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We are in the process of finalising our postgraduate taught courses for 2026/27 entry. In the meantime, you can view our 2025/26 courses.

BA Theatre and Performance

  • UCAS code
    W400
  • A level offer
    ABB
  • Year of entry
    2025/26
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  3 Years
  • Year of entry
    2025/26
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  3 Years

Develop your knowledge as a theatre-maker and scholar. Learn how to make creative practice with a purpose at the Department of Film, Theatre & Television. 

During your degree, you’ll explore how directors, designers, writers, technicians and other theatre makers respond to, and shape, our rapidly changing world. Develop your ability to make politically engaged and creatively ambitious performances.

At least 60% of your classes will be practice-focused modules. Workshops and rehearsals will be complemented by lectures, seminars, theatre trips and talks from visiting professionals. You'll have regular opportunities to create theatre and perform in productions, devised works, applied theatre projects, and festivals. 

Studying in the Department of Film, Theatre and Television means you will have exciting opportunities to develop your acting skills. In the second year, you can choose an optional From Acting to Performance module, which explores an actor’s craft through text, voice and movement practice. Other modules on offer throughout the degree also provide acting experience.

You can take part in numerous extra-curricular acting opportunities, including student films, theatre productions, and the vibrant performances staged by the Drama Society. All our degrees offer a broad range of creative and technical skills to enhance and support your acting abilities, preparing you for diverse roles in the industry. 

Contemporary performance practices

During your studies, you'll encounter a range of contemporary performance practices, including:

  • verbatim performance
  • immersive performance
  • adaptations
  • applied theatre
  • site-specific work
  • digital practices
  • live art
  • new writing.

Professional facilities

Develop your creative confidence and ‘voice’ through experimentation and exploration in our purpose-built, industry-standard Minghella Studios, a dynamic collaborative environment in which film, theatre and television makers work alongside each other. You'll have access to three flexible theatre spaces, a multi-camera film and TV studio (featuring Arri Alexa film cameras), a digital cinema, and a dedicated recording studio and mixing suite with state-of-the-art equipment. 

 

Albert Education Partnership logoArri Certified Film School logoFEST logoRabble Theatre logoReading Rep Theatre logoResource Productions logoSouth Street Theatre logo

Our Department proudly subscribes to the industry-leading BAFTA Albert scheme, which supports film-and-television makers in their efforts to work sustainably and limit their environmental impact. By studying with us you'll join one of the UK’s leading Universities in Environment and Sustainability’ Ranked 4th in the world in the People and Planet University Awards 2024/25.

Year One

You’ll start by combining hands-on experience (including playwriting, design, and staging) with studies of theatre practice (such as histories and debates), and broadening your skillset by building a good awareness of diverse performance styles and techniques. Through hands-on experience, you’ll be introduced to a variety of contemporary theatre-making, playwriting, design and production practices, staging your own performance experiments using a range of forms. 

Year Two

In the second year, you’ll explore work within and beyond classical and conventional narrative traditions, and learn about practitioners and movements that have challenged those traditions in various global contexts. You’ll have the opportunity to work in real-world settings, as well as specialise in particular skills (such as writing, directing and performing) as you learn about film and television.  

Year Three

Your degree culminates in a major project, taking the form of either a collaborative performance, an individually written dissertation, or an independent creative research project. The final year also includes optional modules which are based around our academics’ current world-leading research and practice.  

Overview

Develop your knowledge as a theatre-maker and scholar. Learn how to make creative practice with a purpose at the Department of Film, Theatre & Television. 

During your degree, you’ll explore how directors, designers, writers, technicians and other theatre makers respond to, and shape, our rapidly changing world. Develop your ability to make politically engaged and creatively ambitious performances.

At least 60% of your classes will be practice-focused modules. Workshops and rehearsals will be complemented by lectures, seminars, theatre trips and talks from visiting professionals. You'll have regular opportunities to create theatre and perform in productions, devised works, applied theatre projects, and festivals. 

Studying in the Department of Film, Theatre and Television means you will have exciting opportunities to develop your acting skills. In the second year, you can choose an optional From Acting to Performance module, which explores an actor’s craft through text, voice and movement practice. Other modules on offer throughout the degree also provide acting experience.

You can take part in numerous extra-curricular acting opportunities, including student films, theatre productions, and the vibrant performances staged by the Drama Society. All our degrees offer a broad range of creative and technical skills to enhance and support your acting abilities, preparing you for diverse roles in the industry. 

Contemporary performance practices

During your studies, you'll encounter a range of contemporary performance practices, including:

  • verbatim performance
  • immersive performance
  • adaptations
  • applied theatre
  • site-specific work
  • digital practices
  • live art
  • new writing.

Professional facilities

Develop your creative confidence and ‘voice’ through experimentation and exploration in our purpose-built, industry-standard Minghella Studios, a dynamic collaborative environment in which film, theatre and television makers work alongside each other. You'll have access to three flexible theatre spaces, a multi-camera film and TV studio (featuring Arri Alexa film cameras), a digital cinema, and a dedicated recording studio and mixing suite with state-of-the-art equipment. 

 

Albert Education Partnership logoArri Certified Film School logoFEST logoRabble Theatre logoReading Rep Theatre logoResource Productions logoSouth Street Theatre logo

Our Department proudly subscribes to the industry-leading BAFTA Albert scheme, which supports film-and-television makers in their efforts to work sustainably and limit their environmental impact. By studying with us you'll join one of the UK’s leading Universities in Environment and Sustainability’ Ranked 4th in the world in the People and Planet University Awards 2024/25.

Learning

Year One

You’ll start by combining hands-on experience (including playwriting, design, and staging) with studies of theatre practice (such as histories and debates), and broadening your skillset by building a good awareness of diverse performance styles and techniques. Through hands-on experience, you’ll be introduced to a variety of contemporary theatre-making, playwriting, design and production practices, staging your own performance experiments using a range of forms. 

Year Two

In the second year, you’ll explore work within and beyond classical and conventional narrative traditions, and learn about practitioners and movements that have challenged those traditions in various global contexts. You’ll have the opportunity to work in real-world settings, as well as specialise in particular skills (such as writing, directing and performing) as you learn about film and television.  

Year Three

Your degree culminates in a major project, taking the form of either a collaborative performance, an individually written dissertation, or an independent creative research project. The final year also includes optional modules which are based around our academics’ current world-leading research and practice.  

Entry requirements A Level ABB

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we'll guarantee you a place even if you don't quite meet your offer. For details, see our firm choice scheme.

 Our typical offers are expressed in terms of A level, BTEC and International Baccalaureate requirements. However, we also accept many other qualifications.

Typical offer

ABB 

International Baccalaureate

32 points overall

Extended project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer.

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM

UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma

Merit

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with no component below 5.5

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Structure

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3

Compulsory modules

Analysing Theatre and Performance

Critically interpret theatre texts and performances, enhancing your understanding of the conventions of production, the organisation of meaning in performance, and deviations from mainstream conventions. Engage with performances from the late nineteenth century to the contemporary, focusing on their historical, cultural, stylistic and performative contexts.

Introduction to Scriptwriting 

Develop in-depth knowledge of scriptwriting and analysis of creative works and enhance your own scriptwriting skills with creative and intellectual tools. You’ll explore personal storytelling in cultural and intellectual contexts, as well as following script development – from the final draft through to creative production. 

Devising Performance: Politics and Citizenship 

Understand the practices and processes involved in creating and organising performances that address political and social issues. You’ll apply a wide range of performance forms and histories, conduct individual research, gain the skills to use specialist equipment, and collaboratively explore performance practice.

Radical Forms in Theatre and Performance

Discover the history, traditions, practices, and theoretical and analytical perspectives of radical theatre making and experimental performance practice. You’ll learn to appreciate the cultural, political, and aesthetic significance of radical experimentation in theatre and performances, and express critical understanding of creative practice and risk-taking.

Staging Texts: Production Skills, Design and Performance

Explore how texts are realised in production, and how making meaning influences creative decisions, as you analyse texts through audio and scenographic design projects and learn about the practices and processes of engaged theatre practice. You’ll study the work of leading practitioners and develop key practical skills through a series of workshops.

Optional modules

Approaches to Film

Critically interpret film texts and discover the conventions of fiction and non-fiction cinema. Explore cinema as a diverse, global and transcultural medium, focusing on historical and cultural contexts.

Approaches to Television

Gain a critical understanding of central issues in television texts and fiction and non-fiction programming. You’ll examine television forms and narratives, industrial contexts, digital platforms and new delivery technologies, as well as the role of the audience and public service broadcasting.

Comedy on Stage and Screen

Gain insights into how comedy intersects with film, theatre and television through a series of case studies. You’ll learn how humour highlights critical issues such as identity politics (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability), taboo, embarrassment, cult, cancel or outrage culture, and explore relevant production, industrial and socio-cultural contexts.

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules 

Community and Collaborative Performance Practices

Develop your performance-making competence by collaboratively researching, planning, devising and executing a practical project in a specific community or theatre company. You’ll learn to relate critical and theoretical issues to decision-making, conduct independent research and have supervised studio time, enhancing your analytical and evaluation skills.

Performance, Identity and Culture 

Understand the construction, representation and performance of diverse modes of identity in theatre and in culture. You’ll develop skills of close textual and performance analysis, and learn how local, national and global contexts have influenced playwrights, theatre makers and theatre cultures. 

Optional modules 

Reworking Shakespeare in Performance

Understand Shakespeare as a powerful signifier of culture, explore adaptations of Shakespeare and learn how these relate to broader cultural and political contexts. You’ll learn about the practices and preoccupations that currently affect interpretation of Shakespeare and gain the ability to make connections between social and cultural concerns and their presentation on stage. 

Directing and Dramaturgy

Explore a culturally diverse range of directing and dramaturgical approaches to creating performance. You’ll be equipped with a toolbox of critically informed and aesthetically exciting strategies, an understanding of the significance of research-informed performance practices, and gain confidence in leading theatre-making processes. 

From Acting to Performance

Analyse the role of actors in theatre and performance-making and explore various acting approaches. Engage effectively with dramatic constructs of character using a creative and critical toolbox and develop confidence in solo performance making.

Placement and Employment Skills

This module provides you with an opportunity for reflective learning and intensive research through an industry role of your choice. You’ll reflect critically on your career development and acquire transferable skills for future employment.

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules 

Choose one of the following:

Advanced Theatre-making Project

Apply the knowledge and skills you’ve gained to a practical, research-based project, that you will develop independently under the guidance of a supervisor. 

Creative Research Project

Apply your previously gained knowledge and skills to a significant research-based project that includes a creative element and critical research and reflection. You’ll develop the project independently under supervision.

Dissertation: Film and Theatre

Apply the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired in the previous modules to a major piece of independent work around an area you are interested in. Independently initiate and develop the project under the guidance of a supervisor.

Optional modules 

Musical Theatre

Explore the theories, themes, politics, and practices of contemporary musical theatre. You’ll focus on the research and development (R&D) of musical theatre, its dramaturgy, political context, modes of production, representation, and reception. 

Performance and Design

Critically explore theatre and performance design by engaging with historical and contemporary scenographic practices. You’ll learn about the role of designers in shaping and reimagining theatre and performance. You’ll advance the ways you read, see and encounter the visual, aural, spatial, material and technological elements of design. Get involved in critical reading and discussions on a diverse range of international designers, methods and performance environments. You’ll gain exposure to professional contexts through visits to archives, talks or masterclasses from visiting designers and/or scholars.

Adaptations across Stage and Screen

Develop your knowledge and artistic practice in film, television and theatre through exploration of the processes of adaptation and engagement with critical, cultural and political considerations. You’ll have the opportunity to explore a range of practices, such as page to stage/screen, citation of iconic characters, fanfiction and digital reworkings, docudramas and documentary theatre, intercultural retellings and translations, contemporary retelling of historical narratives, and reworkings of productions in the same media.

Advanced Scriptwriting 

Create original scripts and develop your critical understanding of key storytelling issues such as narrative, character, dialogue, and place. Your scriptwriting practice will include both individual and collaborative forms of writing and rewriting, and you'll engage with discourses around scriptwriting emerging from both theatre pedagogy and screenwriting studies, including projects for decolonising stage and screen writing traditions.   

Screen Bodies 

Discover how diverse bodies move on screen, and how those bodies engage the spectator’s body. You’ll explore how the screen representation of the body is shaped by culturally situated ideas about body and society, and power and desire – including creative traditions, influences, technologies, and innovations. As you examine how the screen body generates meaning, you’ll study access to representation, visibility, marginalisation, and consent.

Film Festivals and Programming

Gain advanced knowledge of modes of programming arthouse, alternative, and experimental venues, as well as organising festivals. Through seminars, workshops and group projects, you’ll explore how festivals (such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin) work as effective filters for wider distribution, and how festivals and programing are key to understanding the kinds of world cinema we watch.

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,535 per year for 2025/26 then fixed per year at this fee for the standard duration of your course.

New international students: £25,250 per year for 2025/26 then fixed per year at this fee for the standard duration of your course.

Tuition fees

To find out more about how the University of Reading sets its tuition fees, see our fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. In addition to university-wide scholarships, the department offers the Bulmershe Bursary that supports eligible students with £1,000 towards the costs of university life. It is open to all full-time UK or EU undergraduate students studying degrees offered by Film, Television, and Theatre including our joint honours programmes. Students can apply in semester 1 of each year. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

On our BA Theatre and Performance course, you will be supported to develop your knowledge as a theatre-maker and scholar, learning how to make creative practice with a purpose. You’ll develop both your critical and practical skills to open multiple employability avenues or prepare you for postgraduate study.

95% of graduates from Film, Theatre and Television are in work or further study within 15 months of the end of their course.*

Graduates of this degree have gone on to work in:

  • theatre-making
  • teaching and education
  • community arts
  • arts management and administration
  • academia
  • publishing and media
  • theatre criticism
  • advertising and marketing.

Past UG graduates from the Art department at Reading have gone on to work for employers such as:

  • Delfont Mackintosh Theatres
  • Pocket Motion Pictures
  • Sky
  • Bloomsbury Publishing.**

*Three-year average, based on our analysis of HESA data © HESA 2022-2024, Graduate Outcomes Surveys 2019/20-2021/22; includes UK Domiciled, Full-time, first degree responders only.

**Based on HESA data © HESA 2020 - 2024, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2017/18 - 2021/22; includes BA Film & Theatre respondents.

Theatre and performance at the University of Reading

Our Theatre & Performance degree is
designed to inspire your theatrical creativity and provide you with outlets to express it. Watch our staff and students explain what it's like to study at Reading.

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