Theatre, Acting & Performance and Film Studies BA (Hons)

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. 

All Theatre, Acting & Performance modules are 'practice-based' (i.e. you learn primarily through participation in performance). All students have opportunities to direct, write, devise and design performance work. Alongside, you examine the cultural contexts of drama and the theories that have spurred its development and informed how we understand it.

There are opportunities to explore the diverse 'applications' of drama (in TV, live theatre, film and online), its social and historical significance, and its community roles and roles in education. Leading theatre companies and practitioners regularly visit to work with students, to provide workshops and to grow your understanding of the profession in support of your employability. Recent visitors have included Punchdrunk, Stan's Café, Idle Motion, Shared Experience and award-winning children's dramatist, David Wood. The course explicitly addresses the needs of students who, on graduating, are interested in theatre (performance, technical theatre, writing, directing, theatre/arts administration) or in teaching, theatre-in-education, youth theatre or community theatre. Students are regularly involved in public performance and the course's networks of professional and community contacts generate numerous opportunities for 'earn while you learn' paid work.

In Film Studies you are introduced to a wide range of film histories and cultures, covering everything from the Hollywood blockbuster to world cinema. You will study films from a variety of time periods, including recent releases.

You will be encouraged to draw connections between your own experiences of cinema and film theory and there will be many opportunities, during your learning, to benefit from your lecturers’ cutting edge research in aspects of film – from, for example, the cultural meaning of zombie cinema to development of the British crime film. Learning takes place in the screening room and in lecture and seminar rooms and takes a variety of forms including small-group discussion, film screenings, lectures, seminars, one-to-one tutorials and essay preparation sessions. Strong emphasis is placed on interaction and debate between lecturers and students and between students themselves. Assignments are largely essays and presentations but there will be occasional opportunities, too, to work towards less conventional outcomes, including short films.

For more information about teaching, learning and assessment on this course, please see the single honours course pages for Theatre, Acting and Performance and Film Studies.

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 Film Studies programme specification and Theatre, Acting & Performance programme specification.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course

Employability

Film Studies develops student skills in practice-as-research and research-as-practice for a number of culture and media industries including exhibition, distribution, audience-based marketing, journalism, film education, curating, programming, filmmaking, screenwriting and further academic research.

There are excellent career opportunities for Theatre, Acting & Performance graduates. These are both in drama-related areas, such as theatre, education, and the media, and in a wide range of other fields of employment made accessible through skills learned on the course in presentation, performance, critical thinking and writing, creativity, confidence and communication. Former students often set up their own businesses, for example as small scale touring theatre companies or drama education providers. Past students are now working as actors, producers, stage managers and directors for employers across the areas of theatre, TV, radio and film. Teaching and lecturing are very popular career choices for our graduates, as are arts administration and marketing.

Part-time applications

If you would like to apply to study this course part time, please complete our online application form.