BA (Hons) Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance

Program Overview

In 2019, our course achieved an amazing 100% Student Satisfaction (NSS)!

Our BA (Hons) Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance is an innovative degree programme that combines a commitment to socially-engaged performance practice with contemporary theatre as well as the processes of making performance for and with specific audiences. We offer exceptional opportunities for work-based learning through our network of leading industry partners. Our practice-based curriculum enables our students to thrive as creative performance-makers and applied theatre practitioners.

On our programme you will gain high level skills in facilitation, devising, performance and production enabling you to act across disciplinary fields of cultural work. You also develop strong academic foundations that equip you to question, analyse and understand the cultural and ethical contexts you work in. We are passionate about your creativity and imaginative potential of our students and their ability to transform the cultural landscape of the future.

'Applied Theatre' uses drama and performance to connect with communities that may have been marginalised. It devises theatre with, for and by its audience enabling participation and opening up the arts to the entire communities. Examples of practice include theatre in prisons, in schools, and in hospitals, as well as with specific groups such as the homeless, older people, or disabled people. Right from the outset of the degree you will be making performances and workshops in real social contexts touring your work to reach new audiences and build your facilitation skills.

Some of our industry partners include the Royal Court Theatre, Young Vic Theatre, Gideon Reeling, Creative Access, Kingsford Community School, School 21, Duckie, Access All Areas, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Stratford Circus, Clean Break, Brolly Prods, ZU UK, Half Moon Young People's Theatre, Outside Edge Theatre, London Bubble, Unicorn Theatre, Hackney Pirates, M-SET and Magic Me.

We have a thriving Study Abroad programme whereby students apply to spend a term in their second year at Columbia College, Chicago. The University's Going Global programme funds shorter trips abroad for students to take part in training, undertake research participate in workshops, or visit theatre projects worldwide.

If you don't meet the entry requirements for a BA, you can study this course as an 'extended', four-year programme. You'll begin by taking a foundation year which prepares you for a successful transition to the BA degree. This means it will take you four years to complete the course full-time, and eight years to complete the course part-time.

Program Outline

At Level 4 your modules will focus on skills in performance making (devising, physical performance, facilitation, and the generation of ideas and creative responses); academic skills (reading, writing, performance analysis, critical thinking); socially engaged performance practice (working with communities, the urban environment, applied theatre methods and approaches). You will also engage in several productions and workshop programmes that will also tour schools in the first year. You will be working with professionals and academics in the field throughout your first year.

At Level 5 your skills are extended and further embedded through exploration and practice of Applied Theatre methods (including participatory performance, theatre in education, forum theatre); Creative techniques, and practices for performance making (devising, directing, script writing, performance art approaches, autobiographical performance) and Creative Entrepreneurship (developing, planning, pitching and delivering events). Exchange students from Columbia College, Chicago, also join the programme in level 5. You will also perform and produce our annual performing arts festival, Emergence as part of fUEL, a music, dance and theatre festival.

At Level 6 you will define your specific areas of interest through a Final Practical Performance Project module and perform as part of our Emergence and fUEL festivals, embark upon a research project (dissertation) where you will have the opportunity to engage in an investigation about a topic and theme of your interest and an extended internship or work placement with one or more of our brilliant industry partners, as listed above including Creative Access, Unicorn Theatre for Children, Outside Edge Theatre, Clean Break, Soho Theatre, Access All Areas . You will extend your exploration of connections between performance making, cultural theories and the potential of performance to have impact in the world.

Connecting with the local community is at the heart of our course. Enriched by our position in the cultural hub of East London, you'll have opportunities to be involved in a range of work-related projects.

You will take up a work placement in a community, arts or educational setting and benefit from our links with professional partners such as the Half Moon Young People's Theatre, Creative Access, Stratford Circus, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Clean Break, Unicorn Theatre for Children.

While you may work locally, there's also an integral international aspect to our course with guest lectures and workshops from well-known performance makers, Applied Theatre Practitioners directors and writers. Our international opportunities, Study Abroad and Going Global, enable you to take this further through a term spent in the USA or a shorter student-led international project via Going Global.

You'll be taught by outstanding theatre practitioners and theorists, all of whom are professionals in their fields. Our expertise includes Theatre-Making, Applied Theatre, Live Art, Cultural Entrepreneurship, Physical Theatre, Storytelling, and Art-as-Activism.

We assess approximately 50 per cent of the course through practical rehearsals, presentations and performances. We assess the remainder through essays and workbooks/study journals, reflecting on a critical understanding of drama and theatre and its application to performance. Second and third-year module grades contribute towards your final degree award classification.

The final year of the course contains a compulsory written dissertation and a placement in a theatre or arts institution. Project work forms an important part of the course. Many of the modules are practical in nature and the teaching takes the form of lecture, seminar and practical, studio-based workshops. You're also expected to engage in a wide range of research-based personal assignments.