BA in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education

In the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) course, you can:

• Perform in, direct and devise theatre, and explore performance that takes place outside traditional theatre environments.
• Make theatre to change lives and inspire change in communities.
• Build industry contacts worldwide through placements and outreach projects.
• Develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.

Join an international world leader in Applied Theatre

Applied Theatre at Central is highly regarded internationally, and the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) is a world-leading course that will train you as a highly adaptable theatre maker. You will focus on performance making in diverse settings such as community centres, parks, prisons, pupil referral units, refugee camps, hospitals, playgrounds, schools and nursing homes in the UK and abroad. Such innovative work aims to bring about change in communities and participants from all walks of life.

We believe that excellent professional applied drama theatre makers are skilled practically and intellectually and come from a diverse set of backgrounds themselves. We work with you to help you meet the challenge of developing your practice and intellectual abilities. You will have the opportunity to develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.

An experience tailored to you

The course offers an unparalleled breadth of experience tailored to your developing aspirations. Whilst lively debate and energetic discussion are a cornerstone of the course, you will have the opportunity to participate in professional quality, fully-realised directed productions, for example, a commissioned site-specific show and touring ensemble works, a show for young audiences, or a theatre in education show in the north of England. Alongside performance work in the community, you will have the opportunity to make and show work at Central.

Work alongside industry professionals

As you progress, you develop your own creative performance-making skills and show, in small groups, performance-based projects for specific communities and groups.

You will work alongside visiting professional practitioners, playwrights, filmmakers and applied theatre specialists from organisations which have, in the past, included Tamasha Theatre Company, Royal Court Theatre, Complicite, Talawa Theatre Company, London Bubble Theatre Company, Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre and Synergy Theatre Project.

You will learn through a programme of performance making, formal lectures, essay writing, workshops, skills sessions, movement and voice classes, seminars, group and individual practice and placements. Being at Central means, you benefit from the specialist expertise and resources available because of the course’s distinctive positioning within a drama school.

Variation and exploration

You may have the opportunity to travel and explore the use of drama in diverse community settings. In recent years, students have undertaken projects in places such as New York, Johannesburg, Bulawayo, Hong Kong, Santiago de Chile and Mumbai. Most of this work is undertaken in partnership with international arts organisations, which work closely with course tutors and students to design, develop and deliver projects. Central has the only applied theatre courses on which students have access to funding from the Leverhulme Trust to support these distance projects (see below).

Year 1: Exploration of practical and theoretical perspectives

• Exploration of practical and theoretical perspectives: study practices, concepts and ideas relating to drama, applied theatre and performance.
• You’ll be involved in full-scale production.
• Understand how drama works in a range of community and educational contexts.

Year 2: Studio-based explorations of theatre texts

• Studio-based explorations of theatre texts in Central’s studio theatres (e.g. Simon Stephens’ Pornography, Heiner Müller’s Explosion Of A Memory, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, Harold Pinter’s Mountain Language).
• Or playwriting and filmmaking options using Central’s facilities.
• Develop your intellectual skills by studying units based on playtexts and the role of drama as a force for change in contemporary society.
• You will design and deliver a collaborative outreach project, working as a group creatively in London or beyond, including overseas.

Year 3: Focus on professional development

• You will pursue your own specialist interests further as a creative professional.
• Work in a professional organisation for a term, collaborate one-to-one with a tutor on an extended piece of writing, and pitch, devise, perform and evaluate a final student-led practical project.
• The degree concludes with a specialist lecture series delivered by artists, academics and researchers who are pioneering in the field of applied theatre.

Assessment

Assessment is carefully integrated into the experience of learning, and you are encouraged to place your own experiences and practice at the heart of your studies. The assessment methods include presentations, practice, drama workshops, research projects, traditional essays, a dissertation and professional placement work, which is assessed by professionals working in the industry.

Changing the world of performance

This course aims to change the makeup of the workplaces that our graduates train for. If you look at theatre, performance or culture more widely and don’t see yourself reflected in it, then come and join our course.

Applied Theatre is fundamentally about making performance accessible to all. We need more artists and facilitators that reflect the breadth and diversity of the communities we work in, around the UK and around the world. To that end, we consider the whole person and what they can bring to the industry before we consider your grades. If you make an application, we promise to invite you to an interview - please come, and show us who you are and what you have to offer to this project of change.

As an Applied Theatre Graduate

Graduates from this course are uniquely placed for a broad range of different career paths, going on to pursue careers in performance, directing and drama facilitation, and educational roles in theatre companies, for example. DATE graduates are highly employable and lead the field in applied theatre internationally. They have high-level professional skills because Central works in collaboration with many professional organisations and practitioners. There is also financial support available for participation in placements and outreach work in many arts, community, health or education settings within London and beyond.

Industry Placements

BA DATE works closely with major organisations internationally and in the UK and has excellent partnerships within the applied theatre industry:

• Your experiences with the industry will vary from small-scale collaborative practice to peer-professional placements.
• Professional companies are also invited to create new practices with you, either on-site at Central or at off-site theatre venues and performance spaces.
• You will have one major placement in Year Three and undertake experience in a professional context in Year Two.

In the UK, companies have previously included the Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Graeae Theatre Company, Half Moon Youth Theatre, Clean Break, Shakespeare’s Globe, London Bubble Theatre Company and a number of smaller, innovative, community-focused theatre organisations, such as Little Fish Theatre Company.

Throughout the degree, you will have the opportunity to work in collaboration with a wide range of industry professionals, from visiting lecturers and workshops by leading practitioners and academics in the field of applied theatre to creating projects and performances with professional companies and artists.

The course nurtures relationships with local, national and international community and educational arts organisations, from Tender in London (involved in the prevention of domestic violence and sexual abuse) to Sibikwa Arts Centre in Benoni, South Africa, and from Camden Carers in London (involved in support and respite for family and unpaid carers) to Stage Left, supporting both teachers and slum dwellers in Mumbai, as well as a wide range of theatre, education and arts organisations nationally.

Students have also participated in staff-led research projects and workshops led by artists from companies such as Graeae Theatre Company, Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah, Ice and Fire Theatre Company, Punchdrunk Theatre Company, National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre.

All students participating in placements will be required to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This is a mandatory government safeguarding scheme for all those seeking to work in any capacity with minors or vulnerable adults.

Graduate Employment

Graduate employment and career pathways include:

• Director, Fabricate Theatre, Advocreate.
• Drama Worker, Immediate Theatre.
• Education and Drama Facilitator, Open Minds Theatre Company, Capita Education.
• Education Associate, York Theatre Royal.
• Project Support Officer, Greenwich Council.
• Workshop Leader, Exeter Northcott Theatre.
• Creative Arts Teacher, Kemnal College.
• Drama Educator, Bigfoot Theatre Company.
• Project Manager, Young People Programmes, Royal Shakespeare Company.
• Education Events Officer, Shakespeare’s Globe.
• Assistant Director, Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme.
• Youth and Outreach Worker, Playwright and Youth Worker, Almeida Theatre.
• Animateur, C&T Theatre Company, Harrow Arts Centre.
• Assistant Director, Oxford Playhouse.
• Creative Projects Facilitator, MakeBelieve Arts.
• Trainee Director, Salisbury Playhouse.
• Head of Theatre Studies, The Corwin- Russell School, Massachusetts, USA.
• Head of Education, Hall for Cornwall.
• Associate Director, Birmingham Rep.
• Broadcast Production Assistant, BBC Extend Scheme.
• Freelance Director, Ovalhouse, Tamasha Theatre Company.
• Creative Projects Manager, Sheffield Theatres.
• Executive Producer, dreamthinkspeak.
• Co-Artistic Director, Little Fish Theatre Company.
• Founder members of companies, Milk Presents, Full House.
• Recent further study, teacher training courses, master’s degrees in Performance Practices, Development Studies, and Drama and Movement Therapy. PhDs at Central and other universities.