Drama (Musical Theatre)

Pursue your passion for musical theatre while enjoying the benefits of a more broadly based drama degree.

• Develop your performance skills, knowledge and understanding of both Drama and Musical Theatre.

• Learn to experiment, critically reflect and innovate in your work.

• Prepare for a career in a range of employment contexts including theatre, creative industries and education.

BA Drama (Musical Theatre) is designed for students interested in exploring theatre and performance in its many forms. It will give you a strong grounding in the traditions and debates that inform contemporary performance, while also providing you with the tools to perform, interpret and create a wide range of work.

Over the three years, the musical theatre modules will develop your understanding of the history of the art form and the place of musicals within popular culture, while building your technical and interpretive skills in singing, staging, and acting through song.

In year one – build the foundations. You’ll take modules in theatre history, approaches to working with dramatic texts, contemporary performance and theatre skills. Musical Theatre studies will see you taking foundation modules in musical theatre history and musical theatre skills, with a strong focus on vocal performance and working with music.

In year two – apply your skills. Core Drama modules focus on approaches to creating your own original work, while a range of optional modules will allow you to explore your particular areas of interest such as physical theatre, writing for performance, applied theatre and theatre production. Musical Theatre workshop modules will explore different types of musical theatre with a focus on acting, vocal interpretation, dramaturgy and staging.

In your final year – specialise. You’ll research an area of drama or performance of your own choice for your dissertation, as well as selecting areas of study from a range of specialist modules such as Performance Projects, Staging Gender, Modern American Drama, Staging Shakespeare, Docu-drama, Media and Performance, Devising and Site-Specific Performance. The practical work of Musical Theatre will culminate in a formal showcase, while the contextual work will finish with an exploration of the place of musicals within popular culture.

We use a variety of assessment tasks across the programme, including public performance, in-class performance of devised or published work, playwriting, devising, performance of backstage/technical roles, oral presentations, critical reflection, working as part of an ensemble, script and song analysis, individual and group research projects.