Theatre and Performance

Entry requirements

You’ll need a good 2:1 or first class honours degree in an area of study appropriate to your project proposal (e.g. theatre and performance, drama, dance, live or fine art, performance writing, etc.) or equivalent (for instance, you may have studied something else as an undergraduate but have established an artistic practice since then).

You will also need to provide evidence that you are ready to pursue the project you propose in your application. This will take the form of a sample of critical writing, and if relevant, documentation of relevant creative or professional practice.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Refine your existing skills and knowledge on a programme built to foster innovative, confident and well-prepared researchers. Benefit from close guidance while researching 20th century or contemporary theatre, live art, and popular or interdisciplinary performance – whether through creative practice, or textual or archival study.

Key features:

• Become an independent, forward-looking, creative theatre and performance researcher, able to engage in, and respond to, the challenges of the contemporary world.
• Advance on a well-supported route that enables you to progress from undergraduate studies to doctoral level research in an environment that tests the boundaries, definitions and potential of performance and theatre.
• Acquire a sophisticated range of subject specific and transferable research skills through seminars and workshops.
• Focus on a specific research project in theatre and performance under the guidance of a supervisory team.
• Work in our dynamic, state-of-the-art performance centre, The House.
• Work in a department that places equal value on practice-led and traditional methods of research and their expression.
• Pursue a masters degree while in employment. The contact hours for the part-time ResM programme make it possible for you to work part time while you study - you don’t even need to live locally.
• Engage with Plymouth’s vibrant theatre and performance scene which includes Theatre Royal Plymouth, Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth Fringe and the Barbican Theatre, alongside performances and events hosted by the department itself.
• If you are making exceptional progress, you can progress directly into our PhD programme without having to complete your masters thesis.

Information for international students

If English is not your first language, you must have proficiency in written and spoken English (normally a minimum test score of 6.5 for IELTS, or equivalent). Given the nature of the programme, you’ll be expected to read and engage with complex theoretical texts and debates for which fluency in English is essential.