Drama, Theatre and Performance

Drama, theatre, and performance constitute a field of study that engages with one of the oldest and most fundamental human activities: the making and experiencing of live performance. Theatre is at once an art form, a social practice, a cultural institution, and a mode of inquiry into human experience. Studying drama, theatre, and performance at degree level means developing both the practical skills to create and perform work and the critical and theoretical frameworks to analyse and contextualise what performance is and does.

It is a discipline that demands imagination, physical awareness, intellectual rigour, and the ability to collaborate.

At the University of Sussex, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, giving students the opportunity to build the creative confidence and academic skills needed for degree-level study before moving onto the full programme. Sussex's approach, as the current description reflects, emphasises artistic imagination, professional versatility, and creative confidence as essential qualities for the contemporary cultural industries. You will engage with a wide range of performance traditions, including classical and contemporary theatre, devised and physical performance, and experimental and interdisciplinary work.

Theory and practice are integrated throughout: you will read critically about theatre and performance while also making and presenting work, developing the ability to think about performance from the inside and the outside simultaneously.

The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, providing substantial professional and international experience. Placements with theatre companies, arts organisations, or educational settings allow you to apply your creative and professional skills in real contexts and build the networks that matter in performing arts and cultural careers.

Graduates from drama, theatre, and performance programmes pursue careers as performers, directors, writers, dramaturgs, community arts practitioners, arts administrators, teachers, and in a broad range of creative and cultural roles. Postgraduate study in theatre, performance, or arts education supports those seeking advanced training or academic careers.