MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media
THE COURSE
This course offers you an advanced education in dramatic writing, with a focus on texts for the theatre, television, cinema and radio. The course provides the opportunity to develop your writing abilities and knowledge in relation to a variety of scripted performance outcomes across a range of dramatic media.
SPECIALIST STUDY
The course is taught through both individual and group development. You will consider fundamentals of writing (indicatively these will include structure, narrative, character, dialogue and rhetorical effect). You will study key writing techniques including individual authorship, group writing and writing to order. You will attend masterclasses and workshops that focus on particular styles of writing for different production contexts. You will be part of a writers' group, providing peer support in developing your writing. You will undertake some theatre reviewing work and submit readers' reports on new scripts for performances in different media.
You will engage in a range of projects that test and develop your skills as a writer of drama. Indicatively, these will include: writing a treatment for a television series, a short script for a staged reading, a short film script, a short radio play, and a complete dramatic script for production in a particular medium of your choice (stage, radio, or screen). In undertaking these projects you will acquire an understanding of working in different formats, and of working with different directors, performers and production personnel.
You will consider the role of the writer in current production processes, and have an opportunity to explore one or more alternative modes of writing (such as ‘writing live', writing in the community and writing for non-verbal performance). You will also gain some knowledge of commissioning and production protocols in different media. This practice-based work is complemented by individual study and appropriate theoretical discussion and enquiry. You will address historical, ideological and critical contexts within which traditions of writing have evolved.
The course also makes full use of its Central London location, drawing in guest speakers from across the industry. Past speakers have included: Mike Leigh, Chloe Moss, Sarah Daniels, Dennis Kelly, Ronald Harwood, Tracey Letts, Ruth Little, Mel Kenyon and others. We also have ties with the Royal Court, the Hampstead Theatre and the BBC.
ADMISSION
You should normally have a first degree in the broad field of literary and/or performance and drama studies; or a first degree and sufficient experience of either writing or drama practice; or have appropriate professional experience; or can otherwise demonstrate your potential to undertake this form of postgraduate study successfully. You must have a good level of written and spoken English (IELTS 7.0). Click here to find out more about IELTS. Admission is by interview and the submission of three pieces of writing: a 300-word synopsis for a piece of drama (for any medium); a 500-word monologue or two-hander that is complete in itself (not an excerpt from a longer piece); and a 300-word evaluation of your own working process as a writer.
For specific details of admissions' criteria, please download the course specification (see panel on the right). The criteria for admissions is near the end of the course specification.
For further course information you can order a prospectus on +44 (0)20 7722 8183, email enquiries@cssd.ac.uk or download