Theatre, Acting and Performance BA (Hons)

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of practical workshops, lectures and seminars. The course aims to teach theory through practice so your practical work is integrated with reference to relevant texts and journals and lectures providing a context for each module.

You will develop your performance skills (using both body and voice), investigate cultural and historical contexts, develop your creative and collaborative skills and consolidate your critical thinking. You will prepare for working professionally in the field through understanding all aspects of theatre from creative inspiration to final production.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have an opportunity to undertake a work placement module in the third year of the course supervised for agreed projects by a work-based mentor and a University tutor.

Contact time

In a typical week students will have between 12-15 contact hours of teaching depending on the academic year and in the final year there is normally 3 hours less contact time per week in order to do more independent study

Generally, modules are taught in 3-4 hour blocks and are practice led, with theory taught within practical sessions to enable students to gain an understanding of how to apply research in a practical and professional context. 

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 16 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and books, working on practical individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience, demonstrators and technicians.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and 75 per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessment which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade. 

Formative assessments carry no weighting but are really important and designed to help students achieve their best in the final summative assessments. Formative assessment can take different forms such as peer feedback within student support teams, informal peer assessment or rehearsed presentations and performances. It is also embedded in the students ongoing engagement with tutors’ and is part of the individual tutorial system. This is an important part of student progress as it effectively creates a feedback loop offering opportunities for development. 

Assessment in Theatre, Acting & Performance is not by written examination and normally requires a combination of practical work and critical reflection, for example a performance or group presentation with subsequent oral assessment or written analysis. Written assessment is varied, and some modules may require different forms such as essay, contextual analysis, blog, creative writing or learning journal. 

The weighting of these components also varies but on many modules the assessment is weighted 60%/40% towards practice. There are also modules that focus on performance and in which assessment maybe disaggregated. Each assessment is aligned with its intended learning outcomes and learning activities so that it is clear what is being assessed.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• 2 x Essays
• 2 x Portfolios
• 5 x Group practical / performance work
• 2 x Critical reflections
• 3 x Individual or group presentations 

Year 2

• 2 x Essays
• 3 x Portfolios
• 2 x Critical reflections
• 4 x Group practical / performance work
• 1 x Workshop
• 1 x Piece of creative writing 

Year 3

• 3 x Essays
• 1 x Portfolios
• 6 x Group practical / performance work
• 1 x Critical reflection
• 1 x Individual presentation
• 1 x Piece of creative writing
• 1 x Major independent study (approx. 6,000 or equivalent) or 1 x final performance

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate. We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Facilities

All the related spaces are located within easy access of each other and include:

• The Studio Theatre (a 120 seat, flexible space which has been purpose-built and comprises adjoining dressing rooms, green room and storage). This has the capacity to accommodate a wide range of staging options and is linked to:
• The Digital Arts Centre - enabling experimental work combining live and recorded performance and digital media.
• The Dance Studio - a space similar in size to the Studio Theatre and with the advantages of being flexible. The Art Block affords usable practical spaces for work on the scenographic aspects of production.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.