- UCAS course code
- WW34
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Music and Drama
Explore your passion for performance through the interdisciplinary study of music, theatre and film.
Duration: 3 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: WW34 / Institution code: M20
- Key features:
Scholarships available
- Typical A-level offer: AAB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: ABC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 35 points overall with 6,6,5 at HL including Music
Fees and funding
Fees
Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £28,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.
Policy on additional costs
All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).
Scholarships/sponsorships
The Department of Music will provide first-year bursaries to support undergraduate students who have demonstrated exceptional levels of achievement in their instrumental and/or vocal studies. These £1000 bursaries will be awarded in the first year of study (2024/25 academic year), paid direct to students in two instalments.
More information, including eligibility criteria, can be found here.
Course unit details:
Playmaking
| Unit code | DRAM21141 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 20 |
| Unit level | Level 2 |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
Please note that this unit is delivered on-campus only and is therefore not available to remote learners
This module focuses on developing the writer’s voice through the creation of an excerpt of an original drama. Students will explore the main building blocks of a play, from character and dialogue to story and structure, will spend time thinking about the ways that theatrical stories work, and will put these components and ideas into practice through their own creative writing. Encountering a range of approaches to different forms of theatre, reading some key texts about writing for theatre, and working through a variety of writing exercises and practical exploration, the course develops critical reflection both on the student’s own work, and on playwriting more generally. Students will present their ideas and creative work to the group through the semester and work both collaboratively and through their own writing experience to discover what makes a play work.
Pre/co-requisites
| Pre-requisite units | Any L1 Drama Practice module – Performance Practices 1; Performance Practices 2
|
| Co-requisite units | Any L2 Drama Core Study module - Theatres of Modernity; Screen, Culture and Society
|
Aims
-
To introduce students to the practices of play-making and the particularities of writing for performance.
-
To provide an opportunity for students to explore their ideas creatively, pitching ideas and writing scripts.
-
To foster enquiry into the craft of the playwright and to the nature of the cross-currents and differences in current working practices of writing for performance.
Knowledge and understanding
- Identify, articulate, and critically explore key dramaturgical components and processes both in theory and in practice
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of their own creative process
- Write about their own play (extract) with clarity and dramaturgical understanding
Intellectual skills
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the craft of the playwright and the effects of particular writing decisions on the overall shape and impact of a piece of drama.
- Engage in an informed discussion about the convergences and differentiations in related practices through a theoretically and practically informed framework.
- Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate and appraise their own work
Practical skills
- Work with some of the key components of a play (eg character, dialogue, story, structure) to develop their own piece of original drama.
- Draft and redraft their work in order to hone and develop its shape, form and effectiveness.
- Talk/write with analytical clarity about the craft of the playwright, using examples from their own experience and writing as well as from wider research.
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- demonstrate a good level of interpersonal communication and team-working skills
- demonstrate creative and practical skills (eg problem-solving, thinking innovatively, drawing on creative approaches of others, evaluating creative approaches of others, giving and receiving feedback, time-keeping)
- use effective leadership and group-work skills to solve problems and sustain a creative process
- perform with confidence and precision for specific audiences/contexts, making use of diverse creative approaches and media (as appropriate to the module)
Employability skills
- Group/team working
- A good level of skill in managing a creative process both independently and collaboratively, including: leadership skills, ideas-sharing, giving and receiving feedback, taking initiative, negotiation, flexibility, compromise, collaboration, making contributions, reliability, time-keeping.
- Innovation/creativity
- Ability to work independently to conceive, plan, undertake and evaluate original, well-developed responses to briefs (overseeing a creative process from inception through production, post-production and evaluation)
- Project management
- A good level of ability to use reflexivity and emotional intelligence when working on creative projects (maintaining balance between fulfilling brief and pursuing own interests, supporting and challenging, critical self-evaluation, ability to empathise with multiple perspectives, ability to adapt to distinct contexts etc.)
- Other
- Maintaining professional standards as regards self-presentation, including ability to speak to an audience with confidence and precision, and to effectively adapt presentation and material to specific contexts.
Assessment methods
Playscript (extract/scenes) 60%
Essay 40%
Portfolio of writing tasks N/A (formative)
Feedback methods
| Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
| Portfolio of creative writing - written | Summative |
| Reflective essay - written | Summative |
| Ongoing feedback during workshops – peer to peer and tutor to student - oral | Formative |
Recommended reading
Ayckbourn, A (2004) The Crafty Art of Playmaking London: Faber & Faber
Edgar, D (2009) How Plays Work, London: Nick Hern Books
Fountain, T (2007) So You Want To Be A Playwright? London: Nick Hern Books
Gooch, S (2001) Writing A Play: Third Edition, London: A&C Black
Griffin, G (2009) Contemporary Black and Asian Women Playwrights in Britain. Cambridge
Hansberry, L (1996) To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in her own words. London: Vintage Books.
Sigal, S. (2016) Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making, Hampshire and NY: Palgrave Macmillan
Spencer, S (2002) The Playwright’s Guidebook, London: Faber and Faber
Unwin, S (2011) The Well Read Play, London: Oberon Books
Waters, S (2010) The Secret Life of Plays, London: Nick Hern Books
The majority of books about playwriting have been written by white men, although this is slowly changing. To encounter a more representative range of playwrights talking about the writing process, please delve into the following sources:
https://royalcourttheatre.com/series/playwrights-podcast/
http://www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk/
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Practical classes & workshops | 33 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Rachel Clements | Unit coordinator |
| Katharine Dorney | Unit coordinator |
Additional notes