About Theatre and Performance

The Department of Theatre and Performance places creative thinking and articulate practice at its heart.

By combining practice and theory, we encourage our students to experiment, innovate, push boundaries and be critical, attracting a dynamic cohort of like-minded creatives.

Students are provided with the tools to refine their craft, leaving Goldsmiths as articulate practitioners, equipped to shape the theatre of the future. Our graduates go on to secure leading roles in the theatre industry and many other fields, from performers to academics, to theatre managers, producers and project leaders.

We have excellent facilities

As well as our George Wood Theatre, which seats up to 140 people and provides excellent technical facilities, students will have access to six other studio spaces.

Theatre and Performance students also have exclusive access to a number of creative and technical workshops run by a superb technical team. For more information, have a look at our facilities page.

We’re connected

Our staff team are excellently networked and made up of professionals who work with a number of exciting organisations including The National Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Punchdrunk, Graeae, Southbank Centre and more.

These industry links are often used to our students’ advantage, especially in our work placement modules. Recent placements have included the Donmar Warehouse, Actors Touring Company, Emergency Exit Arts, Access All Areas, Arcola Theatre, Talawa Theatre Company and Duckie.

We’re diverse

We strive to encourage diversity in learning and inspire students to explore beyond the boundaries of traditional Western theatre.

Students will have the opportunity to study Shakespeare and classic texts, but will also be offered modules which cover gender, identity and queer theories, activist and protest performance and postcolonial theatre.

We are proud to have some of the leading scholars in Black and Women’s Theatre, and in world theatres including African, Japanese and European Theatre.

As well as highly-respected scholars, our staff include leading practitioner-researchers in a range of performance fields, including applied theatre, contemporary performance and Live Art, and performing, playwrighting, directing, dramaturgy and scenography.

We’re in the heart of it all

Goldsmiths is just a 10-minute train ride from London Bridge and in easy reach of cultural institutions like the South Bank arts complex, the Globe Theatre, West End theatres, Rich Mix, Sadler's Wells, the Almeida Theatre, and Young Vic Theatre. 

Venues such as Greenwich Theatre, the Albany Theatre, and Laban Theatre are all within a 30-minute walk. Even closer to home, open mic nights for stand up and music are a regular feature in many of the nearby pubs and bars. New Cross itself is a vibrant hub of creativity and dynamism. 

We create opportunities

At the end of your degree, you will have the chance to apply for our Technical Assistant role, exclusively offered to Theatre and Performance students. With our Student Project Fund, you can apply for up to £500 to support your independent creative endeavours. We also run an Associate Artist/Researcher Award scheme which enables us to nurture and further mentor our outstanding students after graduation.

Additionally, we are a member of the CHASE Studentship Scheme, which offers up to 75 post-graduate studentships at member institutions.

Further details can be found on our Opportunities page.