Throughout the three year degree you will engage with a range of practitioners and playtexts. This work will be explored from both a practical and a theoretical perspective. You will debate issues related to many areas of performance and applied theatre and will have the opportunity to work on a range of devised and ‘written’ texts.
You will undertake projects, which in recent years have focused on a diverse range of subjects and communities, from conflict resolution in countries affected by recent war to arts residencies in special needs schools and, of course, students work within Central’s own community in the School’s superbly equipped performance spaces.
In Year One, you will study and explore concepts and ideas relating to applied theatre and performance in lecture programmes, using a range of different approaches. You will be introduced to drama in a range of community and educational contexts and you will take practical units such as improvisation. You will also be involved in a production over the summer term. Currently, an option for the Year One production is a major project spread over the entire summer term. For the past few years this project has taken place at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall and it generally consists of a performance and supporting workshops.
Year Two starts with a practical core that includes, currently, fully realised performances in Central’s studio theatres (e.g. Peter Weiss’s Marat/Sade; Heiner Müller’s Explosion of a Memory; Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis; Genet’s The Balcony; Pinter’s Mountain Language), and playwriting and media options using Central’s excellent facilities - including craft workshops, lighting and sound systems, the costume department and/or media-editing suites. There are further lecture programmes based around play texts and the role of drama as a force for change in contemporary society.
The second half of the year comprises, for example, experience in applied theatre contexts, a choice of study units and a collaborative outreach project. Year Two students working on previous projects have travelled locally and across the globe.
In Year Three, you will pursue your own specialist interests further. Units include a dissertation, a final student-lead practical project and a term-long placement.
The course draws on the specialist experiences of the other courses at Central, including working with designers, voice specialists and construction students. You will learn in a variety of ways: practical improvisation sessions; voice and movement classes; craft workshop experience; lectures; placements; seminars; residencies; and reading and writing assignments.
Placements
There is one major placement in Year Three and a similar experience in Year Two. These will be in community arts contexts, such as community arts centres, theatre-in-education companies, television education departments and statutory education settings such as schools and/or colleges. Half- or whole-day visits to other settings will take place within other units across the three years.
All students attending placements will be required to complete a Criminal Records Bureau check and register with the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS). This is a mandatory government safeguarding scheme for all those seeking to work in any capacity with minors or vulnerable adults.
Further Study
Central welcomes applications from students wishing to study for four years in London and progress straight through from BA (Hons) Drama, Applied Theatre and Education to a master’s qualification in the following subjects:
MA Advanced Theatre Practice
MA Applied Theatre
MA Movement Studies
MA Performance Practices and Research
MA Theatre Studies
MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media.
See 4 Year BA/MA for further details.
