2023/24 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA Theatre and Performance (For students entering from September 2023 onwards)

Total credits: 360

Entry requirements:

A-level: ABB (We would normally expect at least one essay/discursive subject within the range of A level subjects taken.)

GCSE: usually 5 at A-C, including English at Grade C/4 or above

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component.

School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme:

School of Performance and Cultural Industries

Examination board through which the programme will be considered:

School of Performance and Cultural Industries

Relevant QAA Subject Benchmark Groups:

Programme specification:

We are currently refreshing our courses to make sure students have the best possible experience. Where there is no module code link below the full module details are not yet available. Before you are required to enrol on a module full details will be provided. 

The information on this page is accurate for students entering the programme from September 2023. For students who entered the programme before September 2023, you can find the details of your programme: BA Theatre and Performance

Context, Content and Structure

The course offers a unique blend of study across performance and the cultural industries that sets it apart from similar programmes both in the UK and internationally. Studying these two areas in conjunction with each other allows our students to develop:

- The creativity of the artist

- The insight of the cultural activist

- The dynamism of the entrepreneur

These attributes prepare our graduates for a wide variety of employment destinations across the creative and cultural industries.

The curriculum focuses on 20th and 21st century theatre and performance practices and consists of a core set of modules that deliver key frameworks for theoretical and creative study. This includes modules that foreground the development and application of practice and studio skills, exploring them in relation to key contemporary debates, such as Level 1 Studio Practices and Level 2 Creative Practices. These use the prompt of Curriculum Redefined to refresh existing provision, revitalising their content to include, for example, global perspectives on performance, and how it is informed by and mediated through digital technologies.

These are complemented by an exciting range of options and Discovery modules that are rooted in staff specialisms and research activity, and which further allow students the opportunity to broaden their understanding of Theatre and Performance. This may include exploring elements of performance practice in more detail (Theatre Directing, Performance Design), further explore its wider impacts (Politics, Identity and Performance, Cultural Flashpoints in the Performing Arts) or situate theatre and performance in the wider cultural industries (Arts and Cultural Management, Contemporary Issues in Arts and Culture).

New modules provide an exciting new set of options. Leveraging new expertise and technical resource in the School, these modules provide the space for engaging through practice in immersive and interactive performance, and digital performance. Additionally students will have the opportunity to explore the impacts of digital technology on cultures.

Students will be supported in developing, recognising and reflecting on their skills throughout the programme. Modules at each Level provide support and opportunities for students to develop their academic literacy and progress towards autonomous self-directed research activity. This is particularly evident in the pathway through the refreshed Level 1 module Studying Theatre & Performance and the new Level 2 module Reflection and Research which scaffold the student journey towards the two Level 3 modules Final Year Project and Negotiated Project. These final two modules provide students the opportunity for research-based learning through written work (a “standard” dissertation) and/or practice (a professional final year performance, or an individual or group enterprise project). The practice elements further enhance students’ opportunities for applying employability skills and authentic assessment.

To support this the School’s teaching team offers a wide variety of research-based disciplinary specialisms from across the fields of performance and the cultural industries, including for example: applied performance, movement and physical theatre, arts management and cultural policy, devising and directing, and interacti ve and digital performance.

The School’s relationship with the University’s public licensed professional theatre provides many opportunities for students to become involved in its activities both through the curriculum and as volunteers or as a member of one of the many Student Union performance societies. These opportunities offer the unique experience of working in a professional theatre environment within a university context.

All students have the option to broaden their experience and to strengthen global and cultural insights through choosing to study abroad at a partner instihrough choosing to study abroad at a partner institution or to opt for an industry year.

- Study Abroad: In their 2nd year of study students have the opportunity to apply to spend time abroad. The University has over 300 University partnerships worldwide and popular destinations for our students include Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Africa and Latin America. 

- Work Placements: This programme gives the option to choose to undertake a placement module and to apply to take a placement year with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.

Leeds Curriculum & Key Intent

The key intent of this programme is to ensure that we are offering opportunities for our students to develop skills that will allow them to engage with cultural and creative sectors, and undertake activity that is meaningful and rewarding. We are building a curriculum that allows our graduates to flourish, confident in their skills and how to apply them, and ready to make a contribution to the aims of our industry partners and in cultural and creative organisations in Leeds and beyond.

This will include skills in theatre and performance practice both on-stage and in roles such as stage management, directing and design. Beyond this will be a range of transferable skills, such as commercial awareness, teamwork and problem solving. These will enable students to enter the cultural industries, a dynamic sector where traditional ideas of career trajectories might not apply.

Key to delivering this aim are the programme threads that underpin the Leeds Curriculum: employability, global and cultural insight, and ethics and responsibility.

Opportunities to connect with industry and professional practitioners are embedded within the course and are supported through our Industry Advisory Group and our close connections with regional, national and international cultural organisations. A distinctive feature is an engagement with the social impact agenda, where students are invited to interrogate and practice the ways in which performance can make a difference to society and to consider themes such as sustainability, ethics, responsibility and inclusivity. Students will work in collaboration with external agencies and organisations as a compulsory aspect of their studies and learn to apply performance skills in challenge-based projects for public audiences. The quality and diversity of these partnerships provide rich learning experiences that will enhance future employability and an understanding of the impact that performance can make both within and beyond the theatre building. This is most visible in the core Collaborative Performance Project where students explore methods of engagement, working alongside a partner organisation to produce a practice-based intervention. Optional modules, such as Arts Marketing and Opera North: Opera in Practice, provide further opportunity for students to engage directly with external organisations, exploring issues and responding to live briefs.

Our redefined programme emphasises the development of students that are globally and culturally aware, including a review of core and optional modules to further emphasise learning and perspectives from the global majority. This is visible, for example, in the new Level 1 module Performance des global case studies, and the Level 2 Re-Thinking Theatre & Performance Histories which will reinterpret canonical Western theatre histories through its interaction with global performance practices. From feedback through both internal anydttps://sway.office.com/pMcC4IFyjd20BdEk).

Importantly, throughout their study students will be equipped with the critical skills that will encourage them to be adaptable

Year1 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study modules from the following optional modules: 

Discovery modules:

Candidates can take 20 credits of discovery modules in place of the optional module

Year2 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules: 

- Re-thinking Theatre & Performance Histories (20 credits)

- Creative Practices (20 credits)

- Reflection and Research (20 credits)

- Collaborative Performance Project (20 credits)

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study modules from the following optional modules:

Basket 1:

- Interactive & Immersive Performance (20 credits)

- Digital Culture & Technology (20 credits)

Basket 2:

- Digital Performance Practices (20 credits)

Please note the following optional modules will be taught in alternate years:

- Interactive & Immersive Performance
- Digital Culture & Technology
- Digital Performance Practices
- PECI2713 Performer Training in the C20th and C21st
- PECI2714 Politics, Identity & Performance

Discovery modules:

Candidates can take 40 credits of Discovery modules in place of the optional modules

Year3 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

- Final Year Project (40 credits)

- Negotiated Project (20 credits)

- Performance Futures (20 credits)

Optional modules:

Candidates will be required to study modules from the following optional modules:

Basket 1:

- Interactive and Immersive Performance (20 credits)

- Digital Culture and Technology (20 credits)

Basket 2:


- Performer Training in the C20th and C21st (20 credits)

- Politics, Identity & Performance (20 credits)

- Digital Performance Practices (20 credits)

Please note the following optional modules will be taught in alternate years:

- Interactive and Immersive Performance
- Digital Culture and Technology
- Performer Training in the C20th and C21st
- Politics, Identity & Performance
- Digital Performance Practices

Discovery modules:

Candidates can take 40 credits of Discovery modules in place of the optional modules

Last updated: 28/04/2023 09:36:17

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