Our MA Musical Theatre Creatives is an individually-tailored MA for anyone interested in creating new musical theatre and a professional career as a creative in the industries, whether as a composer, writer, choreographer, lyricist or something that has yet to be defined.
This unique course focuses on students' particular needs to develop their skills in their field (composition, dance and dramaturgy etc), whilst simultaneously generating work as a collective with other creatives across the MAs.
Working with leading institutions from across the North and with practitioners that include composers, lyricists, and book-writers (the creative team of a musical), students will leave the course with a portfolio of work to take into the industry, to peers to build a creative team with, and leave with a unique artistic voice to shape the theatre of tomorrow.
Our MA in Dramaturgy focuses on the development of new work and individual artistry through collaborative practice.
Whether as a practitioner shaping theatre though storytelling, dance or music, or as a dramaturg in a literary department dissecting text, students will be introduced to a multitude of ways of creating new theatre.
Working with leading practitioners and institutions from across the North, students will learn the key components of storytelling, character and structure.
‘Dramaturgy’ has several definitions, due to the ever-evolving nature of how theatre is created. Students will explore them all and be encouraged to define it for themselves, leaving this MA not only with a comprehensive understanding of how things have been done, but a vision for how they want to do things in the future.
Join us for a 10-week term of Saturday Youth Theatre COMPLETELY FREE. We have received funding to provide many more bursary places for our upcoming year of Youth Theatre. We would love to have you join us!
We believe that being a classical musician today involves mastery of technique, creative application of theory and adaptability – making you at home in any musical context. Our Classical programme is for talented performers and composers who want to break the boundaries of classical music whilst honing and mastering advanced techniques.
You will develop as a performer through one-to-one tuition throughout your studies, as well as broaden your understanding and knowledge, giving you the opportunity to define classical music for the next generation.
Our conservatoire education is characterised by inspirational training with experts in your specialism, all supported by bespoke workshops and masterclasses by high-level visiting musicians.
There are many opportunities for collaboration, such as working with our Production students in the studios, lending your talents to live scores for our Film Music students, playing in the pit band with Musical Theatre students or performing with students from our Pop, Folk and Songwriting pathways.
Our MA Playwriting course is an intensive one-year programme designed to provide a genuine gateway into a writing career in the theatre and performance industries.
Like our successful MA Screenwriting course, the MA Playwriting is taught by practitioners and is vocationally-oriented and industry-focused.
Over the course of the year, you will work with leading industry practitioners to develop your playwriting, pitching and dramaturgical skills. You will learn about and develop skills in writing for performance across a diverse range of contexts, genres and themes.
By the end of the course, you will have developed at least one full-length stage play, a collection of one-act dramas, a full-length festival play and at least one play that adapts elements of a classic text to engage with a contemporary context.
You will have access to individual career guidance and training in how to navigate entry-level writing work in the theatre and performance industries. The course features regular speakers from the industry, including returning alumni who have established successful careers as writers, dramaturgs and producers.
In Semester 1, you will study the basics of playwriting as a craft, with a focus on form and structure. This will include engaging with plays in textual form and in live performance, and the study of plot/story, character, genre, scene development, monologue and dialogue, dramatic action, beginnings, endings, features of staging and audience relationship.
You will study a diverse range of new and historical works, including historical plays that have brought about innovations in dramatic form and structure, as well as new writing staged in Britain and further afield in recent years.
In the second semester, we turn to industry-oriented study, focusing on developing new pieces for festival contexts, and on the skills and resiliencies needed to sustain a living in playwriting.
There will be an industry day based at our studio theatre on campus, with talks from directors, agents, producers, publishers, literary officers and writers.
