This innovative degree will allow you to gain the skills you need to build a portfolio career in the arts. We have a long-held reputation in the industry for producing innovative, highly-skilled and thoughtful graduates who go on to challenge conventions and re-shape how theatre is made and seen both nationally and internationally.
Learn from academics who are experienced theatre practitioners and researchers who will help you develop your skills and talents in a range of theatre practices including: text-based plays, experimental theatre, stand-up comedy, site-specific and immersive performance.
Follow in the footsteps of a long list of decorated graduates including: Alan Carr: Comedian, broadcaster and writer, Tangled Feet: Ensemble theatre company featured on BCC, ITC and The Guardian, Munotida Chinyanga: Director and Sonic Artist, Zakk Hein: Video designer, Associate at Luke Halls Studio, and many more.
Wondering whether to choose a university course or a drama school? This course offers the best of both worlds by combining highly practical teaching and a wide range of performance opportunities with the chance to closely examine why and how theatre is made, giving you the freedom to pursue your interests and discover what makes you unique as a performer and practitioner.
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This course will develop your skills and talents as a performer while equipping you with a wide range of theatre-making and production skills that give you the ability to put your creative ideas into action.
You'll study the key processes and principles of the practice and study of performance and production as well as a diverse range of critical, cultural and historical perspectives on theatre as a live art form. You'll also learn how these are applied or considered in performance practice. You'll explore ethical approaches to theatre-making and the role of critical analysis in your and others’ design practice, and be introduced to professional networks, contexts and organisations relevant to your future career.
During your studies, you'll develop and refine a broad portfolio of skills, methods, techniques and crafts in performance and production practices. You'll gain the key entrepreneurial and administrative skills required for a career in the creative industries, and develop an individual approach to delivering highly creative work underpinned by innovation and critical insight.
This degree will give you the opportunity to develop a solid knowledge of the professional skills and theories around areas such as acting, performing, producing, fundraising, artistic policies and audience development. Your physical and vocal performance skills will also be enhanced and developed as well as the practical approaches to acting, directing and devising performances.
You'll learn to facilitate workshops, collaborate in theatre making and gain an understanding of the key practitioners and concepts in devised performance and text based theatre.
This module introduces you to key principles of acting and performance, including practical approaches to performance, devising and directing. You'll develop skills in physical and vocal performance, devising, textual analysis and collaborative working through a series of practical workshops and group projects.
This module introduces you to key principles of theatre design and technical production through practical workshops and group projects. You will develop an understanding of the role of the theatre designer within a collaborative process, and examine key processes and approaches to designing for live performance.
This module introduces key contexts, debates and critical frameworks relevant to theatre and performance practice. You'll develop your understanding of a range of research methods, and develop your ability to analyse and critique live performance. The module combines self-directed study supported by a range of online resources with live seminars and theatre visits.
This module gives you the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you have encountered throughout the first year to develop and realise a collaborative theatre project. Working with a tutor and students from across the Performance and Design programmes, you'll participate in all of the creative and production elements necessary to realise a fully-staged piece of theatre.
This module aims to enhance your critical consideration of the social, political and ethical implications of engaging with an audience through your practice. You'll develop employability and workshop-leading skills, and enhance your awareness and consideration of who theatre is for, why, and how this can impact the work from initial concept through to its practical realisation.
The module focuses on the relationship between actor, director and play text. You will develop skills in text analysis, speaking text, and staging/performance through a project-based approach. Further, you will engage with a range of acting and performing systems, including training of voice and body. In this module you will investigate more closely the respective roles of the actor and the director working in rehearsal with a play text and engage in close analysis of action. You will also develop your ability to reflect on your practice, learning and personal development.
The module allows you to develop your skills as a performer and theatre-maker, and apply the skills that you have encountered on other modules in a collaborative performance project. You'll collaborate with students on the Design programme to conceive and realise a collaborative project, working to a shared brief and contributing to the overall thematic and contextual aims of the project.
This module builds on key principles that were introduced in year 1 by exploring and interrogating a range of approaches and interpretative strategies employed by key practitioners. You'll examine developments in contemporary theatre design and strengthen your ability to generate, develop and communicate ideas and concepts effectively; and to execute these concepts through a range of practical tasks and projects.
This module will allow you to experience a range of solo performance practices, through workshops, seminars and independent study. Each form will be examined through a consideration of socio-historical and contextual lenses and will be enhanced by an exploration of key practitioners and practices, culminating in your own performance-making.
This module aims to develop your critical understanding and application of a range of techniques for dramatic writing and dramaturgical intervention. Through the practical exploration of elements of dramatic structure, it aims to equip you with the tools to conceive of and develop a written project throughout the module, developing your understanding of the dramatic form as a tool to communicate your ideas.
This module provides the opportunity to engage in a range of externally-facing projects, placements and/or critical investigations into professional practice. You'll develop your knowledge of professional skills and theories around areas such as producing, fundraising, artistic policies and audience development as well as refining methodologies, attitudes and competencies for seeking work in a professional context.
This module aims to extend your abilities in making physical theatre. You'll engage with a variety of training systems, creating material and improvising scores, leading to a final performance of original work. Through practice-led sessions that investigate the concepts and methodologies of “physical theatres”, you'll re-examine the work and position of the actor/performer in relation to current and historical practice of performance training and ensemble work.
This module provides the opportunity to work in and across groups to create and contextualise collaborative projects which are curated and presented as a collective Theatre Festival. You'll produce the Theatre Festival as an outward-facing public showcase, encouraging you to consider your work in a professional context and apply the practical making skills taught in other modules, alongside the producing skills taught in this module.
This module will extend your critical and practical skills in theatre directing. You'll initiate a series of directing projects enabling you to take a nuanced approach to developing and analysing your professional identity as a director of theatre and/or live performance, and you'll consider where this practice intersects with other skills and disciplines you have engaged with on your programme.
This module aims to extend your individual performance practices in one of two pathways: Stand-up Comedy or Performance Art. You'll develop practical skills and contextual knowledge in one of these forms, applying appropriate performance theory and/or performance philosophy to the development of a live performance in a professional comedy venue, or the exhibition of a work of performance art.
This module aims to allow you to identify a particular site of exploration and experimentation and to engage in a practice-led Research and Development project relevant to the chosen area. The module incentivises risk and experimentation, encouraging you to consider the practical research process as an end in itself, and introduces you to preliminary skills relevant to Practice as Research study at postgraduate level.
* This module is compulsory for the BA Theatre Performance and Production exit award
** This module is compulsory for the BA Theatre Directing and Production exit award
You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
This course will prepare you for a career in the creative industries by providing opportunities to engage in a range of externally-facing projects, placements and/or critical investigations into professional practice.
You'll develop your knowledge of professional skills and theories around areas such as producing, fundraising, artistic policies and audience development as well as refining and diversifying methodologies, attitudes and competencies for seeking and undertaking work in professional contexts.
You'll be encouraged to establish professional links and enhance your employability potential through a practice-led understanding of your chosen professional context(s) and contextualise your own creative practice/identity within a wider industry context.
Our theatre students typically graduate into diverse career paths directly in the theatre industry as well as its many peripheral industries. You could progress to careers in performance and performance-making, directing, dramaturgy, and producing and arts management. You could also advance into arts administration, teaching and non-theatre based careers within film, media, events and other creative industries.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: October 2022
Duration: 3 years full-time
Code: W464