Self-Care Workshops for Individual Artists. Artists can sign up for a maximum of 2 workshops – we will be running a waiting list.
This seminar is led and designed by Dr Annette Clancy for artists navigating the highs and lows of a professional career exploring how creative practitioners can work with disappointment to build long-term resilience.
Morning Session - Start time 10am. Finish time 12pm.
Afternoon Session - Start time 1pm. Finish time 3pm.
Tea / coffee provided at registration.
Number of places at each session - 24.
We are looking for emerging theatre directors based outside London to join Headlong Origins 2026, our year-long artist development programme supporting directors across the UK.
Running January–December 2026, this part-time scheme is designed to fit around your work and help you take the next step toward main-stage directing. It offers a blend of artistic support, mentoring, and practical experience with Headlong’s productions and creative processes. You’ll become part of a small cohort of directors and given the opportunity to explore and develop your own individual practices as a director with the support of your peers and the Headlong team. Across the year, you’ll also connect with our partner organisations, and guest artists, and be able to immerse yourselves in the day to day working of a national touring theatre company.
St Ronan’s College
This exciting and dynamic full-time 2 year course has an emphasis on learning skills current to the performing arts industry with the aim of increasing your employability. It is a production-based course for students who wish to develop skills in the performing arts. The course is highly practical, but it also demands academic ability. We use Project Based Learning (PBL) approaches which give you industry relevant experiential learning.
This course will provide you with a stimulating and challenging programme of study that will be both engaging and memorable, delivering the essential subject knowledge that you will need to progress successfully into further study or the world of work. You will undertake a substantial core of learning in the Higher National Certificate in year one, and can build on this in the Higher National Diploma in year two with optional units linked to your specialist area of study.
Content is continually refreshed so that it is closely aligned with professional body, employer and higher education needs. We provide a varied approach to assessment that supports progression and we offer assessment relevant to the local economy, thereby accommodating and enhancing different learning styles. We deliver a qualification designed to meet the needs and expectations of students aspiring to work in an international performing arts environment.
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.
Our programme of work for primary age audiences is as varied as they are.
From one-man interactive musicals, to time-honoured theatrical extravaganzas, to outdoor family shows – our aim is always to entertain, give children an experience to remember and open their eyes to the wonders of their own imaginations.
Connecting with Teenage Audiences. Our audiences aged 12-18 are our big thinkers.
Figuring out who they are, what they believe and their place in the world. We want to figure it out with them. Theatre is a great way to explore ideas and hear other people’s perspectives and we bring teenagers shows which start conversations, stretch their horizons, and hopefully inspire their own creativity and aspirations.
