DRAMATURGY (MA)

About the Study Program

The Master's degree in Dramaturgy offers the possibility of choosing one of four specializations where students recognize the opportunity for focused, intensive, and advanced education and refinement. When applying for admission to a specific specialization, students propose an artistic-research project, which is developed through work in two main subjects: Film Writing or Drama Writing, or Performance Dramaturgy, and theoretical research or authorial poetics. The Master's program offers a range of elective courses with different contents and approaches (theoretical, practical, scientific, interdisciplinary), taught by faculty members from the Department of Dramaturgy. Students choose these courses in consultation with mentors based on their artistic-research projects, thus creating their individualized study programs. Elective courses can also be taken by students from other departments at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Faculty of Philosophy, and other units of the University of Zagreb.

The program encourages student mobility and is significantly realized through immediate artistic practice. With the help of their mentors, students arrange various forms and scopes of collaboration, assistantships, or independent authorship work on professional artistic projects outside the Academy. The specializations in the Master's degree in Dramaturgy are: Film Dramaturgy, Theatre Dramaturgy, Drama Writing and Film Writing, and Performance Dramaturgy.

Film Dramaturgy 

Film Dramaturgy is aimed at students interested in creative writing for the medium of film. The syllabus is organized through mentoring focused on various film genres, forms, and styles, following a structured process for developing both content and form. Special attention is given to each student's artistic practice, considering their interests and affinities in screenwriting, as well as theoretical reflection, which is an important segment of analyzing and understanding the film medium. During the four semesters, students work on two projects, each covering a screenplay for a feature film or TV series, as well as a theoretical research project related to some aspect of the student's screenwriting work.

Theatre Dramaturgy

This specialization offers opportunities for both theoretical and practical exploration of dramaturgy as an interdisciplinary artistic and analytical discipline. Mentoring is organized through parallel development of theoretical research and enhancement of an author's dramatic writing and poetics. Combined within a chosen project, these works create a synergy between theoretical and practical knowledge, with an emphasis on dramaturgy as a comprehensive organizational and creative mechanism. Additional elective courses allow students to expand their knowledge of theatre studies and experiment with specific subgenres, forms, or styles of dramatic writing.

Drama Writing and Film Writing

This specialization merges elements of the Theatre and Film Dramaturgy programs, focusing on film and drama writing without the theoretical-research component. The third main subject, Authorial Poetics, allows for expanding the artistic research area into various writing practices or additional work in a narrower field of interest. Through the three main artistic subjects, this specialization aims to equip students with the skills necessary for writing for theatre, film, and television. Students write scripts and dramatic texts under the guidance of mentors, with work conducted individually or in smaller groups. In consultation with mentors, students shape their own program, choosing topics, organizing content, and establishing form for their final written works.

Performance Dramaturgy

The Performance Dramaturgy program is unique in the domestic and broader regional context, dedicated to the development of authorial performance projects and methods throughout a two-year research process. This specialization focuses on articulating the research and methodological foundations of one's dramaturgical practice, not only for professional dramaturgs but also for other independent authors in the fields of choreography, theatre, performance, etc. The main artistic subjects are thematically linked to the student's proposed interests, and elective courses are formed and agreed upon in collaboration with mentors. This program enables dynamic cooperation and exchange with other related academic institutions and studies in Europe, working on international projects and research initiatives at the Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Career Prospects after Graduation

Upon completion of the undergraduate study in Dramaturgy, students are awarded the academic title of Master of Dramaturgy.

Students of the Dramaturgy program gain their first experiences in artistic production during the course of their studies through student internships and assistantships on projects within or outside the Academy. The Department of Dramaturgy collaborates with numerous institutions and organizations in the field, including theatres, institutes and festivals, film production companies, TV and radio stations, publishers, newspapers, and internet media, as well as theatre, performance, and dance companies.

Successful graduates of the program today work as dramaturgs in theatre institutions and independent groups, university professors, researchers at scientific institutions, journalists and editors in media and specialized magazines, screenwriters for television, and also as freelance artists (playwrights, screenwriters, dramaturgs), independent theorists and critics, directors, choreographers, and performers.