Drama, Dance and Performance
Studies Department
In a challenging and supportive environment at the Creative Campus, you will find academic and support staff dedicated to your development in your chosen art form. Students can take Single Honours degrees in either Creative & Performing Arts or Drama. Dance and Drama & Theatre Studies are available as pathways in the BA (Combined Honours) programme.
We offer an MA in Contemporary Popular Theatre, and an MA in Performance and Cultural Intervention. Visiting Professors include multi-award winning playwright, John Godber; internationally-renowned theatre and opera director, Patrick Mason; Professor of Theatre Development (University of Winchester), Tim Prentki; Professor of English and Comparative Studies (University of Southern California), David Lloyd; and Director of The Pinter Centre, Robert Gordon.
The department has links with New York University, former President Vaclav Havel’s Prague theatre, The Pinter Centre (UK Nobel Prize winner for Literature). We are also associated with Universities in South Africa, Columbia University, the Prague Theatre Academy and theatres in Berlin, Budapest and Greece.
All lecturers in the Department are published authorities in their fields and bring an in-depth knowledge to bear on postgraduate teaching and research. Popular theatres is an emerging research field at the University and there are already several PhD students working on various aspects of popular performance in the department. A feature of the Department is the use of the 'Moodle' Virtual Learning Environment which will facilitate communication and the dissemination of specialist research materials.
The Department plays host to the UK’s only postgraduate course in the field of contemporary popular theatre. If you have an interest in the plays of established writers such as John Godber, Willy Russell or Jim Cartwright or the emerging work of Richard Bean, Amanda Whittington or Roy Williams then the Contemporary Popular Theatres course will provide a suitably rigorous academic framework for further study.
The Department builds on established undergraduate provision in Popular and Mainstream Theatre, balancing programmes of study providing opportunities for academic and practical analysis of the field of contemporary popular theatre. The Department is based at the Creative Campus near Liverpool city centre and makes effective use of the proximity of the Everyman Archive and the Royal Court popular theatre season. The Artistic Director of the Hull Truck Theatre, John Godber, is currently Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at the University and has strong links with the university; Godber’s SOLD (2007) played a sell-out run on campus as part of the Cornerstone Festival.
Milapfest is the UK’s South Asian Arts Development Trust, run by national charity Milap Festival Trust. Milapfest works to promote and support the performance, development and appreciation of Indian arts internationally. Since March 2010, Milapfest’s home has been Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus, with whom a strategic partnership has been formed to develop all aspects of Indian arts performance and education – from training to world-class performances. Milap’s presence exposes Hope’s students to the very best in eastern culture particularly in dance, music and art.
Collective Encounters Theatre for Social Change is also based at the Creative Campus. The company works with the homeless, the young, the elderly and those with mental illness and is funded by the Arts Council, the Primary Care Trust and Primary Support Services. They provide our students with insight and experience of real-life theatre. Kolectiv Theatre is run by a former lecturer at Hope and has toured and performed in Eastern Europe and the Middle East as well as the UK. One of its specialisms is the adaptation and reinterpretation of classical theatre as well as commissioning new drama. Recent examples include the works of Chekhov and Tennessee Williams.
Our relationship with the Limon Institute has facilitated the development of staff with Hope dancers going to New York and Limon dancers such as Alan Danielson teaching a residency to Hope students.