Drama (Musical Theatre)

Explore your passion for musical theatre in a dynamic, creative and collaborative World Heritage setting.

• Develop your skills as a performer and theatre maker.

• Explore repertoire, concepts and creative processes.

• Prepare for a rewarding career in the creative arts.

BA (Hons) Drama (Musical Theatre) is designed for people who are passionate about musical theatre and who want to deepen and extend their understanding of how it works and the professional opportunities within this field.
As a student on this course, you'll grow as a musical theatre performer, interpreter and creator. Each year, Extended Theatre Practice modules will enable you to also gain expertise in related areas of performance work and so broaden your employability options.
Across the three years, you'll develop and sharpen your communication, critical thinking, collaboration, research and leadership skills in a way that will enable you to operate confidently in a wide range of professional contexts within the performing arts, the creative industries and beyond after graduation.

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.