Graduate · Music & Performing Arts
Master of Fine Arts (Design for Performance)
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney, NSW, Australia
About this program
The Master of Fine Arts (Design for Performance) takes designers who already have a foundation (often a BFA, an art or architecture degree, or professional design experience) and puts them through an intensive studio program spanning set, costume, lighting and increasingly video design, with an explicit push toward cross-disciplinary fluency rather than a single specialism. Past cohorts have travelled to Europe as part of the course, including a documented trip built around the Avignon Festival, reflecting NIDA's view that design training benefits from exposure to major international festival production at scale.
Students take on real design roles on NIDA's own season during the course, working alongside directing and technical production students under production conditions rather than in a design studio disconnected from staging. The emphasis throughout is on collaboration: a design that only works on paper but can't survive contact with a director, a budget and a get-in schedule isn't considered finished training.
Graduates leave positioned for design and associate design roles in theatre, opera and screen production, with a portfolio built from produced, reviewed work rather than speculative concepts.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Verified nida.edu.au ↗
Course structure
3 terms of coursework
- Semester 1: Design Studio (set and costume integration), Spatial and Scenic Design, Collaborative Process with Directors and Actors
- Semester 2: Lighting and Video Design, Design for Opera and Large-Scale Work, international studio intensive
- Semester 3 (final): capstone design role on a NIDA mainstage production, professional portfolio and industry presentation
Admissions
Bachelor's degree plus portfolio submission and interview
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