Theatre & Performance

Awaken your theatrical creativity and find outlets to express it. Study theatre from a range of cultures and historical periods, then focus more intensively on theatre of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the work of international and British playwrights and performance makers such as Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane, Complicité, Caryl Churchill and Katie Mitchell.

The course investigates a range of contemporary global practices from verbatim to immersive, from site-specific work to examples of digital technologies in live performance. You will see performances ranging from west end theatre to the latest practitioners of 'intermedial' theatre and performance art.

You will have the opportunity to combine the study of ground-breaking theory with practical application, using our purpose-built £11m facilities that feature three theatre spaces, a multi-camera film and TV studio, a digital cinema, and dedicated recording studio and mixing suite. Explore how directors, designers, writers and other theatre artists respond to and shape our rapidly changing world. Learn practical skills from the first year, with opportunities to create performances in the final two years.

Receive an introduction to the histories and critical frameworks that inform each medium, and develop a range of academic and practical skills that will prove invaluable throughout the degree and beyond. Explore a variety of “channels of communication”, and be introduced to work across Chinese, Greek, Shakespearean and Noh theatre.

We provide you with a thorough understanding of theatre conventions in order that your own experiments can have an even stronger impact. Throughout your first-year practical work you will explore how theatre has been effected by different social and historical contexts, and develop your own responses to this in group-based projects.

Specialise in areas based on your personal or career interests, explore work within and beyond classical and conventional narrative traditions, and learn about practitioners and movements that have challenged those traditions in various global and historical contexts. Your idea of theatre will be expanded by studying avant-garde, postdramatic, political and radical performance works. Optional modules allow you to investigate a variety of areas, such as nationhood on stage and identity in performance, as well as a selection of film and television modules.

All taught lectures are followed by discussion and/or workshop-based seminars, enabling you to immediately respond to what you are learning. From start to finish, you will study both theory and practice – and learn how to effectively blend them together. Our Department has a long and proud history of supporting collaborative work and you will be encouraged to build your own knowledge and skills through working alongside fellow students.

Our close proximity to London means you will have numerous opportunities to visit theatres and see performances as part of your degree. Please be aware theatre tickets and travel are additional costs for any theatre module, and you should plan accordingly.

**Careers**

96% of our graduates were in work or further study within six months of graduating (DLHE survey, 2016–17).

Our flexible degrees are designed to develop the confidence and skills valued by both creative and commercial industries, providing you with a diverse range of career opportunities following graduation. You will develop the practical film and theatre production skills needed in industry, as well as many transferable skills for work in a wider range of sectors.

Many of our graduates work in the creative industries and their roles include theatre directors, playwrights, visual FX experts and critics. Graduates also go on to work in commercial marketing and media, advertising, journalism and teaching.