Explore contemporary performance to develop your creativity, critical thinking and practical skills for a career in creative industries and beyond.
Drama in the School of Arts and Humanities provides an exciting and challenging programme with an emphasis on contemporary performance practices. Our approach to teaching and learning integrates theories and practices of performance in order to extend our understanding of Drama as an art form in its social, political and cultural contexts.
Our expert lecturing staff are internationally-recognised researchers with a range of industry-related experience. Students are able to take advantage of our nationally-acknowledged teaching expertise and will have opportunities to extend their experience of contemporary performance practices through contact with part-time staff and key visiting lecturers. The Drama programmes benefit from extensive links with theatre practitioners and key Irish theatre companies, who use our spaces for performances and delivering practice-based workshops.
Drama allows students to learn in a rigorous and stimulating environment where they are encouraged to develop essential skills as thinking creative practitioners.
Drama at Queen’s combines history, theory and practice in an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, to discover why and how theatre works. Performance workshops and productions enable students to draw upon their reading of literary, cultural, historical and sociological studies to inform their practical understanding of performance. Students are also required to attend professional performances, and benefit from our exceptional links with the theatre sector in Northern Ireland and beyond. Visiting professionals lead workshops in specialist areas.
Student Experience
Extracurricular performance opportunities are offered by the Tyrone Guthrie Society and the student Drama Society, which have taken productions to student festivals in Ireland and the UK. Productions have also been taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and to festivals in Belgium and Italy.
Drama at Queen’s has unparalleled links with the professional theatre sector and collaborates extensively with leading arts organisations and theatre companies, such as the Lyric Theatre, Prime Cut Productions, Kabosh, Tinderbox and Bruiser, as well as with the Belfast Festival and the Linen Hall Library. Students also have the opportunity to undertake a work-based learning module in Year 3.
Students can access a range of international opportunities during their degree programme – both as year-long international exchanges and shorter learning opportunities and visits.
Lots of teaching happens in the Brian Friel Theatre, which is one of the best-equipped theatres in Belfast with a 120-seat studio theatre, rehearsal room, dressing rooms, green room and workshop all housed in the Drama and Film Centre which also includes the Queen’s Film Theatre.
Our staff expertise encompasses both professional and scholarly aspects of drama and theatre practice, with many of our team acknowledged internationally as experts in their fields. You will learn from experts in Irish and British theatre, Shakespearean and Restoration theatre, applied theatre practices, global and intercultural theatre, dance and movement, writing and directing.
Further study, including Master’s programmes, is also an option; see the School website for further information.
Work alongside industry specialists as you develop your skills and abilities through the three essential disciplines: Acting, Dance and Singing. Collaborate, create and gain performance experience from full scale musicals to a graduate showcase.
With this musical theatre course you’ll become a confident, creative and self-motivated individual, ready to break into the industry.
If you love theatre and film, you can study them both in depth on the only course of its kind in Scotland. The innovative BA (Hons) in Theatre and Film combines theory and practice to prepare you for a flourishing career in the creative industries.
And… ACTION! Film and theatre are thriving industries, creatively and commercially. This course will give you the confidence and skills you need to enter careers in theatre, film, teaching, and professions demanding communication and creativity. You will be able to forge your own career path, taking full advantage of a course that is flexible to fit your needs.
The Music and Sound Design programme is designed for musicians interested in composing music and designing sound for a wide range of contexts but with particular emphasis on film and theatre
Students will gain practical knowledge and experience of composing in the studio, composing for instrumental forces, song-writing and scoring for picture. Working alongside leading audio professionals students will also learn innovative methods of capturing, synthesising and manipulating sound, enabling the design of sonic environments to accompany picture, stage productions, radio and gaming.
Music and Sound Design highlights:
This course is designed to equip students with the skills needed to pursue roles in the technical theatre and stage management industry.
The course offers a high degree of practical experience to take students through the various grades of technical theatre and stage management with the ultimate goal of students entering the profession after completion. Upon completion of the programme students will have a considerable amount of experience working on our vast output of public performances with professional directors; students will also have a sizeable portfolio of work which will help them to gain employment.
Students will study a broad range of areas before moving into an area for specialism. This will be facilitated by a core team of technical professionals and a wider range of industry freelancers. This will help to create relationships for future employment in the sector.
This new fast track degree, taught by industry professionals, gives you a two year route into the theatre production industry whether in stage management, lighting, sound or AV; in theatre, festivals or events. Based at Tobacco Factory Theatres in Bristol, you are at the heart of a working theatre, experiencing life as a technical theatre artist from day one.
It is limited to just 12 students so as to re-create a professional working environment and culture from day 1. There is a national shortage of skilled technical staff in the theatre and live events industries. Technical Theatre Arts Graduates are in high demand and BSA’s strong industry networks can help open doors to a rewarding career.
BA Technical Theatre Arts is an intensive, accelerated degree taught over two years, with 40 weeks of teaching per year. You receive the same number of teaching weeks as you would on a three-year course, but save at least £5,000 in tuition fees plus a year of living costs.
At Italia Conti, we believe in providing a well-rounded training that helps students develop their skills as actors. Much of our course is devoted to vocal and physical training, as well as exploring a range of techniques for creating and developing character. Our focus is on helping students work responsively within the space.
This unique course is co-taught by our fantastic BA Hons Acting and BA Hons Musical Theatre specialist teams; an exciting combination that is not found in other drama schools.
As part of the BA (Hons) Acting (Musical Theatre) course, we encourage students to be truthful to the purpose of the work, to celebrate and utilise themselves as individuals in the work, and to continue learning and experimenting with new techniques and creative ideas through the work. We offer a wide range of ideas and training methods, so that each student can construct a personal “tool box” of techniques that work best for them. Our goal is to produce versatile performers who can thrive across a variety of styles and media.
The Italia Conti BA (Hons) Professional Arts Practice (One-Year Online Top Up) is an innovative, unique, industry-leading programme.
The programme is designed to be completed entirely through distance learning, to fit around your schedule. Aimed at those who have completed their performing arts training, and may have already worked in the industry, the course is designed to help you reflect upon your journey to this point, research the avenues you wish to pursue next, and bridge the gap to take the next steps on your career journey. Through a wide variety of online resources, live and recorded webinars, group and individual tutorials, presentations, film creation, research projects and written work, you will deeply evaluate your own professional practice and personal qualities and attributes, extensively consider and research an area of the performing arts industry that interests you, and prepare a professional project that moves you towards that goal, through either the creation of a professional portfolio, an action research project or a written dissertation.
The programme focuses on you and your personal and professional development, training you in the reflective and research skills required to get you from where you are to where you want to be. We teach you how to critically reflect upon your life and work experience to date, intensively research the options you’re interested in pursuing and help you bridge the gap between where you are and where you wish to go next.
Revolutionary drama school training in North London
Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting Degree offers some of the most comprehensive and contemporary training for artists entering the industry today. An intensive approach incorporates all the relevant disciplines vital for a successful career in this ever-changing and rapidly-diversifying industry.
The training includes five public performance seasons, one being an industry showcase, as well as a professionally produced acting showreel and voice reel.
With an alumni employment rate of 84% within 12 months of graduation, Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting Accelerated Degree is suitable for those looking to forge a career as a professional actor and theatre maker. Fourth Monkey’s Acting Degree offers innovative and cutting-edge actor training with opportunities unparalleled in contemporary actor training.
This course provides students with the unique experience of training in an ensemble environment. You will learn by working alongside established industry professionals, whilst also creating and producing your own work and becoming industry ready. Gain the skills necessary for a career of longevity and variety with this revolutionary training and Fourth Monkey’s ethos of ensemble.
There are also opportunities to gain a bursary for the winner of Fourth Monkey’s Experimental Fringe Project, professional and paid employment with our professional ensemble company, the Fourth Monkey Ensemble, and continued professional career development, maintenance and guidance through masterclasses and workshops on Fourth Monkey’s Actor’s Co-Lab programme post-graduation.
FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY AND FOURTH MONKEY ACTOR TRAINING COMPANY PARTNERSHIP
Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting accelerated degree is awarded by Falmouth University, which has been ranked gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, the new classification of degree teaching standards. Gold is reserved for institutions where teaching, retention and graduate outcomes are consistently outstanding and are of the highest quality found in the UK.
Falmouth University has a history of over 100 years at the leading edge of creativity and is now at the forefront of driving innovation and entrepreneurialism across the creative economy with its mission of ‘‘doing it for real’’.
Below is an outline of the key features of the programme:
"The Fourth Monkey training is my personal steel core, I’ll always have it and I can depend on it. This place is me and I am this place. I’m so proud to be a graduate of this school.” - Amy Rushnet, Alumni 2019
