licensed, rehearsed, performed and printed.
Students will be given the opportunity to visit the Rose excavation site and will conduct detailed analyses of playhouse documents, old and new. In addition to straight lectures given by the course faculty and esteemed guest lecturers, the students will also hear from directors and Globe practitioners on aspects of staging, properties and costuming.
The course will take place in lectures, seminars and practical workshops on the Globe stage, which will require active participation (but no acting skills!). The course also seeks to examine the practical and theoretical implications of scholarly attempts to recover evidence about playhouse practice; students will also engage with current debates about the uses of material history and the intellectual limits of the notion of authenticity.
This MA, taught jointly with King's College London, offers the chance to study Shakespeare's works in the context of the theatre industry of his time, using surviving artefacts (including playhouse documents) of the period and exploiting the unique learning facilities of the reconstructed Globe.
Benefitting from the resources of the Globe Education and Research departments and the English department of King's College London, participants will examine the production and consumption of drama in the London theatres under Elizabeth 1 and James 1.
The parts of the programme based at King's focus on reading widely within early modern drama, on examining the Shakespeare canon alongside other texts and in relation to its varied afterlife, and on developing an advanced understanding of critical approaches to early modern writing and culture.
In a Research Methods course taught jointly by faculty from King's and the Globe, students learn of the resources and techniques appropriate to postgraduate study of Shakespeare's play, including textual, bibliographical and critical theory. This course also provides an introduction to early modern palaeography - in order that students may read sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century manuscripts - and to early modern printing practices, using the Globe's replica hand-press to teach the techniques of printing which have shaped the Shakespeare texts that have come down to us.
Faculty will include Dr Farah Karim-Cooper (Globe), Dr Gordon McMullan (King's), Dr Sonia Massai (King's) and Professor Ann Thompson (King's). The Globe has regular visiting fellows who also contribute to the MA. Past guest lecturers have included Professor Andrew Gurr (Globe and University of Reading), Professor Susan Cerasano (Colgate University) and Jenny Tiramani (Associate Designer - 1996 – 2002, Director of Theatre Design - 2003 – 2006)
For further information telephone Alexandra Massey +44 (0)20 7902 1436 or email englishdept@kcl.ac.uk or alex.m@shakespearesglobe.com
MA Creative Arts in the Classroom
Globe Education in partnership with King's College London
This MA programme is specifically designed for primary and secondary teachers interested in developing their knowledge and teaching practice in the area of creative arts education. The central aim of the course is to explore the role and impact of the creative arts across the curriculum and to consider how interaction with arts organisations, artists and performing art forms can enrich teaching and learning within schools.
The first module, Performing Arts in the Classroom, is based at the Globe and comprises a series of ten sessions. Students analyse the similarities and differences between the arts practitioner and teacher, the role of arts education practice in school and the different levels of interaction possible between schools and arts organisations. The module centres on the possibilities for productive collaboration between schools and arts organisations as well as exploring approaches developed by arts practitioners and examining how they can be used within the classroom. Students complete a theoretical module at King’s College, focussing on issues in areas such as Notions of English and English and the Arts of Language.
The second Globe module begins with a one-week practical placement at the theatre. Teachers explore different art forms, such as dance, music and acting, and look at how these discipliones interact in the production of theatre. Teaching and learning activities are developed throughout this placement week, as well as preparation for the dissertation and placement based on their second placement in another arts organisation of their choice.
Duration: Two modules are undertaken at Shakespeare's Globe and a further two at King's. A final dissertation is researched in an arts organisation of the student's choice. The course can be full or part time.
Suitability: Designed for teachers of English, Drama, Art or Music working at all key stages and Further Education.
Entry requirements: minimum 2.2 first degree, plus PGCE or equivalent and preferably a minimum of two years' teaching experience.
For more information, including application details contacy Bethan Marshall, the course director at King's College on 020 7843 3114 or visit the King's College London website
To find out more about the modules at the Globe call Fiona Banks on 020 7902 1432