BA Drama

Drama at the University of East Anglia has been ranked 2nd in the Guardian University Guide 2012, leaving other prestigious theatre and drama schools in its shadow. This programme allows you to combine a strong practical emphasis with the study of the theory, history and social significance of drama, complemented by detailed study of dramatic literature and aspects of visual and technical design. You will participate in a major practical project each year as well as undertaking a wide variety of applied drama work and there is also the opportunity for you to study on placement with professional companies.

The degree interweaves practice and theory throughout the three years and ranges across many periods (Classical Greek to contemporary), performance styles (naturalism to non-Western) and major theoretical and directorial approaches (Aristotle to Artaud, Stanislavsky to ‘physical’ theatre). There is a core of required units (including projects and productions), nearly all of which use practical classes and workshops to approach and link text and performance, periods, cultures and approaches. Technical classes, acting skills and voice work are part of the training offered. Students may have the opportunity to spend a period of time on placement with a professional company or venue (in fields such as TV, radio and film, as well as theatre). Most of the practical work takes place in the Studio, highly adaptable for all stage and auditorium configurations and with full support facilities. In addition to required modules, students have a choice of a wide range of modules on dramatic literature, as well as in areas other than Drama such as Film and Television, American Studies, Modern Languages and History.

Course Structure Year 1

From the start of the first year all drama students (whatever their programme) are introduced to a range of applied and technical theatre skills (including safe use of the Drama Studio and aspects of lighting, sound, stage management and stage design) as well as basic acting, group work and weekly voice classes. You also begin a study of the historical repertoire, reading dramatic texts from Ancient Greece to the present. Lectures explore history and conventions as well as interpretative and performance strategies for a selection of ‘key texts’. You also choose from a range of optional modules (including Literature in History, Key Issues in Film Studies and Introduction to Philosophy) which equip you to take further seminars in these areas later on. A spring semester module (currently focusing on Post-War British Drama) leads to performance work with staff and MA theatre directors.

In the Autumn semester of Year 1 there are two compulsory modules: Applied Drama and Technical Skills (comprising a number of different practical strands, including basic movement and voice work, aspects of technical theatre, and group-based classes and scene rehearsals on selected texts) and Introduction to World Dramatic Literatures (lectures/demonstrations on major plays and playwrights). The third module can be chosen from film, history or literature.

During the Spring semester you follow Postwar British Drama (which includes some performance work) and Theatre: Theory and Performance. You have a wide range of choice for the third module.

Year 2

The second year introduces a wide range of optional courses (such as detailed acting work in The Actor and the Text; seminars in, for example, Classical Drama, Shakespeare, Contemporary American Drama, Political Theatre or Creative Writing). There is an emphasis on World Performance, exploring non-western theatrical forms. Second-year practical work currently focuses on ‘out-reach’ work, taking performance into a variety of real-world contexts (recent projects include work with school children, the elderly and trainee medical personnel). You can also choose (though this is entirely optional) an internship with a professional venue or company and spend the first semester on placement at a theatre, drama school or with a theatre, film or television company at home or abroad. The only required elements are an assessed production and a unit devoted to the exploration of performance events, their nature and function. Otherwise you choose units from the extensive drama offerings including scriptwriting and from other disciplines.

Year 3

The third year revolves around a final, full-scale, drama production and its related seminar and supervised individual performance projects. Also available as final-year specialisms are a drama dissertation and special subjects in Shakespeare and in problems posed by the adaptation for stage of non-dramatic literary material.

Teaching and Assessment:

Key skills, issues and ideas are introduced in lectures given by all members of faculty, including literary critics, literary historians, and writers. More specialist study is undertaken in small group seminars. These are chosen from a range offered within the School and across the University. You will also spend time studying and researching in the library or carrying out practical work or projects. In most subject areas, you are assessed at the end of each year on the basis of coursework and, in some cases, project and examination results. In your final year, you will write a dissertation on a topic of your choice and with the advice of tutors. There is no final examination. Your final degree result is determined by the marks you receive in years two and three.

Course Organiser:Mr. Tony Gash

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Entry Requirements A Level: AAB including Drama and Theatre Studies or English Literature International Baccalaureate: 33 points overall including a minimum of 5 in HL English or Theatre Studies Scottish Advanced Highers: AAB including Drama and Theatre Studies or English Literature Irish Leaving Certificate: AAAABB Access Course: Please contact the university for further information. HND: Please contact the university for further information. European Baccalaureate: 80% overall incl English Literature or Drama and Theatre studies Entry Requirement

Applicants to this course are expected to have either Drama and Theatre Studies, Drama, Performance Studies, English Literature (or combined English Language & Literature) at A-Level. Applicants should offer a second Arts or Humanities subject at A-Level. Students studying the IB programme must offer a second Arts or Humanities subject at Higher Level.

Students for whom English is a Foreign language

We welcome applications from students from all academic backgrounds. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading). Recognised English Language qualifications include:

• IELTS: 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in all components)
• TOEFL: Internet-based score of 88 overall (minimum 18 in the Listening and Writing components; 19 in the Reading component; and 21 in the Speaking component)
• PTE: 62 overall with minimum 55 in all components

If you do not meet the University's entry requirements, our INTO Language Learning Centre offers a range of university preparation courses to help you develop the high level of academic and English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study.

Interviews

We operate an initial shortlisting process for this course on the basis of the information an applicant provides on their UCAS form. Candidates who are shortlisted will be invited to interview and audition and offers are only made after a successful interview and audition. These take place on Visit Days and include an opportunity to look around the campus, view accommodation, meet current students, talk to staff members and find out more about the course. The interview and audition itself will be with one of our Drama tutors. Candidates are asked to perform a short monologue from a selection provided and there is also a discussion which generally covers topics such as your current studies, reasons for choosing the course and your personal interests and extra-curricular activities.

Gap Year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year, believing that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry and may wish to contact the appropriate Admissions Office directly to discuss this further.

Intakes

The School's annual intake is in September of each year.

Alternative Qualifications

We encourage you to apply if you have alternative qualifications equivalent to our stated entry requirement. Please contact our Admissions team for details.

GCSE Offer

Students are required to have Mathematics and English at Grade C or above at GCSE Level.

Assessment

For the majority of candidates the most important factors in assessing the application will be past and future achievement in examinations, academic interest in the subject being applied for, personal interest and extra-curricular activities and the confidential reference. We consider applicants as individuals and accept students from a very wide range of educational backgrounds and spend time considering your application in order to reach an informed decision relating to your application. Typical offers are indicated above. Applicants to this course who are shortlisted will also be required to attend for interview and audition.

The School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing brings together writers, scholars, teachers and students in an exploration of the powers and possibilities of literature. Our aim is to make creative writing and critical reading confront one another in ways that sharpen and enliven both. We teach and research across the range of English Literature from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first. This coverage is supplemented by our interests in European Literature, in postcolonial writing in English across the world, and in literary and cultural theory.

Translation

UEA is home to the British Centre for Literary Translation, which is both a forum for professional translators and a focus for translation work with undergraduate and postgraduate students of literature. The School of Literature & Creative Writing runs the MA in Literary Translation course.

Creative Writing

For over thirty years UEA has been an important centre for established and upcoming writers, whether they come here as teachers, as students, as writers in residence, or to take part in the long-running literary festival organised by the Arthur Miller Centre and the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts.

Drama

Our drama programmes combine critical study with creative practice. The theoretical aspect draws on the expertise of LIT as a whole; the practical work is based in the purpose-built Drama Studio.

Literature

Literature at UEA is not a complete, finished object of study, but a living practice. Because we also do creative writing, translation and drama, we are aware that imaginative writing is not fixed; it is constantly being transformed, adapted, rewritten and reread. Students are invited to study these processes, and also to be part of them.

Among a diverse group of about twenty literature lecturers, there are experts on the various roles that the practice of literature can play, and has played, in society — how it can be something like praying, or like journalism, or like conversation, how it can be a form of political action, or a vehicle for ideas, or a working out of unmanageable experience, or a way of negotiating (or inflaming) differences of class and race and gender. We teach literature not in isolation, but in relation to this untidy bundle of social and psychological purposes.

It follows that we have no great respect for the boundaries that divide one academic discipline from another. We take a lively interest in the work of our colleagues in history, philosophy, film, the visual arts and music, and we encourage our students to do the same. That is why we offer a range of degree programmes which combine literature with other, related subjects. Our largest programme is the BA in English Literature: this is a single subject degree, but we work to keep it open and responsive to its multi-disciplinary surroundings.

UniStats Information Fees and Funding University Fees and Financial Support: UK/EU Students

Further information on fees and funding for 2012 can be found here

University Fees and Financial Support: International Students

The University will be charging International students £11,700.00 for all full time School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing undergraduate programmes which start in 2012.

Please click to access further information about fees and funding for International students