About the Courses
Facilities. Rehearse and train in a world-class and fully accessible award-winning theatre and studio space – The House. Access all areas of theatre with our dedicated Tech team.
Placements. Access to our dedicated Placements Officer and Theatre Royal Plymouth's professionals, placements, internships and volunteering opportunities. 154 placements this year for directors, producers, practitioners and performers including with paid placements with Jermyn Street Theatre (West End), Kneehigh and at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Talks, master classes and workshops. Advance your creative practice with visiting companies and internationally recognised performance artists; in the past these have included Action Hero, Low Profile, John Nettles, Wildworks, Lone Twin, Earthfall and Robert Lyons.
Free theatre visits scheme. Enrich your experience with the o
Facilities. Rehearse and train in a world-class and fully accessible award-winning theatre and studio space – The House. Access all areas of theatre with our dedicated Tech team.
Placements. Access to our dedicated Placements Officer and Theatre Royal Plymouth's professionals, placements, internships and volunteering opportunities. 154 placements this year for directors, producers, practitioners and performers including with paid placements with Jermyn Street Theatre (West End), Kneehigh and at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
Talks, master classes and workshops. Advance your creative practice with visiting companies and internationally recognised performance artists; in the past these have included Action Hero, Low Profile, John Nettles, Wildworks, Lone Twin, Earthfall and Robert Lyons.
Free theatre visits scheme. Enrich your experience with the opportunity to attend shows and performances by well-known practitioners and companies.
Free key texts. Benefit from free texts provided in your first year.
Your degree will be taught by passionate people with experience from a wide range of academic and industry backgrounds who are driving real change in their fields.
Modules
Year 1
Learn foundational skills and concepts about theatre and performance, and apply these in studio spaces and practical tasks. Learn how to examine and evaluate performance, and how to raise the standard of your own performance work.
Core modules
Self and Character (ACT4004)
This module is all about preparing actors to work in a profession with certain innate dangers to personal mental and physical health. The process of adopting a character, and enacting a role can mean that actors have to negotiate some very personal feelings and experiences, and giving them tools to do this is in a healthy and sustainable way is what this module is all about. This module will include 2, 2 hour talks that introduce our School and programme level employability related opportunities and support, including details of the optional placement year.
Devising Toolkit 1: Improvisation and Creativity (DRA4001)
The module identifies and explores the dynamics between the key elements of performance through the medium of improvisation, fundamental to all forms of ‘live’ theatre and performance. The module places the study of theatre and performance within a contemporary context by exploring the discourse of and tension between naturalism and non-naturalism in 20th century performance theory and practice.
Theatre Making and Collaborative Practice (DRA4002)
This module will offer an intensive learning experience designed to explore the specific of studying a practically driven subject at degree level. Through the development of a range of critical and analytical skills, the student will be introduced to material that will encourage them to reflect upon their role as an embodied learner.
The Body in Performance (PER4001)
This module positions all performance practice as the product of its own specific cultural setting. Aiming to resist a Western-centric approach, the module explores performances from different cultures whilst providing a context and awareness of the key issues and debates surrounding intercultural/cross-cultural theory and practice. It problematises the issues of theatre, culture and ideology: the politics and problems of cultural contact and exchange.
Devising Toolkit 2: Ensemble Practice (PER4002)
This module will focus on developing the skills necessary to work in a successful ensemble context, exploring the practice and examining the creative processes involved in the crafting and devising of performance work. Through workshop study, a creative understanding of the physical and mental processes necessary in performance presentation will be established.
Theatre Criticism (PER4003)
The module is all about going to the theatre to see exciting new work, analysing the performances and their critical reception, and then writing your own theatre reviews for a range of platforms and publications. You will read and evaluate professional critics' writing on significant productions from theatre history and assess and decode the cultural politics at play in theatre's public and critical reception.
Year 2
Work intensively with theatre companies in residence and experiment with your chosen styles and genres of performance-making. Make and perform work in theatre spaces and in alternative performance sites.