Touring Theatre MTheatre

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.