Drama with a Placement Year

Drama is a discipline rooted in live performance, but at university level it extends far beyond the stage into the theory, history, and practice of theatrical making in the widest sense. It asks how performance creates meaning, how plays and productions reflect and shape the society in which they are made, and what the relationship is between text, performer, director, space, and audience. Drama education develops your creative instincts alongside your critical thinking, your ability to collaborate alongside your ability to analyse, and your awareness of the full international tradition of theatrical practice.

At the University of East Anglia this four-year programme includes a placement year, giving you the opportunity to work in a professional theatre, arts organisation, or performance context before your final year. The placement year is central to the professional development the degree supports: it is where academic understanding meets the realities of the creative industries, and where many students confirm the direction of their careers. The main drama curriculum at UEA engages with theatre history and criticism, contemporary performance practice, playwriting, directing, devising, and production, and you will have regular opportunities to make and perform work as well as to study it.

Drama graduates move into a wide range of careers, both within and beyond the performing arts. Acting, directing, playwriting, arts administration, drama education, community theatre, and theatre management are destinations within the field. Outside it, the transferable skills the degree develops, including communication, collaboration, creative problem-solving, empathy, and the ability to think on your feet, are valued by employers in marketing, public relations, education, human resources, and many other sectors.

The placement year experience is often directly connected to graduate employment. Postgraduate study in drama, performance studies, or related creative disciplines is available for those who want to develop their practice or pursue an academic career.