two students sitting on box props on stage during a rehersal performance two students sitting on box props on stage during a rehersal performance

Course Summary

Study a unique course where you can creatively engage with both traditional and alternative forms of theatre.   

Drama 

There is a large emphasis on practical work here at the University of Chester. We have a wide range of modular choices, and students have a number of options as they develop a range of skills over the course of their degree. So, whether you want to be a performer, a director, a facilitator or a project manager, in your final year there’s an opportunity for you to specialise in your chosen profession within the creative industries. We encourage you to engage with a wide range of approaches to making theatre and performance. This includes looking at traditional forms of theatre, while also engaging with alternative forms of making performance such as devising. There's actor training to do with straight acting, comedy and physical theatre. 

English Literature 

You will study an exciting variety of novels, poems and plays. You might find yourself looking for the psychological undercurrents in a fantasy novel, applying feminist theory to a Renaissance courtly sonnet, studying the motif of the vampire in Gothic horror or exploring the treatment of love in the comedies of Shakespeare.  There's the chance to write a dissertation on a topic of your choosing. You will develop key skills for the future: our students learn how to frame a convincing argument, express it in discussion, analyse writing in all styles and work effectively alone or in a group.  At Chester, we offer an engaging and supportive atmosphere in which ideas about literature are shared. Your contact hours will include individual tutorials with lecturers, seminars with other students and a tutor, and lectures attended by your whole year.

Switch combined course content

What you'llStudy

In Year 1, you will gain a strong foundation in text-based and non-text-based performance, while developing in areas such as movement, voice, devising, and performance technology.

Module content:

This module serves as an introduction to the academic study of performance. Students will explore, consider, and examine current theoretical approaches and key practitioners associated to the study of performance.

Throughout this module, study skills will be embedded into the module at an appropriate level for undergraduate studies.

Sessions will help develop students' understanding of scholarly practice: essay writing, reflective practice, presentations, referencing and bibliographies.


Module aims:

The aims of this module are:

  • To provide students with an introduction to the study of performance in its historical and social contexts.
  • To assist students in the exploration of work by key practitioners, presenting a variety of styles and genres from modernism, postmodernism through to current contemporary practice.
  • To ensure students have an understanding of the scholarly apparatus through helping them to engage with academic inquiry, presentation of work and writing.

Module content:

This exciting performance-based module will introduce students to the main technologies that are currently used in the performing arts industries. Lighting and sound are key aspects as you would expect, but students will also learn how video can be created and incorporated into live performance, such as for digital scenography or performing with their "digital self". 

Understanding a range of different digital and performance technologies, and how to use it in varied ways, is really important for performers, whether they are using it to light a play they are acting in, project a virtual dancer which they have choreographed, or to create a piece of contemporary interactive performance art: there are many possibilities! 

Health and Safety is another key aspect of the module, staying safe is essential no matter where you are performing.

The module does not assume that students have any prior knowledge of technology or the ways in which it is used in a performance context, students are guided from a very basic starting point, so there is no issue for students who do not have any existing experience in this area.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To introduce students to a range of performance technologies and their application
  • To encourage and develop an understanding of the appropriate and safe use of technology for live performance.
  • To establish a working understanding of health and safety issues.
  • To support both an artistic and methodical approach to working with technology.
  • To introduce students to the creative manipulation of sound and video for performance.
  • To engage the students in an investigation of the creation of sound and video for performance within the context of the associated field of performance.

Module content:

This module is concerned with the understanding and development of core performance skills. 

  • Physical - with reference to key practitioners and physical techniques, you will work towards cultivating a greater understanding of the body, the body in space, the application of physical dynamics, rhythm and tempo in order to explore the role of physical presence and presentation.
  • Voice - introduction to key practitioners and techniques that will aid you in developing breath control and support, understanding the voice throughout exploration of vocal range, tempo and articulation in the communication of different performative texts
  • Acting - students will learn about performance skills for a theatrical context with a focus on key practitioners within the field of actor training  and will also will explore the role of the performer in the context of the performance space, its restrictions and flexibility. Examples might include an understanding of staging conventions and the non-theatre space.  

Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To introduce students to disciplined movement, vocal and acting techniques
  • To introduce students to the application of movement, vocal and acting skills
  • To bring about a broader understanding of performance skills

In Year 2, you will have the opportunity to develop your theatre making and analysis skillset both practically and theoretically. You can also choose areas such as directing, applied practices and body and sound.

Module content:

Part A:      

Preparation for Experiential Overseas Learning will take place at the university of Chester during level 5 and will include:  

  • The multiple facets of Global citizenship
  • Ethical engagement and practice
  • Cross-cultural issues and sensitivity
  • Intercultural communication

Theories, models and strategies of learning

  • Theories and models Intercultural competence
  • Theories and models of Integration and Multiculturalism
  • Critical thinking skills and models of Reflection
  • Experiential learning models
  • Self-directed experiential learning

Personal and placement-related skills

  • Enhanced independence
  • Improved command of multicultural behaviour
  • Increased knowledge and confidence in their individual facets of personal identity
  • Effective time management and organisational skills
  • Project management – working away from University and independent study
  • Self-management and personal development
  • Team building and team work

Part B:            Overseas

Students will engage in experiential learning activities overseas for at least 150 hours 


Module aims:

The purpose of this module is to enhance students’ prospects of completing an overseas placement to the best of their ability consequently it aims to:

  • To equip participants with appropriate knowledge and skills to study or work in a different cultural, linguistic and/or social environment; enhancing ethical, cultural and intercultural awareness.
  • To enhance students understanding of the ethical issues related to living and working abroad.
  • To increase students Global Citizenship skills
  • To provide an opportunity for students to reflect critically on their experience of living and learning within an unfamiliar culture, to their 'home' culture or ethnic group.

To challenge students to learn about themselves as global citizens in terms of life skills, career choices and academic development outside the classroom.

Module content:

Preparation for the year abroad will take place in Chester during level 5 and will include:

  • Cross-cultural issues and sensitivity
  • Host-country orientation, study methods– economic, political and social reality of the country
  • Orientation specific to exchange – health, education, gender issues
  • The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
  • Practical matters relating to living and studying in the wider world

Theories, models and strategies of learning

  • Critical thinking skills, experiential learning       and models of reflection

Personal and placement-related transversal skills

  • Effective self-motivation and independent resourcefulness
  • Effective time management and organisational skills
  • Project management – working away from University and independent study
  • Self-management and personal development

Whilst abroad:

Students will undertake study at one of UoC’s partner universities; it is expected that students will choose a series of modules at the university abroad, which equal a full-time study load. This must be agreed by the host institution and the International Tutor. Students must supply details of their courses/modules on a learning agreement within 4 weeks of arrival at the host university, note students who fail to supply this within 4 weeks may have the opportunity withdrawn.


Module aims:

  1. To experience academic life in country outside of the EU, enhancing cultural and intercultural awareness and increasing transversal skills.
  2. To reflect on the impact of the experience in their destination on one’s own personal, academic and professional development.
  3. To engage with the experience of study at a partner university to gain extensive first-hand knowledge and understanding of the relevant society from the perspective of the resident.
  4. To further develop independent learning techniques.
  5. To foster critical evaluation.

Module content:

This module allows students to spend several weeks working on one major project working in a professional, 'simulated real world' working environment. Students will plan, execute and evaluate their work for the selected context appropriate to the programme of study.

The experiences gained in this module are invaluable to those students who see themselves working in their chosen field in the future. The staff teaching on this module bring a wealth of professional experience which they use when supervising the project work of the students.

The exact role of each student will vary according to the project undertaken, (and often with outside agencies) under staff supervision or direction. All work created will be designed to emulate best professional practice.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To provide opportunities for students to engage with the processes necessary for the realisation of practice based work, drawing on and further developing skills gained in previous modules.
  • To approximate the demands of professional practice in making and delivering the work created, in order to prepare students for the greater autonomy expected at Level 6.
  • To enable students to contextualise their experiences in relation to current theoretical debates
  • To encourage students to consider longer term plans for their own career development as makers and producers of collaborative work in diverse contexts.

Module content:

Applied practice embraces a wide-range of performing arts practices in dance, drama and music that share a common purpose, to make a difference or change in peoples’ lives. Whether it is in education, a social or recreational setting or other community environment, the module develops the skills and strategies required to be able to facilitate and lead inclusive, participatory workshops and where appropriate, include a performative element to accompany a workshop with understanding and confidence.

Content will include theoretical frameworks within which to contextualise the practice by exploring and studying case studies, practitioners and their processes in the fields of education, participatory arts, therapy, and politics.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To examine the historical contexts of community based work and the defining and redefining of notions of community.
  • To enable the investigation of the work of a number of key community companies and practitioners.
  • To enable the development and practice of workshop facilitation and leadership.
  • To engender an understanding of the applications of performance forms and practices within diverse communities and cultures.
  • To facilitate an understanding of the client group needs.

Module content:

The module consists of a series of lectures regarding the historical, theoretical and cultural underpinnings of contemporary performance practice.

These lectures will deal with the transition during the course of the 20th century from modernist to post-modernist ideas of performance, and will include, and provide a contextual framework for, lectures on topics that will be explored in more detail in other modules.

Students will also engage with key research skills to ensure that they are well equipped for academic writing in their third year.   


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows 

  • To provide students with a set of critical and analytical tools through which to study the performed event.
  • To develop the individual student’s critical awareness of the conventions of contemporary performance.
  • To enable the student to contextualise a series of contemporary approaches to performance.

Module content:

This module will build upon the students' foundational performance skills. In this module, students will be encouraged to develop a critical, practical and reflective application of performance skills in two key areas: voice and movement. 

Part one of the module expands upon previous work in order to explore and finesse the 'voice' for a dramatic text. 

Part two of the module will utilise movement techniques and compositional strategies as a way to explore physicality in devised work, exploring the physical potential of the body as an instrument in practical composition. 


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To encourage students to explore technical underpinnings of key performance skills.
  • To ensure that students explore the application of performance skills.
  • To enable students to critically evaluate their practice by means of reflection

Module content:

In this module students interrogate the connection between the text and performance applying different methods of performance analysis resulting in various possible interpretations and page-to-performance approaches.

The module also looks at the historical precedents of dramaturgy and explores the role of the dramaturg in the contemporary theatre which they have been created, including performance traditions and styles, theatre design and technologies, audience expectations,
etc.

Students learn what a dramaturg does, including play analysis, creative research, adaptation, and devising primarily through practice, but also through reading the ideas and insights of professional dramaturgs.


Module aims:

The aims of this module are as follows:

  • To facilitate an understanding of what a dramaturg does
  • To provide students with the tools to develop their core analysis skills
  • To encourage students to consider performance from a range of analytical perspectives
  • To provide students with general knowledge, critical understanding and practical experience of dramaturgy
  • To enhance students' existing analytical skills in exploring and elucidating the performance implications, potentialities and challenges of scripts from a range of different theatrical traditions

Module content:

Pre-placement:

  • Structured approaches to researching, selecting and securing a suitable work placement relevant to the student’s interests and career aspirations*.
  • Writing an effective CV. Constructing a letter of application.*
  • Interview skills.*

 *Note: Students are required to undertake these pre-placement tasks during term 1 level 5, as part of the placement acquisition process and will be supported by the Work Based Learning team and the Careers and Employability department.

 Induction Programme and Placement:

  • The organisational context: research-informed analysis of the placement organisation’s aims, structure, culture.
  • Self- assessment of needs: identification of the range of transferable skills, competencies and attitudes employees need and employers expect graduates to possess. (Employability Skills: e.g. verbal and written communication, analytical / problem solving capabilities; self-management; team working behaviours; negotiation skills; influencing people; positive attitude, resilience, building rapport).
  • Devising a strategy for integrating into the workplace and work based teams
  • Completion of online assignment tasks covering sourcing and obtaining placement; health and safety procedures in general; general workplace integrity; placement requirements. 

During and post-placement: Learning effectively in and from the workplace:- 

  • Devising and implementing strategies to improve own approach and performance
  • Critical analysis/evaluation of approach to skill development and performance in the workplace;
  • Influencing the Placement Provider’s appraisal;
  • Devising an action plan to develop gaps in transferable skills based on the placement experiences;

Module aims:

This module aims to enhance students’ prospects of gaining graduate level employment through engagement with a University approved work placement**, which will enable them to:

  • Develop their understanding of workplace practice and lifelong learning;
  • Enhance their work readiness and employability prospects through development of transferable skills;
  • Take responsibility for their own learning and acquisition of workplace employability skills;
  • Articulate, in writing, their employability skills.

In Year 3, through the options available, you will develop your own signature practices. you will have the opportunity to develop your theatre making and analysis skillset both practically and theoretically.

Module content:

This self-directed module allows students to initiate and develop their own major project ideas appropriate to their discipline of study. Students at this point in their studies are often very focussed on their ultimate work aspirations, and this module helps them to gain 'graduate trajectory' to enable them to better move into their chosen profession as seamlessly as possible when they have finished their studies.  

After the initial lectures, students decide on the content of their module, and pitch this to staff by way of project proposals. Students then receive tutorial support throughout the year and agree the form that their assessment will take. Students are encouraged to work with others, often across subject areas where this works for the project.

This exciting project helps to promote the ideas of student independence, project management and professional practice.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To promote the development of personal discourse and its practice
  • To promote the underpinning of practice by a strong theoretical framework
  • To enable the emulation of professional practice in taking responsibility for small scale projects from conception to realisation.

Module content:

This module gives the student the opportunity to research in depth and write at length about a topic of their own choice.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To enable the student to identify and independently pursue a suitable research topic derived from the content of the programme of study
  • To encourage the student to apply appropriate methods and theories to the selected topic under consideration
  • To provide the opportunity for the student to articulate their thinking.

Module content:

This module creates the opportunity for students to reflect on their existing skillset and hone their professional competencies and skills in readiness for careers in the creative industries.  

Students will consider how best to promote themselves, developing an employability portfolio most appropriate to their career trajectory. Students will develop an understanding of local, national and international job markets and opportunities for entrepreneurial activity to give students practice in self-promotion, in targeting and networking with relevant employers and understanding the freelance world. 

Students will engage with a range of tasks to develop the content of their portfolio and explore opportunities and career prospects within their chosen industry. Indicative content will include:

  • Producing Electronic Press Kits (EPK),
  • Developing websites 
  • Profile creation and use of social media 
  • Writing and developing curriculum vitae and cover letters
  • Working on grant bids 
  • Producing audio/-visual content 

Module aims:

The aims of the module are: 

  • To enable students to market themselves effectively in the competitive creative industries
  • To develop students' knowledge of professional fields of practice within and outside of the creative and cultural industries where their abilities, skills and knowledge may be relevant;
  • To promote the importance of networking in the creative industrie
  • To develop students' appreciation of the transferability of their accumulated knowledge, experience and skills;

Module content:

The module focusses on a theoretical exploration of the national curriculum, and pivots around key documents and policy initiatives that students can then use when going on to further study or teacher training such as PGCE or QTS. It is designed to give students a good level of knowledge with regard to teaching in schools and colleges, with a view to them pursuing teaching as a career.

The module will examine the impact of key policies on creative subjects, such as the revised primary and secondary curriculum, the introduction of the English Baccalaureate, GCSE reforms, the STEM and STEAM Agenda and Funding for Schools. It should be noted that the module will engage with new and emerging policies as and when relevant.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows:  

  • To provide students with a theoretical perspective of the National Curriculum (historical and present-day)
  • To provide students with an overview of the creative agenda 
  • To offer students the opportunity to examine key policy documents and initiatives, as relevant to the creative agenda
  • To enable students to debate the on-going articulation of creativity, within a solid and secure theoretical framework

Module content:

The module is taught through a series of lectures in which various aspects of contemporary performance will be analysed in depth.  

These may include classes on:

  • contemporary performance practices
  • performance theory
  • the aesthetics of contemporary scenography
  • the sociology of performance aesthetics
  • the relation between art and performance
  • multicultural and intercultural performance
  • theatre for development and drama in education
  • cross cultural and multi-cultural theatre work
  • gender and performance.

Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows:  

  • To further refine and develop students’ critical and analytical understanding of the performed event
  • To provide the individual student with a detailed awareness of the conventions of contemporary performance.
  • To enable the student to contextualise a series of contemporary approaches to performance

Module content:

This exciting module allows students and staff to work together to engage in a substantial piece of practical work. Students will undertake research to inform their process and will showcase the skills developed over the course of the programmes studied.

In undertaking this work students will be encouraged to focus on their own chosen performance specialisms and apply these to this major piece of artistic endeavour. Students will further develop their knowledge of professional performance making, which will be a great asset to them in their career after graduating.


Module aims:

The aims of the module are as follows: 

  • To provide students with a practical experience
  • To help students to undertake a useful, focussed personal programme of enquiry, allowing experimentation, analysis, synthesis, product shaping and reflection
  • To enable students to monitor and evaluate the development and utilisation of their own professional and performance based skills

Who you’ll Learn from

Dr Pamela Barnes

Programme Leader for BA Acting
Pamela Barnes

Prof Deborah Wynne

Programme Leader for English Literature; Research Coordinator for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Prof Deborah Wynne

How you’ll Learn

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and one-to-one tutorials. As a student of literature, you will be expected to read widely – not only the set texts, but also background reading. Assessment methods vary, and may include: coursework essays, seminar papers, oral presentations, resource-based learning exercises, portfolios, learning diaries, and a small number of formal examinations. 

Beyond the Classroom

As part of your studies, you may take our Work Based Learning module, where you will be fully supported in securing a work placement of at least 150 hours, which you may be able to use in trying out a future career. 

Drama - Alternatively, take Experiential Learning, where you become part of a production company and spend up to five weeks working on a full-time theatre project. 

English Literature - Alternatively, you may wish to undertake Experiential Overseas Learning, where you can take advantage of our long-established links with organisations worldwide. Most students have the opportunity to undertake either one of these options as an integral part of their undergraduate course.

 

 

Entry Requirements

112 UCAS Points

UCAS Tariff

112 points

GCE A Level

 

Typical offer – BCC-BBC

Must include a Humanities-based essay writing subject such as English Language or Literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, History or Classical Civilisation.

BTEC

Considered alongside one of the A level subjects listed above

International Baccalaureate

26 points, including 5 in HL English

Irish / Scottish Highers

Irish Highers - H3 H3 H3 H3 H4 including English

Scottish Highers - BBBB including English

Access requirements

Access to HE Diploma, to include 45 credits at level 3, of which 30 must be at Merit or above (15 of which must be in English)

T Level

Considered alongside one of the A level subjects listed above

OCR Cambridge Technicals

Considered alongside one of the A level subjects listed above

Extra Information

Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced and A level General Studies will be recognised in our offer.  We will also consider a combination of A Levels and BTECs/OCRs. 

Students from countries outside the UK are expected to have entry qualifications roughly equivalent to UK A Level for undergraduate study and British Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) for postgraduate study. To help you to interpret these equivalents, please click on your country of residence to see the corresponding entry qualifications, along with information about your local representatives, events, information and contacts.

We accept a wide range of qualifications and consider all applications individually on merit. We may also consider appropriate work experience.

For more information on our entry requirements, please visit International Entry Requirements.

Where you'll Study Exton Park, Chester

Fees and Funding

£9,250 per year (2024/25)

Our full-time undergraduate tuition fees for Home students entering University in 2024/25 are £9,250 a year, or £1,540 per 20-credit module for part-time study.

The University may increase these fees at the start of each subsequent year of your course in line with inflation at that time, as measured by the Retail Price Index. These fee levels and increases are subject to any necessary government, and other regulatory, approvals.

Students from the UK, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and the Republic of Ireland are treated as Home students for tuition fee purposes.

Following the UK’s exit from the EU, students from countries in the European Economic Area and the EU starting in or after the 2021/22 academic year will pay International Tuition Fees.

Students who have been granted Settled Status may be eligible for Home Fee Status and if eligible will be able to apply for Tuition Fee Loans and Maintenance Loans.

Students who have been granted Pre-settled Status may be eligible for Home Fee Status and if eligible will be able to apply for Tuition Fee Loans.

Irish Nationals living in the UK or Republic of Ireland are treated as Home students for Tuition Fee Purposes.

£13,950 per year (2024/25)

The tuition fees for international students studying Undergraduate programmes in 2024/25 are £13,950. 

This fee is set for each year of study. All undergraduate students are eligible for international and merit-based scholarships which are applicable to each year of study.  

For more information, go to our International Fees, Scholarship and Finance section.

Irish Nationals living in the UK or ROI are treated as Home students for Tuition Fee Purposes. 

Your course will involve additional costs not covered by your tuition fees. This may include books, printing, photocopying, educational stationery and related materials, specialist clothing, travel to placements, optional field trips and software. Compulsory field trips are covered by your tuition fees. 

Non-compulsory theatre trips and in-house shows. 

If you are living away from home during your time at university, you will need to cover costs such as accommodation, food, travel and bills. 

The University of Chester supports fair access for students who may need additional support through a range of bursaries and scholarships.

Full details, as well as terms and conditions for all bursaries and scholarships can be found on the Fees & Finance section of our website.

Your Future Career

Job Prospects

Our graduates go on to a wide range of employment and self-employment. The nature of the course means that they are ideal candidates for many professional roles, within the creative industries and beyond. There are high rates of employment, or progression to further study, from this course. Many students go on to work as performers or teachers. 

Progression Options

Careers Service

The University has an award-winning Careers and Employability service which provides a variety of employability-enhancing experiences; through the curriculum, through employer contact, tailored group sessions, individual information, advice and guidance.

Careers and Employability aims to deliver a service which is inclusive, impartial, welcoming, informed and tailored to your personal goals and aspirations, to enable you to develop as an individual and contribute to the business and community in which you will live and work.

We are here to help you plan your future, make the most of your time at University and to enhance your employability. We provide access to part-time jobs, extra-curricular employability-enhancing workshops and offer practical one-to-one help with career planning, including help with CVs, applications and mock interviews. We also deliver group sessions on career planning within each course and we have a wide range of extensive information covering graduate jobs and postgraduate study.