Drama & Theatre Studies
Drama and theatre studies is a discipline that takes performance seriously as an art form, a cultural practice, and a site of inquiry. It asks what theatre has been in different historical periods and cultures, what it is today across the full range of contemporary practice, and what it might become as artists continue to test and expand what performance can do. The subject combines theoretical and historical understanding with practical engagement, developing you as both a critical thinker about theatre and a practitioner capable of making it.
At Aberystwyth University, this full-time, three-year programme innovatively combines theory and practice, ensuring that intellectual rigour and creative experimentation are developed together rather than kept in separate tracks. You will study the history of dramatic forms and theatrical traditions, engaging with the full range of theatre's development from ancient Greek drama through to contemporary live art and site-specific performance. Alongside this, you will explore practical approaches to theatre-making, developing skills in performance, direction, and devised work.
The programme teaches a range of transferable skills, including research, critical writing, collaborative working, and creative problem-solving, that are valued well beyond the theatre. Aberystwyth's long tradition in drama and its strong connections to the professional arts sector in Wales provide a distinctive context for this kind of study. The typical entry tariff is 120 UCAS points.
Graduates from drama and theatre studies programmes move into careers in performance, theatre-making, direction, arts administration, arts education, community arts, cultural journalism, broadcasting, and the wider creative industries. The analytical and communication skills developed through the degree are also highly transferable to careers in education, public relations, management, and the media. Many graduates build portfolio careers that combine making work with other professional activity.
Postgraduate options include theatre directing, performance practice, applied theatre, and arts management programmes.