Theatre Design

Theatre design is the art of creating the visual and spatial world of a theatrical production. It encompasses set design, costume design, lighting design and sound design, and it requires a distinctive combination of creative vision, technical skill, historical knowledge and collaborative intelligence. Theatre designers work closely with directors, actors and other creatives to translate a script or concept into a physical and sensory world that serves the production and communicates with audiences.

The discipline demands both artistic originality and the practical ability to realise ideas within the constraints of budget, space and time that professional theatre always involves.

At the University of the Arts, London, this three-year full-time degree is taught at one of the world's leading arts universities, with the access to London's extraordinary theatre scene that implies. You will develop skills in set and costume design, model-making, technical drawing, material exploration, research and concept development, working across a range of production contexts from small-scale experimental work to larger productions. The programme develops your creative and analytical capacities alongside your technical proficiency, ensuring that your design work is rooted in rigorous research and critical thinking about text, space and audience.

A sandwich year placement and a work placement are both embedded in the programme, giving you substantial professional experience in theatre and related industries and building the industry relationships that matter for a career in this competitive field.

You will develop a body of design work across the three years that constitutes your professional portfolio, demonstrating your creative range, research depth and technical capability to prospective employers and collaborators.

Graduates move into set and costume design for theatre, opera, dance, film and television, exhibition and experience design, prop-making, production management, and design education. The combination of UAL's reputation and London's cultural resources makes the degree a strong foundation for a professional design career.