Master’s Program in Methods of Staging a Production

This master’s program has been designed specifically for foreign students. Its purpose is to instruct those who have a Bachelor’s degree in theatre in other countries in the ways in which productions are staged within the framework of the contemporary Russian school of theatre. Particular attention is paid to the method of active analysis and etude form of rehearsing. The program is intended for professionals from different areas of expertise: directors, actors, and designers cab all benefit from mastering these methods based on Stanislavsky’s ideas. The duration of the program is four semesters (two academic years). Students learn to understand the principles of how genuine life is achieved onstage, how actors enter into a creative state and embody the real sensations of the play and the role. The program also includes the methods of the director’s analysis of the play and of conducting rehearsals, from exercises through to creating fragments and scenes from which they pass on to staging the production itself. The material for this production is a Russian classic, the better for the students to delve deeper into the Russian cultural mindset. Training in practical disciplines is complemented by advanced study of cultural and theoretical disciplines. The Master’s degree requires a dissertation to be written in the final (fourth) semester which methodologically expands upon one of the aspects of creating a production.

Master’s Program in Playwriting

In 2011 we started an MA Playwriting program. It was formed and designed as a two-year Master's program in Theatre Arts.  Since its foundation Natalia Skorokhod has been at its helm. We are proud of our graduates, including Asya Voloshina, Tanya Rakhmanova and Nastya Bukreeva, whose plays are staged in the most prominent Russian theaters, participate in prestigious festivals and have won numerous awards.

This professional program is divided into three parts. First is the Playwriting Practicum, in which students are invited to experience all the necessary categories of their craft, such as plot, characters, rhythm, conflict, dialogue, etc. Here playwrights work on fragments, one-act plays and finally create a full-length play. The second part is The Applied Play (or Devising), connected with different projects we develop over the two years. It might be a prose adaptation made in collaboration with a director (also a student), or making a play in a group around some theme to be presented at a festival or workshop. We call the third part Dramatic Structure. Here we analyze a lot of plays, classic to modern. The students also attend lectures on the history of theatre and the arts, philosophy, visit and discuss theater performances and other important cultural events in St. Petersburg.

Admission for master program for 2019-2021: "Contemporary theatre and conceptual art"