Drama & Theatre
Drama and theatre are among the oldest art forms in human culture, and among the most socially immediate. Theatre makes meaning through the living presence of performers and audiences sharing a space, a feature that distinguishes it from all other art forms and gives it a particular power to provoke, unite, disturb and illuminate. Studying drama and theatre at university means engaging with that art form in its full complexity, from the theoretical and historical frameworks that allow you to understand what theatre has been and done across cultures and periods, to the practical and collaborative skills that allow you to make it.
At Liverpool Hope University this three-year full-time programme combines theoretical study with practical performance work, developing you as both a thinking practitioner and a practising thinker. You will study the history of theatre from ancient Greece and Shakespeare through the major movements of the twentieth century to contemporary performance practice, engaging with drama as a text, as a set of performance conventions, and as a cultural and political institution. The practical dimension develops your skills in performance, direction, devising and production, working collaboratively in ways that build the communication, leadership and creative problem-solving abilities that theatre training has always cultivated.
The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad and work placement opportunities, giving you professional experience in theatre or a related creative organisation and an international perspective on performance practice.
Graduates go on to work as performers, directors, theatre educators, community arts practitioners, arts managers, stage managers and drama therapists. Many build portfolio careers that combine several of these activities. Others take the creative and interpersonal skills that drama training develops into teaching, the civil service, broadcasting, human resources, training and development, and many other fields.
Postgraduate study in theatre, directing, playwriting, applied theatre or drama therapy is also available. The degree is a rigorous creative training that produces graduates who can work both in and through performance.