Creative Writing and Drama

Passionate about writing? Love theatre? Join our vibrant community of creative thinkers and innovate theatre-makers.

• Your projects, your way, with our support. Literary festivals, theatre performances, publications, podcasts - we’ll help you find your voice across a wide range of genres.

• Experiment, reflect and innovate. Learn by making, producing, performing, directing and collaborating.

• Graduate with a host of skills valued in a range of industries, from theatre to media to education. Get ready for the next stage in your career on our industry-focused course.

At Bath Spa University, we’ve combined our love of writing and performing in this innovative Creative Writing and Drama degree course. Come and join us.

You’ll pursue your passions in an environment that encourages creative experimentation. In our workshops, rehearsals and performances you’ll find friends for life who, like you, are inspired to create and want to spend time in a world of imagination, creativity and experimentation.

Studying Creative Writing and Drama at Bath Spa University gives you the performance, critical and creative skills you need to launch yourself into a variety of exciting careers. This unique combination of subjects means you'll have the wonderful opportunity of seeing your words leap to life. P

Why study this combination?
Our modules have been designed to enable you to acquire specialised subject knowledge alongside practical and professional skills. You'll also gain a deep working understanding of production and process through directing each others' work which will enhance your skills in collaborative work.

You'll explore your creative identity through the study of areas of practice such as play production, performing, writing and directing. There'll be opportunities to develop performance poetry and learn more about scriptwriting. You'll have the option to study topics such as Shakespeare, musical theatre, visual and physical theatre, applied theatre and media and performance.

Plus, you’ll enjoy working on our unique campus with its plethora of rehearsal spaces and little nooks for writing. Surrounded by wildlife and a beautiful 18th-century landscape, it's perfect for creative inspiration.

If your idea of heaven is physically working out knots in your writing in a folly overlooking a lake, this is the perfect course for you.

Combined Honour Awards
At Bath Spa University many of our undergraduate programmes can be combined, so you don’t have to limit yourself to one subject. If you choose to study a combined award then in Year One you’ll start by studying both subjects in equal depth. From Year Two you can choose whether to continue with equal numbers of modules from each subject, or whether you want to select additional modules in one or the other. Upon successful completion of the programme you will graduate with a joint degree.

Year one

Build the foundations. You’ll gain skills in working with play texts as part of a theatrical ensemble, performing and directing, theatre production and performance; these will underpin your work in years two and three.

The course is carefully designed to enable you to explore and experiment with your writing and understand the foundations of writing craft. In addition to learning how to give and receive feedback from other writers in the BSU writing workshop, you’ll be experimenting with an array of different writing forms and genres.

You’ll also attend lectures from visiting writers and members of staff who will talk to you about their writing lives and experiences in the industry.

Year two

Apply your skills. You’ll work with local practitioners, collaborate with local venues and learn from visiting professional companies and artists. You'll also have the opportunity to apply yourself in a variety of performance projects. Our focus is allowing you to create original work, while you explore your particular areas of interest such as puppetry, acting and directing, devising, performance analysis, applied theatre, musical theatre and theatre production.

You’ll take a mixture of core and optional modules from a list that includes, for example, genre fiction, life writing, short stories, form and listening in poetry, and writing for screen. This range will enable you to specialise in a particular form or genre of writing.

You'll also take the project module, Professional Portfolio, designed to help you develop the skills you need as a professional writer. For this, you'll be assigned a member of staff to be your project supervisor. They'll help guide and advise you as you develop your idea.

Year three

Develop your specialisms. Increasingly, you'll define and manage your own work, and carry out research into an area of drama or performance of your choice. You may explore topics such as performance, podcasting, staging gender, staging Shakespeare, musical theatre, theatre for social change, media and performance, and devising and puppetry. There's also the opportunity to collaborate with staff on projects relating to their areas of expertise.

The final year of the programme is designed to consolidate your writing practice and support your progression into a writing-related career. You will take a dissertation-equivalent module in at least one of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scriptwriting or writing for young people.

Alongside that you have a choice of career-focused modules which include Live Literature and Professional Practice which offer you the opportunity to develop your own industry-facing creative projects.

Assessment is based on 100% coursework (no exams).
We use a variety of assessment tasks across the programme, including:

• Public performance
• Playwriting
• In-class performance of devised or published work
• Oral presentations
• Performance of backstage/technical roles
• Critical reflection
• Working as part of an ensemble
• Script analysis
• Devising
• Individual and group research projects.
  Most creative writing modules will require you to submit a portfolio of creative writing along with a reflective or contextual essay in which you describe what you have learned in class, what you have learned from the set texts and working on your own writing.