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Introduction

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Location

Institution code: D26

Course Length

UCAS course code: W400
Duration: Three years full-time, four years full-time with a placement. Six years part-time.

Why choose this course?

Key features

 Benefit from our long-standing partnership with Leicester’s iconic Curve theatre. Opportunities include internships, work placements and the chance to work on or perform in an annual production, which have included Lorca’s Blood Wedding and Lucy Prebble’s Enron.
 DMU is recognised as a Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts, with great facilities providing specialist studios and rehearsal spaces designed specifically for drama and performance learning activities.
 Select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths available upon graduation.
 Extensive performance opportunities for all years of study, including Exit Souls: The Drama Festival, which showcases students’ diverse work to a public audience each year.
 Our graduates have gone on to work in theatre companies, community arts organisations and have forged careers in various aspects of media and technical theatre production.
 Benefit from the cutting edge research and practice carried out by Drama staff in the Research Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies Research.
 Benefit from Education 2030, where a simplified ‘block learning’ timetable means you will study one subject at a time and have more time to engage with your learning, receive faster feedback and enjoy a better study-life balance.

Overview

Informed by a mix of contemporary methods of performance making, current scholarly thinking and historical theatrical traditions, this course is ideal for those seeking a career in a range of arts-related areas. You will engage both creatively and critically with a range of topics including acting, performing, directing and theatre for social change, while being supported to develop your own artistic vision, personal interests and aspirations.

The course offers you the opportunity to learn about Drama in a rich variety of ways by working with professional researchers, research-active academics and visiting practitioners.

You will benefit from great facilities that have contributed to DMU being recognised as a Centre for Excellence in Performance Arts – an accolade that also reflects our commitment to innovative and excellent teaching and learning.

Real-life experience is offered through undertaking placements and internships, getting involved in professional performances, going on theatre trips at home and abroad, and showcasing your work to a variety of audiences.

You can select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Education, English Language, English Literature, Film, History, Journalism or Media.

Modules

Year 1

Block 1: Body, Text, Voice

Block 2: Participations

Block 3: Revolutions: Staging Texts OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

 Creative Writing route – Writers Salon
 Education route – Childhood, Social Justice and Education
 English Language route - Evolving Language
 English Literature route – Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare
 Film Studies route – Disney, Warner Bros and the Business of the Film Studio
 History route – Global Cities
 Journalism route – Understanding Journalism
 Media route - Media, Culture and Society

Block 4: Theatre Company: Ensemble

Year 2

Block 1: Engaging Audiences

Block 2: Making Theatre and Performance

Block 3: Revolutions: Acting and Directing OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

 Creative Writing route – Story Craft
 Education route – Preparing for Professional Practice and Cultural and Educational Transformations
 English Language route - Sociolinguistics
 English Literature route - Text Technologies
 Film Studies route – Screen Archives - Preservation, Conservation and Usage
 History route – Humans and the Natural World
 Journalism route – Beyond News: Peace journalism and Opinion Writing
 Media route – Public Relations and Strategic Communication

Block 4: Theatre Company: Collaboration OR Professional Performance Practice 1 (requires a successful audition)

Year 3

Blocks 1 and 2: Select two from the list below:

 Live Art
 Staging Texts
 Theatre Company: Production
 Education and Performing Arts

Block 3: Performance, Identity and Activism OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

 Creative Writing route – Uncreative Writing, Creative Misbehavior
 Education route – Adult Learners and Lifelong Learning OR Gender and Education
 English Language route – Language and Identity
 English Literature route – World Englishes: On the page and Beyond
 Film Studies route – British Cinema - Creativity, Independents and Interdependence
 History route – The World on Display
 Journalism route – Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism
 Media route – Gender and TV Fictions

Block 4: Final Project OR Professional Performance Practice 2 (requires a successful audition)

Routes: You can select to study a route in Block 3 during your first year. When selecting a module for Block 3 in your second year you can opt to remain on your chosen route or return to Drama and Theatre Arts. If you choose to remain with the route, it must be continued in your third year.

Entry Criteria

ENTRY REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
Home Office Share Code
For EU students only.

IF no Qualification
Please provide CV with at least 2 years of work experience, and employee reference letter.
Entry criteria

Typical entry requirements

 112 points from at least 2 A levels or
 BTEC Extended Diploma DMM or
 International Baccalaureate: 26+ Points or
 T Levels Merit

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

 Pass Access with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit (or equivalent) and GCSE English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above.

We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

 We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

Interview and audition

Interview required: Yes
Audition required: Yes

Assessment

ASSESSMENT METHODS

1. INTERNAL ENGLISH TEST if you don't have an English accredited certificate
2. Academic Interview

Career Opportunities

Placements

During this course you will have the option to complete a paid placement year, an invaluable opportunity to put the skills developed during your degree into practice. This insight into the professional world will build on your knowledge in a real-world setting, preparing you to progress onto your chosen career.

Our Careers Team can help to hone your professional skills with mock interviews and practice aptitude tests, and an assigned personal tutor will support you throughout your placement. Previous students have enjoyed placements at Leicester’s Curve theatre, as well as other professional arts organisations and theatre companies, in arts events and venues, technical or stage management work. Related corporate industries, such as television or commercial enterprises, have also offered our students the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and understanding of working practices in a professional and creative context.

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons, helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world. Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK-based activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

Students on this course have previously undertaken DMU Global trips to New York, Liege, Berlin and Montreal.

Graduate careers

Our Drama graduates learn how to gain strong skills in critical analysis, reflection and research, and are taught to acquire excellent oral and written communication skills. By studying this course you can gain the ability to effectively collaborate, devise, organise and self-manage projects, and deal confidently with public performance.

Previous graduates have developed careers in teaching media and technical theatre production, as well as gone on to work in theatres and community arts organisations, develop personal professional practice, set up a theatre company, or pursued postgraduate study such as our Performance Practices MA. Recent destinations include actor for the National Theatre, Associate Director at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre and Drama coach at Berzerk Productions.

Drama graduate Clive Keene has been travelling the world starring in the National Theatre’s acclaimed play War Horse. Clive said, “It was one of the best decisions in my life coming to DMU. The Drama course opened up so many new opportunities that I may not have got anywhere else and gave me an insight into alternative practices within the industry which I feel informed me as an actor.”


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