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Drama Studies BA (Hons)

Drama and Theatre Arts BA (Hons)

Engage creatively and critically with drama, theatre, acting and performance. Adopt contemporary methods, develop collaborative skills and be supported to find your own artistic vision.

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Overview

Take a look at this stunning showcase of our performance courses and facilities at DMU.

Informed by a mix of contemporary methods of performance making, current scholarly thinking and historical theatrical traditions, this course is ideal for those seeking a career in a range of arts-related areas. You will engage both creatively and critically with a range of topics including acting, performing, directing and theatre for social change, while being supported to develop your own artistic vision, personal interests and aspirations.

The course offers you the opportunity to learn about Drama in a rich variety of ways by working with professional researchers, research-active academics and visiting practitioners.

You will benefit from great facilities that have contributed to DMU being recognised as a Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts – an accolade that also reflects our commitment to innovative and excellent teaching and learning.

Real-life experience is offered through undertaking placements and internships, getting involved in professional performances, going on theatre trips at home and abroad, and showcasing your work to a variety of audiences.

You can select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media.

Key features:

  • Benefit from our long-standing partnership with Leicester’s iconic Curve theatre. Opportunities include internships, work placements and the chance to work on or perform in an annual production, which have included Lorca’s Blood Wedding and Lucy Prebble’s Enron.
  • DMU is recognised as a Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts, with great facilities providing specialist studios and rehearsal spaces designed specifically for drama and performance learning activities.
  • Select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths available upon graduation.
  • Extensive performance opportunities for all years of study, including Exit Souls: The Drama Festival, which showcases students’ diverse work to a public audience each year. 
  • Our graduates have gone on to work in theatre companies, community arts organisations and have forged careers in various aspects of media and technical theatre production.
  • Benefit from the cutting edge research and practice carried out by Drama staff in the Research Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies Research.
  • Benefit from Education 2030, where a simplified ‘block learning’ timetable means you will study one subject at a time and have more time to engage with your learning, receive faster feedback and enjoy a better study-life balance.

 

Follow us on our Drama Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Highlights from Curve Collaboration 2023

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Curve Collaboration 2023 photography by Kieran Vyas

Student success:

Dedicated student earns Social Mobility Award for second consecutive year

DMU students set to take centre stage at Curve after two-year disruption

DMU sets Andrietta up for entrepreneurial future

BBC presenter uses her platform to celebrate Leicester's Black talent

More courses like this:

Acting BA (Hons)

Dance BA (Hons)

  • UK
  • EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: W400

Duration: Three years full-time, four years full-time with a placement. Six years part-time.

Fees and funding: 

2024/25 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250

Find out more about tuition fees and available funding.

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Submit a study-related enquiry

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding: 

2024/25 tuition fees for international students: £15,750

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Application guidance document

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

Typical entry requirements 

  • 112 points from at least 2 A levels or
  • BTEC Extended Diploma DMM or
  • International Baccalaureate: 26+ Points or
  • T Levels Merit

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

  • Pass Access with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit (or equivalent) and GCSE  English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above.

We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

  • We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

 

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

Audition: No

Interview: Yes

Applicants with relevant qualifications will be invited to come to campus for an Audition Taster Day. Digital audition reviews will be available for international applicants (living outside of the UK).

Non-standard applicants may be invited to attend an MS Teams audition review.

Please see our audition advice page for more information.

Structure and assessment

Education 2030

We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.

Read more about Education 2030
 

Course modules

Teaching and assessments

 Collaborative partnerships

 

First year

Block 1: Body, Text, Voice

Block 2: Participations

Block 3: Revolutions: Staging Texts OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

  • Creative Writing route – Writers Salon
  • Education route – Childhood, Social Justice and Education
  • English Language route - Evolving Language
  • English Literature route – Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare
  • Film Studies route – Disney, Warner Bros and the Business of the Film Studio
  • History route – Global Cities
  • Journalism route – Understanding Journalism
  • Media route - Media, Culture and Society

Block 4: Theatre Company: Ensemble

 

Second year

Block 1: Engaging Audiences

Block 2: Making Theatre and Performance

Block 3: Revolutions: Acting and Directing OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

  • Creative Writing route – Story Craft
  • Education route – Preparing for Professional Practice and Cultural and Educational                               Transformations
  • English Language route - Sociolinguistics
  • English Literature route - Text Technologies
  • Film Studies route – Screen Archives - Preservation, Conservation and Usage
  • History route – Humans and the Natural World
  • Journalism route – Beyond News: Peace journalism and Opinion Writing 
  • Media route – Public Relations and Strategic Communication

Block 4: Theatre Company: Collaboration OR Professional Performance Practice 1 (requires a successful audition)

Third year

Blocks 1 and 2: Select two from the list below:

  • Live Art
  • Staging Texts
  • Theatre Company: Production
  • Education and Performing Arts

Block 3: Performance, Identity and Activism OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

  • Creative Writing route – Uncreative Writing, Creative Misbehavior
  • Education route – Adult Learners and Lifelong Learning OR Gender and Education
  • English Language route – Language and Identity
  • English Literature route – World Englishes: On the page and Beyond
  • Film Studies route – British Cinema - Creativity, Independents and Interdependence
  • History route – The World on Display
  • Journalism route – Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism
  • Media route – Gender and TV Fictions

Block 4: Final Project OR Professional Performance Practice 2 (requires a successful audition)

Routes: You can select to study a route in Block 3 during your first year. When selecting a module for Block 3 in your second year you can opt to remain on your chosen route or return to Drama and Theatre Arts. If you choose to remain with the route, it must be continued in your third year.


See detailed module information


Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

 

Overview

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, tutor and student led seminars, group work, practical workshops and self-directed study. You will be assessed through a variety of different methods to develop a range of skills including through critical essays, group and individual performances, group and individual presentations, oral vivas, creative portfolios and critical self-reflections and commentaries.

The first year provides you with a range of practical skills and combines performance-based understanding of texts with a theoretical approach that enables you to place your work in its historical context. In your second year you will develop your practical, professional and theoretical engagement, with the opportunity to perform at Curve theatre in a production. In your third year you can pursue your own interests and career aspirations by taking specialist modules. Your studies will culminate in a final project of your choosing or the opportunity to perform at Curve theatre in a production.

Our drama staff have expertise in a number of different fields, including: Shakespeare in performance, popular theatre, applied drama, directing, language and performance, performer training, performance and documentation, performance and the body, gender and performance, live art and contemporary performance practice. Visiting lecturers, actors, practitioners, directors and theatre companies further enhance your learning. 

Contact hours

In your first year you will normally attend around 12 hours of timetabled taught sessions each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 25 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

 

Curve theatre

DMU and Curve theatre have a cultural partnership which gives you the opportunity to be involved in professional practice in a variety of ways.

An annual collaborative production allows Drama students from all years to participate in professional productions, working with in-house directors, lighting designers and producers on public performances.

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Curve theatre website

Facilities and features

Performance facilities

Recognised nationally as a centre for excellence in performance arts, DMU has outstanding courses, teaching and facilities. Our Performing Arts Centre for Excellence (PACE) building provides sector-leading spacious studios, rehearsal rooms and fully equipped performance spaces. There are further fully equipped performance spaces in our Campus Centre and the Venue@DMU, a purpose-built space created to host events, performances and celebrations.

All of our spaces can be transformed to turn your ideas into a reality. Your creative work is supported by expert technicians and you can book rehearsal space and equipment such as digital video cameras, sound recording equipment and editing suites.

Take a look at our stunning showcase of the PACE building and facilities at dmu.ac.uk/perform

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Campus Centre

The home of  De Montfort Students' Union, (DSU) our Campus Centre offers a welcoming and lively hub for student life. Conveniently located at the heart of campus, it includes a convenience store, a Subway and a Starbucks. Here you can find the DSU-owned charitable accommodation service Sulets and DSU’s shop, SUpplies, selling art supplies, stationery and clothing, and printing and binding services. The building is also home to the DSU officer team. 

Opportunities and careers

Find the people who will open doors for you

DMU's award-winning careers service provides guaranteed work experience opportunities DMU Careers Team
Drama student placements

Placements

During this course you will have the option to complete a paid placement year, an invaluable opportunity to put the skills developed during your degree into practice. This insight into the professional world will build on your knowledge in a real-world setting, preparing you to progress onto your chosen career. 

Our Careers Team can help to hone your professional skills with mock interviews and practice aptitude tests, and an assigned personal tutor will support you throughout your placement. Previous students have enjoyed placements at Leicester’s Curve theatre, as well as other professional arts organisations and theatre companies, in arts events and venues, technical or stage management work. Related corporate industries, such as television or commercial enterprises, have also offered our students the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and understanding of working practices in a professional and creative context.

Drama students participate in the #DMUglobal Berlin trip 2017

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons, helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world. Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK-based activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

Students on this course have previously undertaken DMU Global trips to New York, Liege, Berlin and Montreal.

Drama degree careers

Graduate careers

Our Drama graduates learn how to gain strong skills in critical analysis, reflection and research, and are taught to acquire excellent oral and written communication skills. By studying this course you can gain the ability to effectively collaborate, devise, organise and self-manage projects, and deal confidently with public performance. 

Previous graduates have developed careers in teaching media and technical theatre production, as well as gone on to work in theatres and community arts organisations, develop personal professional practice, set up a theatre company, or pursued postgraduate study such as our Performance Practices MA. Recent destinations include actor for the National Theatre, Associate Director at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre and Drama coach at Berzerk Productions.

Drama graduate Clive Keene has been travelling the world starring in the National Theatre’s acclaimed play War Horse. Clive said, “It was one of the best decisions in my life coming to DMU. The Drama course opened up so many new opportunities that I may not have got anywhere else and gave me an insight into alternative practices within the industry which I feel informed me as an actor.” 

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