- 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
- Find out more from student finance
- Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
- Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
- Many students work part-time or complete a student internship
Course unit details:
Directing Theatre
| Unit code | DRAM30411 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 40 |
| Unit level | Level 3 |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This professional practice module offers students the opportunity to explore and experience the activity of directing contemporary plays in theatre spaces and through doing so build the foundations of a working practice. The course will be taught through workshops, readings, discussion, group rehearsal and supervision.
Assessment will focus on the sharing/showing of work-in-progress excerpts from plays in performance . A complementary written component called a working notebook will build on ideas presented by developing concepts further and reflecting on process and practice.
Pre/co-requisites
| Pre-requisite units | Any L1 Drama Practical option (DRAM10101 or DRAM10102) Any L2 Drama Study core option - Theatres of Modernity; Screen, Culture and Society At least one 20 credit L2 Drama practical course unit |
| Co-requisite units | None |
Aims
- To explore the role of the theatre director in the realisation of play and text-based performance
- To prepare students for professional practice, fostering and noting skills important for theatre and related environments, including cooperative and collaborative working
- To develop student’s abilities to investigate/approach practical methods and critical perspectives when undertaking the development, direction and production of plays/texts for theatre.
Knowledge and understanding
- Demonstrate an understanding of what it means to be a director in the current landscape of theatre practice
- Work with a range of dramatic texts and approaches, with a focus on textual analysis and the process of taking a text from page to stage
- Work in a team to produce and present short pieces/excerpts of work-in-progress, in collaboration with their peer group, the CUD and technical staff
- Consider the relationship between the director, the actor, the text, the stage and the audience
- Evaluate and apply a process of critical enquiry to their working process and final outcomes.
Intellectual skills
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of some of the multiple possibilities that exist in the relationship between director, text, actor, backstage teams, theatrical space and spectator
- Develop and demonstrate an understanding of your own developing directing practice through critical engagement with that of others.
- Explore the subject through distinct kinds of writing about directing, including writing by professional directors, researchers, reviewers, and actors as well as other critical and related sources.
- Demonstrate a systematic understanding of key aspects of practical and intellectual approaches to directing and theatre production
Practical skills
- Articulate an understanding and use of directing techniques in theatre production
- Develop an extract of theatrical text towards a coherent work-in-progress performance
- Demonstrate awareness and apply professional standards and industry practices in the act of directing theatre
- Work collegially and productively with peers as well as staff to realise theatre production
- Offer constructive feedback to peers and revise their own approach in response to feedback
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- Advanced interpersonal communication and team-working skills
- Critical thinking skills and creative group-work practice skills (problem-solving, thinking innovatively, drawing on creative approaches of others, evaluating arguments, giving and receiving feedback, timekeeping)
- Using effective leadership and group-work skills to solve complex problems
- Performing with confidence and precision for specific audiences/contexts, making use of diverse creative approaches and media
Employability skills
- Group/team working
- Ability to work independently and as part of a group to conceive, plan, undertake and evaluate original, well-developed projects that involve complex and unpredictable scenarios
- Project management
- Advanced skills in group-work, leadership, reflexivity, planning and project management
- Other
- Understanding of and adherence to industry-level professional and ethical standards in practical work
Assessment methods
| Practical: Presentation of work in-progress performance of chosen play extract | 60% |
| Working notebook / Reflective writing | 40% |
Feedback methods
| Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
| Observed rehearsal - oral (peers and tutor) | Formative |
| Practical - written | Summative |
| Working notebook - written | Summative |
| Formative feedback points throughout the process, via dedicated tutorial hours and in-class sessions |
Recommended reading
Russ Hope, Getting Directions: A Fly-on-the-Wall Guide for Emerging Theatre Directors (NHB 2013)
Katie Mitchell The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre (Routledge, 2008)
Avra Sidiropoulou, Directions for Directing: Theatre and Method (Routledge, 2019)
Rosemary Waugh Running The Room: Conversations With Women Theatre Directors (Nick Hern Books, 2024)
Mike Alfreds, Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor (Nick Hern Books, 2007)
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Practical classes & workshops | 220 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 180 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Andrew Smith | Unit coordinator |