BA(Hons) Drama, Acting and Performance

This module will introduce the knowledge, research practices and professional skills expected across the creative industries. You'll deepen your understanding of the aesthetic and formal qualities of your chosen craft while exploring industry roles, activities and processes. Indicative content includes critical reflective writing, teamwork, collaboration, project and time management, professional ethics, responsibility, presentation and health and safety. Broad, open briefs will allow you to develop outcomes that reflect your discipline while working with cross-disciplinary perspectives, strengthening transferable skills and supporting your developing career aspirations.

This practical module will introduce you to actor training for stage and screen through a range of performance practices. You'll explore improvisation, Stanislavski-based methodology, text analysis, character creation and ensemble working, while developing skills in rehearsal, performance and creative collaboration. Training will help you build confidence in responding to different performance challenges and preparing work independently. By the end of the module, you'll have developed a practical toolkit that supports character development, performance-making and effective work with others.

In this module, you'll explore experimental approaches to making and devising performance through collaborative and individual creative practice. Working across mixed-media forms, you may use film or video, sound, live work and digital performance to create original responses to production briefs. A series of playful practical projects will help you generate, develop and communicate ideas while experimenting with different ways of making. Along the way, you'll build confidence in collaboration, creative problem-solving, reflective practice and the development of distinctive performance work.

This module will introduce you to influential scripts for stage, screen and radio, helping you develop critical approaches to performance texts. You'll investigate topics such as context, genre, style, theme, performance history, staging and semiotics, considering how and why texts create meaning in different forms. Through interactive workshops, reading and discussion, you'll build a critical toolkit for analysing dramatic material and its cultural significance. The module will strengthen your ability to form, support and communicate informed interpretations of performance texts.

In this module, you'll explore future possibilities for creative practice and the industries that support it. You'll investigate how social, cultural, technological, environmental and professional change may create new opportunities and challenges. Research and practical enquiry will help you consider emerging contexts, audiences and ways of working, while developing ideas that connect your values with future directions. Through experimentation and reflection, you'll strengthen your ability to adapt, communicate creative propositions and make informed choices about the development of your practice and professional identity.

Focusing on contemporary stage performance, this module will help you develop practical acting skills through rehearsal and live production work. You'll explore a range of acting methodologies, study influential practitioners and examine approaches used by theatre directors and production companies. Practical workshops, research activities and collaborative projects will support your development as a performer. As the module progresses, you'll refine your stagecraft, strengthen your professional practice and gain experience of working within creative processes that reflect expectations within the theatre industry.

This module will introduce key techniques and working practices for screen performance. You'll develop acting skills for camera, exploring approaches to close-up and mid-shot performance alongside character and script analysis. Technical training will help you build confidence in filmmaking processes, including location work, storyboarding, microphone techniques and editing workflows. Through collaborative projects, you'll gain experience of producing and performing for screen while developing an understanding of professional expectations within the industry. By the end of the module, you'll be better prepared for independent work within screen-based performance contexts.

In this module, you'll investigate experimental performance practices and explore how digital technologies can shape contemporary creative work. You'll engage with concepts such as liveness, embodiment, virtuality and intermediality while examining influential experimental practitioners and performance traditions. Practical workshops will support the creation of original work responding to social, political and cultural issues. Alongside performance training, you'll learn how multimedia tools, interactive technologies and digital platforms can enhance audience engagement. The module encourages creative collaboration, critical reflection and innovative approaches to live and mediated performance-making.

This module will enable you to design and complete an independent research project focused on a subject relevant to your creative specialism. Building on previous learning, you'll identify an area of personal interest and develop a project that strengthens your critical, creative and analytical thinking. Supported by supervision and project-planning activities, you'll investigate research methods, evaluate ideas and manage a substantial piece of work from conception to completion. The module also encourages reflection on professional aspirations, helping you develop transferable skills and specialist knowledge relevant to creative industries and future employment.

This module will provide experience of working within a production company environment, applying your creative skills to the development of a live performance project. You'll explore a range of production roles that may include acting, directing, stage management, lighting, sound or technical support while learning how to collaborate effectively with others. The module encourages ethical and sustainable working practices, informed artistic decision-making and professional responsibility. By contributing to a completed production, you'll strengthen practical skills, build confidence and gain insight into creative career pathways.

This module uses performance as a way of exploring identity, experience and personal perspective. You'll investigate how performance can communicate ideas about age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, disability, faith and mental health through a range of theoretical and practical approaches. The module may draw on performance art, drag, stand-up, verbatim theatre, ritual, puppetry and site-specific performance. Supported by scholarship and critical discussion, you'll examine the ethical dimensions of performance while developing creative, analytical and collaborative skills within an inclusive environment.

This module will help you develop professional and enterprise skills relevant to the creative industries. You'll explore production contexts, funding, budgeting, marketing, curation and project management while learning how performances and events are developed and delivered. Opportunities to engage with festivals, showcases, competitions and live briefs will help you understand professional expectations and working practices. Alongside practical activity, you'll reflect on work experience and personal strengths, building a clearer understanding of career pathways and developing the skills needed to pursue a portfolio career in the sector.