Education and Musical Theatre

Education and musical theatre is a combination that brings together two areas that both concern the ways in which performance, story, and structured experience can move, instruct, and transform people. Education studies examines the personal, social, cultural, and political forces that shape learning, asking how and why people learn, what makes teaching effective, and how educational systems reflect and reproduce the societies in which they operate. Musical theatre, by contrast, trains you in the practical and creative disciplines of singing, acting, dancing, and devising work, exploring how performance communicates and the theatrical forms through which it does so.

At Liverpool Hope University, this three-year, full-time degree brings the two together in a programme that takes both seriously.

You will engage with educational theory and the critical study of learning alongside the performing arts training that musical theatre demands, developing your creative practice in parallel with your academic understanding of education. The programme includes a sandwich placement year and work placement opportunities, giving you valuable professional experience in educational or performance contexts, as well as a year abroad, broadening your perspective on both teaching and theatrical practice across different national traditions.

The career paths this combination supports are varied. Many graduates move into performing arts education, teaching drama, musical theatre, or related creative subjects in schools, colleges, and community settings. Others pursue careers in youth arts organisations, community theatre, or education-focused arts projects, working at the intersection of creative practice and learning.

Performance careers in musical theatre, education, and community arts are also a natural destination for those whose creative skills are strong. Many graduates also choose to undertake postgraduate teacher training or further study in education or the performing arts.