Drama BA (Hons) DIntS / DPS

What you'll study

Excited to learn more? For a taster of what you can expect to study on our Drama BA (Hons) degree, take a sneak preview of some of the modules you may have the opportunity to study below.

The information below reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. Please see Terms and Conditions of Study for more information.

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Final year

In year one, your modules will develop core performance skills across a range of periods and styles and introduce you to reflective and critical practices enhanced by the study of the history of theatre across cultures.

Semester 1

Acting and the Classics Core

Acting and the Classics

This module aims to explore classical texts through practical performance.

Languages of Theatre: How to Read a Play Core

Languages of Theatre: How to Read a Play

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the complexities involved in reading dramatic texts.

Performance Practices Core

Performance Practices

This module explores a variety of basic physical and vocal practices through set exercises towards a final performance.

Semester 2

Devising for Performance Core

Devising for Performance

The aims of this module are for the student to explore and experience various models of the devising process and to encourage independent working practices in theatre production.

From Analysis to Performance Core

From Analysis to Performance

This module introduces students to stage play analysis and performance development from critical reviews of live performances.

The Theatre and its Histories Core

The Theatre and its Histories

The aims of this module are to explore the role of theatre and performance in history; to investigate questions of its roots and origins; and to trace key developments in theatre and performance through history.

Your Drama modules will deepen your theoretical knowledge and broaden the understanding of theatre across a variety of performance practices. You can choose to develop your acting skills or focus on textual and theoretical study of theatre.

In the second year you will take three core modules and select three optional modules.

Semester 1

Production 1 Core

Production 1

Students explore a specified genre, period or style of performance in a short production and then reflect critically on it.

Brecht: The Critical Stage Optional

Brecht: The Critical Stage

This module aims to consider how various approaches to staging work by Bertolt Brecht and how 'Epic form' may function in theatre today.

Popular Theatres Optional

Popular Theatres

This module aims to address the following questions: `What constitutes a popular theatre?' and `Can we talk about a popular theatre tradition?', by introducing students to a range of popular theatre forms across history.

A Revolt Against Fate Optional

A Revolt Against Fate

This module aims to provide students with a theoretical and textual understanding of the tradition of absurdism, introducing types of literature and theatre, generally associated with the label ‘the absurd’.

Theatre and Education Optional

Theatre and Education

The aims of this module are to explore a range of drama techniques used for making theatre in education and the community.

Semester 2

Production 2 Core

Production 2

Students will be given the opportunity to explore particular ideas and concepts related to the given topic in depth.

Performance Philosophy Core

Performance Philosophy

The aims of this module are to introduce students to a variety of theories applicable to the study of drama, bringing information and ideas together from different topics.

Voice and Text Optional

Voice and Text

The aims for this module are for the student to acquire a working knowledge of the principles of voice production.

African American Culture Optional

African American Culture

On this module you will explore the complex formal and political questions raised by African American cultural expression produced between 1845 and the present. We will study a wide range of forms and media - literary, cinematic and musical - situating these in their shifting historical contexts, from the nineteenth-century American South to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

Arts Management Optional

Arts Management

This module covers a range of issues related to arts management including: the economic and political landscape for the arts and creative industries, careers in arts management, funding for the arts, establishing and running an arts-based organisation, arts programming, curating, audience and customer development, finance and fundraising, marketing, time management and project management.

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art Optional

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art

This module identifies and addresses the central concepts, terminologies and debates concerning the relationship between art, activism and politics within society through a series of 20th-century and contemporary case studies. Be part of an online blogging community, work collaboratively and develop a reflexive approach to establishing your own perspective on socially engaged and activist forms of cultural practice.

Fashion Theory Optional

Fashion Theory

This module will introduce and critically examine some of the main theories of fashion. It will identify and survey modernist and post-modernist theories of the nature of fashion as well as of the production, meaning and consumption of fashion.

Material Culture Optional

Material Culture

Optional module taught by Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies, focusing on the concept of physical and virtual objects. The ideas of consumption and possession are explored, including the notion of the body as a material thing and the nature of gift and exchange.

Non-verbal Communication: Body Adornment and New Technologies Optional

Non-verbal Communication: Body Adornment and New Technologies

This module aims for students to develop an appreciation of body objects in life, art, design and drama, as well as gaining understanding and knowledge of the communicative roles of wearable artefacts and the relationships they can have with the human body.

Word and Image: Verbo-visual Exchange in Art and Literature Optional

Word and Image: Verbo-visual Exchange in Art and Literature

This module examines innovative exchanges between word and image in visual art and literature across a range of media. It develops analytical skills through the close visual and textual analysis of works drawn from a wide variety of historical periods and genre.

Lighting and Sound Design Optional

Lighting and Sound Design

Students will gain knowledge of the fundamental elements that comprise Sound systems, gaining an insight into the principles of Sound recording. They will also explore aspects of lighting design both practically and theoretically.

Writing for Stage and Screen Optional

Writing for Stage and Screen

Produce your own original stage script or screenplay in weekly workshops that will introduce you to the dramatic conventions of character, dialogue and dramatic action. Learn how to reflect critically on your own work and that of others, and to develop your writing and re-drafting skills in a supportive environment.

Decoding the Occult Optional

Decoding the Occult

This module explores a range of occult disciplines and related motifs in visual culture: from alchemy and witchcraft, to spirit photography and zombies. Our aim is to break down the occult code to reveal the ideas behind the images, and consider what this occult iconography can tell us about cultural values of different societies and periods.

In the Final Year our modules give you the opportunity to focus on practical work, especially in the Theatre Practice module, or develop your textual skills. The opportunity to enhance your CV through work experience is also a popular choice.

You will take two core modules and select three optional modules.

Semester 1

Group Project: Theatre in the Community Core

Group Project: Theatre in the Community

Students explore the working methods and creative processes required in making a short piece of scripted or devised theatre, or video, which is performed off-site in the community.

Contemporary Shakespeare Optional

Contemporary Shakespeare

The aim of this module is for the student to explore the technical demands and creative processes required in staging an extract from a selected Shakespearean text, within a contemporary performance context.

Gender and the Stage Optional

Gender and the Stage

The aims of this module is for students to gain understanding and knowledge of the history of gender on the Western stage.

Semester 2

Theatre Practice Core

Theatre Practice

The aim of this module is for the student to explore a single performance text (either scripted or devised in depth) by studying and staging it as a full production.

Dance Theatre Optional

Dance Theatre

Students are introduced to the nature, aims, and practice of the dance-theatre.

Adapting Shakespeare Optional

Adapting Shakespeare

Focusing on the plays in the Shakespearean canon that have been subject to significant adaptation, this module will enable you to examine the creative processes involved in various film and stage adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays over the years.

Theatre of the Avant Garde Optional

Theatre of the Avant Garde

The aims of this module are for the student to gain an understanding of forms of avant-garde theatre. A range of theories will be interrogated including Meyerhold, Marinetti, Artaud, Witkiewicz and Barker.

Semester 1 & 2

Analysing Work Experience Optional

Analysing Work Experience

This module is for students to develop their understanding of theatre, the writing industries or the textiles, fashion or interior design industries whilst working within a chosen professional environment.

Research Project Optional

Research Project

Students develop their interests in an area of creative writing, drama, theatre or performance studies towards a specific individual research project, performance or writing project.

Programme specification

Module specification