The basic objective of the master’s degree field of Theatre Directing is to educate independent directors – artists who can create a special stage work on the basis of a dramatic text, but also on the basis of non-dramatic texts (subjects, themes, topics,

etc.), in which they will apply their own artistic imagination and fantasy together with the ability to create – with the help of all components of theatrical synthesis – a structured stage shape striving for and leading to artistic expression.

The master’s degree level of this field further improves the ability to analyse a dramatic text and, as a result, the ability to penetrate the dramatic text more deeply and comprehensively, thus subsequently improving the graduate’s ability to create deeper and more comprehensive dramaturgical-directing conception of stage art. The creative ability of students to realise their own directing-author projects is also developed. In the 1st year of studies, students create independent projects which they must thoroughly prepare in theory and then implement in the form of written credit examinations and finally analyse and evaluate the results thereof. The aim is to discover and critically reflect on one’s own creative method, its positives aspects and mistakes made in a specific work.

During the 1st year, the procedures, methods and techniques of contemporary theatre acting and directing are continuously studied and discovered. An important element of education in the art of directing is working with the actor as the most important means of the director’s expression, his or her search for artistic truth, authenticity and richly structured character. Mastering all the nuances of the director’s work with the actor is one of the most difficult components of directing, both in the search for artistic means and in the methodology and psychology of the director-actor relationship. Cooperation with dramaturgy and scenography is studied more and more in depth; the director learns to manage the whole team of the theatrical production and to unify his or her direction towards a unified and holistic artistic statement.

In this process, the acquired knowledge is gradually applied and learned skills verified, as well as a specific, talent-given artistic vision; all these elements are then connected into one organic whole of theatrical production, into an attempt at artistic expression, an attempt to create a synthetic piece of stage art, through which man has been discovering and humanising the world for millennia.

The culmination of this effort are the final staging projects in the 1st year of studies and the graduate staging project in the faculty theatre studio Marta in the 2nd year. In conditions similar to professional theatre, 2nd year student verify their ability to create a theatrical production. Student can then realise their second graduate projects in a professional theatre.

In both years (especially in the 1st year), the studies are accompanied by lectures and seminars on new world drama and theatre, lectures or seminars on the theory of theatre and directing, as well as a seminar on working with verse or new media. Students have the opportunity to freely co-create this part of the studies based on their orientation; that is, of course, to a certain extent and in accordance with the university’s (or faculty’s) possibilities.

An important part of the master’s degree studies is completing a study or work internship abroad or an internship in a Czech professional theatre.