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What makes Touring Theatre at Worcester special?

This four-year course allows you to enter at undergraduate level but graduate with a masters-level award in Touring Theatre. Meaning you'll stand out in the competitive theatre industry.

You'll get hands-on experience of touring theatre and develop the related business, financial and marketing skills to be successful in this career. 

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • 100% overall student satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2020
  • You'll gain all the skills and understanding you need to set up your own touring theatre company, or establish yourself as a solo practitioner/performer, with a body of work ready to take on tour at the end of the course
  • You'll make exciting and high quality performance work for a range of venues, organisations, communities, festivals and events throughout the four years
  • The course has been planned and will be delivered in collaboration with theatres, venues, touring networks, companies, directors and producers throughout the West Midlands region. Throughout the course you will be encouraged and assisted in developing professional networks that will help you in your career

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Entry requirements

Entry requirements

112
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

112 UCAS Tariff points (for example, BBC at A Level)

We also welcome mature students, for whom there is a negotiated acknowledgement of relevant prior experience as equivalent to qualifications.

Acceptance on the course will be dependent on an interview and audition process in which we will be looking for student's creative ability, commitment, adaptability and collaborative skills alongside performance skills.

This course is offered as a Single Honours only course. It may be possible to transfer into this course at the end of the first or second year from the BA Drama & Performance, or from other Drama courses at other Universities, subject to discussion and audition process. However, it is not possible to join the course for the final (fourth year) only. 

Other information

T Levels may be used to meet the entry tariff requirements for this course. Find out more about T levels as UCAS tariff points here.

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from http://www.ucas.com

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Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Plays in Performance
  • Devising & Physical Theatre
  • Visual Storytelling
  • Acting Skills
  • Performance Design & Production
  • Theatre & Communities

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Acting for Stage, Screen & Media
  • Directed Public Performance
  • Technical Theatre Skills

Optional

  • Creative Movement Practices
  • Applied Theatre Practices
  • Performance & Digital Media
  • Playwriting
  • Musical Theatre

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Festival Performance: Development
  • Professional Practice with Placement
  • Programming Touring Theatre

Optional

  • Theatre & Disability
  • Queer Theatre & Performance
  • Theatre & Education
  • Immersive & Site-responsive Performance
  • Writing for Performance
  • Advanced Acting Practices
  • Staging Shakespeare Today

Year 4

Mandatory

  • Festival Project: Performance & Review 
  • Collaborative Project
  • Performance Lecture
  • Independent Touring Project (Dissertation equivalent) 
Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

Teaching and learning

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of practical workshops, lectures, seminars and productions. There is a strong emphasis on 'real world' experience, so productions will tour to theatre venues and festivals. Students will engage with every aspect of theatre practice from acting to marketing, from devising a show to designing sets, lighting, video and sound.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have an opportunity to take an original production to a high profile festival such as Edinburgh, in the summer between your 3rd and 4th year.

Contact time

In a typical week students will have around 12–15 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected.

Generally, modules are taught in 3-4 hour blocks and are practice led, with theory taught within practical sessions to enable students to gain an understanding of how to apply research within practical and professional contexts. Teaching is supported with seminars and tutorials. 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 16 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve group work and rehearsal, independent research, study and development of ideas and practices.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes professional theatre-makers, writers, designers and producers.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and a number of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include productions (both performance and other non-performance tasks e.g. technical/scenographic/stage management); the creation of tour and marketing packs for productions, completion of funding applications; blogs and research presentations into the landscape of contemporary touring theatre.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

  • 2 x Essays
  • 2 x Portfolios
  • 5 x Group practical / performance work
  • 2 x Critical reflections
  • 3 x Individual or group presentations

Year 2

  • 2 x Essays
  • 3 x Portfolios
  • 2 x Critical reflections
  • 4 x Group practical / performance work
  • 1 x Workshop
  • 1 x Piece of creative writing

Year 3

  • 3 x Essays
  • 2 x Portfolios
  • 6 x Group practical / performance work
  • 1 x Critical reflection
  • 1 x Individual presentation
  • 1 x Piece of creative writing
  • 1 x Major group performance project

Year 4

  • 2 Solo performance/presentations
  • 1 Critical review
  • 1 Academic paper
  • 2 Portfolios
  • 2 Solo or group performance projects

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.

Careers

Careers

This course involves extensive real world experience of researching, preparing, producing, promoting and performing in a number of touring theatre projects in a variety of professional and community venues.

You'll be equipped with all the skills necessary (including administration, organisational, technical, financial, marketing, tour booking, outreach, workshop facilitation as well as performance skills) to launch yourself into a career as a touring theatre company or solo practitioner.

Dr Jane George

Dr Jane George

Jane George's teaching and research interests focus upon devising and contemporary performance, particularly site-related performance. She is also interested in interdisciplinary practice, particularly performance writing and multi-media performance.

Jane has worked professionally as a director, writer and dramaturg and continues to develop her creative practice in collaboration with a number of performance companies and practitioners including contemporary performance company Reckless Sleepers, choreographer Lizie Giraudeau (formerly of Siobhan Davies Dance Company) and Pegasus Theatre, Oxford.

Jane is Course Leader for the MT Masters in Touring Theatre 

Ildiko Rippel

Dr Ildikó Rippel

Ildikó is a performer, writer and lecturer. She is co-founder and artistic director of Anglo-German performance company Zoo Indigo, devising autobiographical performance that engages with social and political themes of gender, cultural identity, displacement and migration. Zoo Indigo’s work combines dark humour, song and multimedia in a postmodern and kaleidoscopic approach, producing politically charged performances. 

Ildikó has recently completed a Practice as Research PhD at Lancaster University, examining maternal performance and the presence of family members in contemporary theatre. Her current practice research with Zoo Indigo investigates multilingualism and dramaturgies of migration

Ildikó previously worked as a lecturer at De Montfort University, Leicester (Drama and Performing Arts) and at Nottingham Trent University International College (Art and Design), and as an elf in a Santa's Grotto.

Alison Reeves

Alison Reeves

Alison Reeves’ main teaching specialisms are Applied Theatre and Theatre in Education.

Her most recent productions are an updated version of Euripides’ The Trojan Women and an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories which toured to local arts venues with invited primary school audiences.

daniel_somerville_profile

Dr Daniel Somerville

Daniel Somerville is an artist practitioner, senior lecturer and practice researcher. His research interests are in the fields of performance, theatre, gender and opera studies, with particular focus on the concept of the ‘operatic’ and how it manifests in terms of movement, performance practice and convention, and how this may be applied to contemporary performance making. As an artist practitioner he has choreographed, directed and performed nationally (including at Edinburgh Fringe, The Place, Chisenhale Dance Space and Duckie in London, and for Birmingham Rep) and internationally (including National Theatre Namibia, Market Theatre - Johannesburg, Liberdade Provisoria - Lisbon and on a tour of the Czech Republic).

Previous academic positions include as a research assistant and visiting tutor at Goldsmiths (BA and MA students), as a visiting lecturer at Laban (MA students), as visiting lecturer and mentor (BA students) at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and as a visiting lecturer at University of Wolverhampton (BA and MA students), and as an online tutor in Opera Studies at Rose Bruford.

Paul Golz

Dr Paul Golz

Paul is an experienced teacher, choreographer, dancer and researcher. Following his initial training at the Centre for Professional Dance Training in Edinburgh he trained as a Graham dancer, however, it is a somatic-based technique that remains his true passion, especially in contact improvisation and creative partner work.

Paul has worked professionally with Misfitted Dance and Birmingham Opera. In 2011, he set up his own company, Ephemeris Dance following his interest in Dance and Digital. He has choreographed work in this arena under Arts Council grants for both his own company and ReadySaltedCode. He currently performs and creates for Riverside Dance Collective.

Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Chestnut Halls' at £131 per week to 'Oak Halls' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

How to apply

How to apply

Applying through UCAS

Single Honours: MTheatre in Touring Theatre (integrated masters) - UCAS code W440

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

UCAS Code

W440

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Dr Jane George

Course leader