2023/24 Undergraduate Programme Catalogue

BA Theatre and Performance with Enterprise (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:

The 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:

Dance, Drama & Performance
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Guidance
While no QAA Subject Benchmark exists for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, QAA guidance has been published. This programme follows the guidance in that it includes an emphasis on key theories of entrepreneurship in the economy and society as a subject discipline while further focusing on processes of identifying and developing new enterprise opportunities. The programme will further support students in developing their personal development in relation to subject-domain knowledge, personal skills development and independent learning. Furthermore, the programme meets QAA guidance through access to alumni, industry advisors and practical enterprise projects within the curriculum and through the Universities wider extra-curricular provision.

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 with Enterprise

Context, Content and Structure

The course offers a unique blend of study across performance and the cultural industries and the Leeds University Business School 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.

This programme blends a focus on 20th and 21st century theatre and performance practices with modules on business development, finance and social enterprise, delivered by collaborative partners in the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies. This creates a distinctive programme, developing specific skills in the areas of creativity, business development and finance.

Core sets of modules that deliver key frameworks for theoretical, creative and practical study. This includes modules, such as Level 1 Studio Practices and Level 2 Creative Practices, that foreground the development and application of performance practice and studio skills, exploring them in relation to key contemporary debates. 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 and Space), further explore its wider impacts (Exploring the Performing Arts, Contemporary Theatre Makers) 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.

Modules in the prestigious Leeds University Business School explore the theory and practice of enterprise, management and entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurship in Theory and Practice, Starting your Own Business, Managing Innovation in Business). Taught in an interdisciplinary context, they will enhance skills in collaboration and working across dynamic and diverse contexts, including a focus on topics such as social enterprise and new enterprise planning (Understanding Social Enterprises, New Enterprise Planning). This recognises the importance of enterprise and entrepreneurial skills in the theatre sector and wider cultural industries as exemplified by the significant number of Performance and Cultural Industries graduates who go on to found theatre companies and/or work entrepreneurially across portfolio careers.

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 Enterprise Project and Negotiated Project where students can engage in research-based learning, bringing together skills and experiences from across their programme journey. In Enterprise Project (40 credits), students will develop an entrepreneurial solution to an identified problem or opportunity, working independently and supervised through tutorials and seminars. Negotiated Project (20 credits) will provide students the opportunity for further develop skills as independent researchers and practitioners, through the option of developing a written research project or piece of practice. The project and practical elements here 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 interactive 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 institution or to opt for an industry year.

- Study Abroad: From 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, as well as skills in enterprise and business. 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 Adviso 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 maksl 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 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 Matters which includes 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 and national student surveys, we recognise this as a student priority, which is also reflected in a key set of actions embedded within the school’s Strategic Plan (https://sway.office.com/pMcC4IFyjd20BdEk).

Importantly, throughout their study students will be equipped with the critical skills that will encourage them to be adaptable and resilient in the rapidly changing worlds of work: they will learn how to recognise where there are new opportunities, and how to identify and then answer emerging questions that will shape their practice and organisations in which they work.

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:

Basket 1:
Candidates will be required to choose 20 credits from the following optional modules

Basket 2:
Candidates will be required to study modules from the following optional modules

Discovery modules:

Candidates can choose 20 credits of Discovery modules in place of the optional modules from Basket 2.

Year2 - View timetable

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

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

- 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:
Candidates will be required to choose 20 credits from the following optional modules

Basket 2:

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

- Interactive & Immersive Performance (20 credits)

- Digital Culture & Technology (20 credits)

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

- Interactive & Immersive Performance
- Digital Culture & Technology

Discovery modules:

Candidates can choose 20 credits of Discovery modules in place of the optional modules from Basket 2.

Year3 - View timetable

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

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

- Negotiated Project (20 credits)

- Performance Futures (20 credits)

Optional modules:

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

Basket 1:
Candidates will be required to choose 20 credits from the following optional modules

Basket 2:
Candidates will be required to study modules from the following optional modules:

- Interactive & Immersive Performance (20 credits)

- Digital Culture & Technology (20 credits)

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

- Interactive & Immersive Performance
- Digital Culture & Technology

Discovery modules:

Candidates can choose 20 credits of Discovery modules in place of the optional modules from Basket 2.

Last updated: 05/10/2023 16:31:11

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