Program Overview

You'll gain a thorough grounding in writing for stage and screen, which will be complemented by opportunities to develop your skills in non-dramatic writing, too. Your stage and screen writing will be improved by getting to grips with the ins-and-outs of theatrical performance, while you become better able to analyse dramatic language by writing it yourself.

At the heart of your degree are scriptwriting masterclasses, where you’ll discover the formats, conventions, and techniques of writing for different   dramatic genres and media. You’ll learn by writing scenes and short scripts, offering critiques of each other’s work, and by working closely with other Drama students.

In your second and third years, you'll be able to develop your craft as a writer by taking workshops in prose or poetry, working closely with our world-famous creative writing colleagues.

Throughout your degree you will gain hands-on experience by participating in production and practical project work. You’ll have the keys to our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio, giving you the chance to control everything in your own productions. You’ll also have access to performance and placement opportunities, including a creative industries internship in your second year, which involves a work placement in a drama-producing organisation or environment.

You’ll encounter an astonishing array of drama and a wealth of performance styles, from naturalism to Noh theatre. You’ll engage with major theoretical and directorial approaches, from Aristotle to Artaud, from Stanislavsky to physical theatre. And you can examine the use of theatre and performance – by the state, by political activists, and by theatre and performance practitioners – to solidify or challenge structures of power.

You’ll also benefit from our highly regarded student run Minotaur Theatre Company, which gives you the chance to gain additional performance, technical and scriptwriting experience.