Drama [with placement year]

Explore drama and performance making in professional theatre venues and a wide range of community and industry contexts.

With a strong focus on practice-based learning, you'll explore contemporary theatre and screen performance-making.

You'll build a portfolio of professional skills for working in the creative industries through collaboration with other creative students, specialist tutors, community partners, and industry professionals.

You'll develop specialist subject knowledge and an awareness of how you might fit into and lead contemporary trends. We’ll help you explore your talents and shape our Drama degree to fit your aspirations.

Our Drama and Dance courses ranked 13th in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2025, and scored 91% overall in the Complete University Guide 2024.

Get the skills and knowledge to run your own theatre company or work in the community.

Follow an experiential 'learn-through-doing' programme, and choose from a range of career-focused modules.

Train in professional-standard facilities including our 260-seater Mumford Theatre.

Graduate with a professional CV, headshots and showreel.

Get involved with Cambridge's many acting troupes and events.

Careers

Our Drama degree will give you practical experience as both a performer and stage technician, and the academic understanding you need to be a director, a teacher, or to run your own theatre company.

You’ll develop skills for educational, community or charity sector careers, working on live briefs to devise performances and workshop activities. You can also experience being part of a professional troupe with our Community Theatre Company.

You’ll have opportunities to take part in collaborative projects, like our HMS Belfast project with Imperial War Museums to commemorate D-Day, and 60 Second Shakespeare with the Globe theatre, London.

By the time you graduate you’ll have built up your own professional network and entrepreneurial skills required for freelancing and portfolio careers.

You’ll also develop transferable skills such as research, teamwork, communication, problem solving, and resourcefulness – invaluable in all areas of the creative industries and other sectors.

You might decide to stay at ARU and study for a Masters, like our MA Dramatherapy, and take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship to get 20% off your fees.

Leila Khan landed roles in Netflix’s Heartstopper and BBC’s Death in Paradise while studying drama with us.

Graduate Kai Toktassyn has built a successful career as an actor and producer/manager in the Kazakhstan film industry, while David Alade wrote and performed Fox Hunting at ARU, before developing it for a professional three-week run at the Courtyard Theatre, London. He also starred in The Fisherman at Trafalgar Studios, with both plays receiving 4+ star reviews.

Teaching

You’ll get straight into the studio and work in a collaborative performance environment, developing theatre-making skills and exploring new drama practices, as well as staging and production.

The second year begins with a production at the Mumford Theatre, allowing you to perform in and produce a large-scale public performance from a selected source text. You’ll also take part in a community theatre project.

In your final year you’ll undertake a major piece of individual research relevant to your own interests, as well as collaboratively planning and executing our Festival of Performance in Cambridge.

*=optional.

Year 1: Fundamentals for Acting; Researching Performance; Specialist Skills; Introduction to Screen Acting; Studio Project; Into ARU.

Year 2: Festive Theatre; Advanced Specialist Skills; Community Theatre Performance; Performance in Context; From Performance to Therapy Arts Therapies In Action*; Writing for the Stage*; Storytelling on Screen Collaborative Project*; Performing Shakespeare*; Introduction to Directing*; Movement Direction and Choreography*; Technical Production Placement*; Ruskin Module*; Anglia Language Programme*.

Year 3: Placement.

Year 4: Creative Industries Major Project; Professional Preparation and Showcase; Site Specific and Immersive Performance.

Modules are subject to change and availability.

You’ll show your progress mainly through performance and practical work, with some small written components or longer essays if you choose theoretical options. The methods of assessment will include studio and public performances, essays, presentations, critical reflections, and a Major Project, which can be practical or written work.