Theatre and Performance Design

Theatre and performance design is the discipline concerned with the visual and physical world of performance, the sets, lighting, costumes, sound, projection, and spatial environments that give theatrical and live performance its distinctive sensory character. Design in performance is not a neutral backdrop to the action; it is a fundamental part of how meaning is made, how atmosphere is created, and how an audience is drawn into the world of a production. Effective performance designers are creative collaborators who work closely with directors, choreographers, and performers to realise a coherent and compelling vision.

At the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, this three-year full-time programme develops your practical skills and creative vision across the design disciplines relevant to performance. You will work across live, digital, and multimedia productions and installations, developing expertise in spatial design, scenic construction, lighting, sound, costume, and digital technologies that are reshaping what performance design can do. LIPA's distinctive learning environment, combining professional-standard facilities with a culture of collaboration between students in different performance disciplines, provides an unusually authentic context for your development.

You will work alongside students in music, acting, theatre and entertainment management, and music technology, mirroring the collaborative realities of professional performance.

Graduates work as set, lighting, costume, sound, and projection designers in theatre, opera, dance, site-specific performance, exhibitions, and live events. LIPA's strong professional connections and graduate network provide important routes into the industry. Many graduates also find careers in events, television, film production design, exhibition design, and themed environments.

The design skills and collaborative working practices the programme develops are valued across the creative industries more broadly.