MA Costume for Performance

This practical, immersive course elevates your current design skills, allowing you to enter the theatre, film and television industries at a higher level.

You’ll develop your analysis, research and technical skills in both digital and traditional rendering and character drawing. Under the guidance of your tutors – all of whom are practitioners at the top of their field – you’ll then go on to design and make costumes for live performances here at the College.

Collaboration is at the heart of this course. In your RWCMD placements or on those with our industry partners, you’ll learn about different creative disciplines and get a real feel for what it’s like to be a member of a production support team – all in readiness for life after graduation.

This course culminates with your work being displayed in a public exhibition in Cardiff and on London’s South Bank, which include industry nights for an invited audience of potential employers.

Our Costume for Performance graduates have gone onto careers as designers, costume and costume prop makers, tailors, milliners, costume supervisors, buyers, breakdown artists and other creative practitioners in leading companies across the UK and internationally

• You’ll gain, through the breadth of projects and classwork, a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical and practical principles of designing for theatre, film and TV – making you highly desirable to employers.
• Through substantial creative projects – such as making costumes for a catwalk or an opera performance – you’ll take a deep dive into the process of design, demonstrating a sophisticated application of your creative skills. 
• We are leading the way in state-of-the-art theatre technology in Wales and our full-time staff and the visiting lecturers are all practitioners still working in industry, with both national and international profiles. They bring the most current best practices to your training.
• As part of the Richard Burton Company – our in-house theatre company of final year student actors and stage managers – you will work on a variety of public performances during your course. The Company’s productions consistently attract a large public audience.
• Placements with companies such as Bad Wolf, BBC Wales and WNO offer you local experience working in workshops and studios at the cutting edge of the UK’s professional production for stage and screen. The production and design department also offers placements with leading theatre and opera companies across the UK.
• The small cohort size and high level of staff support means that you’re learning in a nurturing and safe working environment. 
• The working environment within the College mirrors that of the performance industries, and you can transfer seamlessly into work with confidence in your capabilities. 
• Masterclass presentations run throughout the course, delivered by leading international practitioners. Designed to complement individual specialist study needs, these classes allow you to develop a comprehensive appreciation of excellence, multidisciplinary practice and performance collaboration. 
• You’ll have access to our on-site design studio spaces, prop workshop/paint shop and wardrobe facilities, as well as a designated CAD studio, editing suites and large-scale construction and scenic art workshops. 
• You’ll take part in scheduled visits to local theatre companies, offering additional insight into the industry at work. When major productions visit Cardiff, we’ll try to arrange visits and organise a tour or talk for your cohort.