What Makes This Course So Special?
Applied drama develops not only skills for a professional career with several career options. Applied Drama course having been built on the ethos and concern of employability (in an area of high unemployment), but also develops transferable life skills, developing confidence and leadership skills working alongside professionals in the field and in leading theatre companies in the area
Find out more about the subject of Performing Arts at Newport.
Course Intro
If you love theatre and all elements of drama and wish to learn how to impart your theatre skills to others in educational and community settings, then Applied Drama is the course for you. It offers practical based training to prepare you for a variety of exciting careers within the areas of community drama, theatre in education and beyond.
You will learn about the required practical skills for performance, theatre direction, workshop leadership and ‘story development’ and will explore the key texts and theories underpinning these disciplines. You will benefit from work experience, providing you with practical experience of working in Theatre, the educational arm of theatre companies or in schools using drama as a teaching tool, whilst theatre and field trips will also further enrich your experience.
In addition, you will have the opportunity to work on shows as well as showcase your own work at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport and in local schools and educational and community settings.
What you study
Year 1
You will develop your theoretical and practical skills in modules such as Educational Drama, Voice and Body 1 and Starting Scriptwriting as well as receive an introduction to the drama, critical approaches and theatre skills, giving you a foundation for more specialist work in year 2. The aim throughout is to provide a balance of developing practical ability alongside analytical and theoretical understanding; the practical work enabling an examination of the theory and the theory enabling development of the practical.
Year 2
Theatre in Education 1 and 2 and Voice and Body 2 sit at the heart of this course in year 2 with accompanying performance projects in schools. You will have the opportunity to expand your knowledge base with options in Performance Languages (where you will study British and Irish post war drama), Performance Modernisms (where you will undertake a performance project), The English Stage, Scriptwriting 2 (building on Year 1 in developing a full theatre script) and Physical Theatre. Importantly you will have the opportunity for attachments to community theatre and/or groups, Theatre in Education companies and teaching placements as part of your Work Based Learning.
We have good links with several universities abroad and opportunities are available to study a semester overseas (in Europe or the USA) in the second year to students on all Humanities courses.
Year 3
You will critically explore drama and theatre in the social context and develop your skills practically in Drama in the Community and examine drama in a wider cultural context in Non Western Performance Cultures. Your work culminates in a Major Project and Dissertation involving a production to meet the needs and interests of a specific group or organisation. This project will give you the opportunity to both synthesize your learning and also enable you to undertake work of particular interest to you with a view to your future career.
A programme specification for this course is available.
Where Next?
This course will help you develop a wide range of transferable personal skills. There are exciting career possibilities in community drama, theatre companies, educational theatre companies and drama teaching. Drama professionals are working, increasingly, in statutory and voluntary social and health services. The course also provides a sound foundation for further studies in drama therapy. You will also have a sound basis for research into applied drama and relevant cultural and social issues and for further study on Masters and PGCE courses.
Interview Required
No formal interview but you are encouraged to come and meet staff and discuss the course on designated visit days.
Assessment
Assessment is primarily through presentations, work portfolios, reflective journals, reading journals and research folders. There will be some essays, 1 examination in Year 1 and dissertation in Year 3.
Student Soundbite
“This course is ideal for me as it allows me to pursue my love of drama and learn how to apply my skills in a vocational sense.”