Performing Arts

Performing Arts is being integrated into school curricula at an ever increasing rate and is already offered as an accredited secondary level subject in ten German state school systems. Interdisciplinary project-learning scenarios play a vital role in our programme. Students of Performing Arts are given the opportunity to work with others to produce performances and receive subsequent practice in strengthening an individual creative position.

Teaching theatre arts to school students, or anyone else, is a pedagogic process that demands well rounded knowledge and capabilities in areas such in voice and body training, improvisation, set and costume design, dramaturgy, stage directing, and more. Due to the fact that stage directing means taking responsibility for learner success, as well as for a the general outcome of a performance, further didactic tools and methods become necessary.

Performing artists must have a broad range of knowledge and need to gather experience in areas such as lighting, sound, space concepts, prop design, to name a few of the many genres that fall within the general field of performance.

Students completing our performing arts programme are instructed in the above mentioned practices and theories, and become adept at imparting this knowledge to others. Special attention is given to theater, performance art, and art in action, and students are challenged to fortify individual creative positions through material experimentation, rehearsal, and independent productions. Thus, students are equipped with a knowledge base that prepares them not only for teaching their subject, but for working in any number of fields as well. Didactic reflection goes hand in hand with the creative process within the programme and is an integrated component of the expressive act as opposed to being taught separately. Artistic collaboration, which is inherent to theater, also plays a crucial role in the organisation of the degree, and therefore, the desire to work with others is a prerequisite.

Students are expected to develop fundamental skills in working with new media, and to analyse media application in popular culture and theatre productions. Procedures concerning the planning and carrying out of productions are reflected upon and implemented in individual art projects, which are further enriched by knowledge attained in theatre history, contemporary theatre theory, and theatre pedagogy models. The programme is comprised of study modules that include various types of learning scenarios, such as practical exercises, seminars and lectures, didactic workshops, field trips, and art projects. In addition, students are exposed to art theory, art teaching, and art in practice as it relates to their specific field of study. The individual creative process strengthens the student's ability to convey their experience in theater and performance genres successfully as educators. It is key to the programme that students apply their theoretical knowledge by the employing of the artistic-performative processes.

Student projects make up an important feature of the study modules, for it is within the project framework that students have the necessary opportunity to work socially. Student productions are presented at the very least within the university, and subject theory is expected to preclude a project, escort its progress, and to be used as a means for reflexion and evaluation.

Moreover, numerous field trips give students the opportunity to study vocational practice in established institutions.

The programme is further supplemented by a professionalisation module, which includes internships that make it possible for students to put their knowledge to practice, and to gain a real-world understanding of their subject.

In addition, students who aim to enroll in an adjacent master of education are required to follow through with specific internships organised within the public school system.

Foreign applicants need to have proof of completed secondary schooling and are accepted on the grounds of their artistic capability. In addition, before enrolment can take place, foreign students are required to successfully pass a German language proficiency test, which is officially recognized by German universities.

For those pursuing a teaching certification, performing arts studies must be combined with a minor or major in German, English, or Music (Music at the HMT Hannover only as major). These subjects have restricted admissions, and can have varying entrance regulations. At the Braunschweig University of Art it is also possible to combine a major in Performing Arts with a minor in Aesthetics and Art history, Media Studies, or Communications Design. This would not however allow for entrance into an adjacent master of education programme. For further information, please contact any one of our listed contact persons.

It is possible to enroll in this programme either at the Braunschweig University of Art, or the Leibniz Universität Hannover. We recommend that students contact an advisor from both of the universities before making any final decisions concerning subject combinations.

Performing Arts studies are significantly art-oriented in Braunschweig. The instructional core is made up of both theatre and art focus areas such as art in action, performance, and physio-spatial research.

Students have the opportunity to further augment their artistic position through participation in a multitude of different projects and coursework. Students develop methods and impulses to supplement school teaching strategies that are fundamentally centered around their individual art statements. They experiment with performance as a multidiscipline, and involve themselves in areas associated with theatre, fine art, and performance art alike. Artists, whose works have led to new forms of expression within theatre, and have thus helped give theatre new definitions, are critically examined.

The involved student projects also serve the purpose of providing tangible objects for academic research with the aim of establishing new approaches to cultural-aesthetic education. It's about art outreach, and how the transferring of art to others is no longer to be perceived as subordinate to art, but as integral to the creative process.

In particular, the M. Ed in Performing Arts / Art in Action serves the purpose of educating future school teachers. Students therefore study two school subjects, which usually reflect the major and minor subjects that were pursued during the preliminary bachelor program. However, the confluence of visual arts and theatre during the master program qualifies students to apply their knowledge in contexts that extend far beyond the classroom. Due to the fact that the M. Ed in performing arts / art in action is structurally designed to be a continuation of B.A. studies in the same subject, course content assumes a corresponding knowledge base. Whether students decide to study Performing Arts / Art in Action as their major or minor subject will naturally determine the academic workload.

Our department seeks applicants with theatre experience, who are group oriented, innovative, and wish to experiment with the production of self-conceived scenarios. The Braunschweig University of Art is keen on providing creative personalities with a learning environment that supports individual artistic development with educational perspective. Students are challenged to carry out and reflect inter-medial aesthetic experiments in collaborative project contexts.

Application forms can be attained at the Office of Registration (German site).