BA (Hons) Drama, Theatre and Performance

Studying Theatre at Lancaster gives you the opportunity to learn about innovative twentieth and twenty-first century theatre and performance through an exciting and varied mix of practical and academic approaches. You will gain critical and creative skills that open up possibilities for working in theatre, while making you highly attractive to a wide range of other employers.

You will be taught by internationally esteemed, award winning theatre practitioners and scholars and will benefit from the outstanding facilities and the access to professional practice provided by our close relationship with Lancaster Arts and with other leading organisations in the creative and cultural industries.

The first year serves as a foundation for your studies, introducing key concepts and practical tools through case studies that explore the development of different modes of acting and theatre production, from Shakespeare to cutting edge contemporary theatre. The year culminates in a group performance project.

In your second year you will take two core practical modules and one introducing you to critical approaches and choose from options including British Theatre (1945-20), Television Drama, Post-war European Playwrights, Performing the Avant-garde, Modern Dance and a major production module. In your final year you will create a final degree show and write a dissertation on a topic of your choice. Optional modules include New Writing in British Theatre, The Popular, The Political and the Avant-Garde, Contemporary European Postdramatic Theatre, New Scenographies in Performance and Contemporary Dance and the Visual Arts.

In addition, two modules oriented towards employability, LICA Work Placement and Creative Enterprise, are available in your second and final years. The unique interdisciplinary environment provided by LICA also allows you either to focus solely on Theatre or choose to take some modules in Art, Design, Film, or Sound.

You also have the opportunity to spend your second year abroad at one of our partner universities in North America or Australia. The year abroad counts fully towards your Lancaster degree.

Careers

Theatre at Lancaster is one of the most highly ranked in the subject area for graduate employment. The performance, creative, communication and entrepreneurial skills developed by our Theatre degree and our strong links to professional practice open up a wide range of jobs in the creative and cultural industries and in many other employment sectors.

Many of our graduates work in a wide variety of roles within theatre and performance - as performers, directors, dramaturgs, writers, producers, technicians or administrators - while others are employed in television, film and digital media, journalism and publishing, or in teaching, social work, community arts and drama and dance therapy. A Theatre degree at Lancaster gives graduates the confidence and capability to produce work for themselves and a significant number go on the set up their own theatre companies, or small, thriving businesses.

Lancaster graduates successfully progress onto PGCE, MA, MPhil and PhD courses, either at Lancaster or at other high quality national institutions.