Drama & Theatre BA (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
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UCAS Code: W411|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Creative Campus
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
*This course is open for 2026 entry only
Explore theatre and performance in the heart of the city of Liverpool. Learn about the origins of current practices and develop your hands-on skills in making new work.
Liverpool Hope’s creative community is internationally renowned and world-leading in drama research and practice. You will develop your acting and directing skills, your ability to facilitate drama sessions and your devising skills, as well as improving your critical writing skills. We make full use of the many theatre venues in Liverpool, from the traditional Everyman/Playhouse to the experimental Tate Liverpool, as well as our own Capstone Theatre and several well-equipped studio theatre spaces dedicated for student use.
Throughout your time at Liverpool Hope, you will be asked to explore performance in relation to historical and contemporary social and ethical contexts, helping you to understand the critical place of the performing arts in 21st-century society. Our motto is to ‘educate in the round’, meaning you will develop aesthetic and social skills designed to equip you with the skills to become a potential future leader in the subject of drama. At Hope we produce graduates ready to make a difference in the world.
If you are interested in studying Drama as a combination, visit the Drama webpage.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, rehearsal/seminars of smaller groups of around 15-20 students, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students. In your first year of study there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years.
On top of teaching hours, you will also be expected to spend a number of hours studying independently each week, as well as rehearsing for group assessments or performances.
Assessment and feedback
There are a variety of assessments that you need to complete, including coursework comprising of essays, reviews, and self-reflective writing. Practical work is assessed through presentations and live performances. In your final year, you will complete a dissertation.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
Introductions to Drama & Theatre
In your first year, you will be introduced to key texts (for example, from ancient Greece, Shakespeare, Willy Russell) and approaches to staging drama, its histories and contemporary practices. Liverpool has a rich, creative history which we use to help equip you with essential subject-knowledge as well as developing your understanding of making creative work within a major world city. You will be busy devising your own work too in seminars and tutorials using a wide range of drama techniques and practices from our in-house experts and invited speakers from the fields of professional theatre.
You will also explore the versatility of you as an actor, focusing on physical theatre and the actor’s voice. Physical theatre will see you study a number of exciting forms of dramatic expression, such as clowning, commedia dell’arte, slapstick/farce and street performance. You will also consider the flexibility of the human voice as an instrument. You will be trained in vocal animation, understand how to approach script work (both heightened and naturalistic text) and make your own radio recording in one of many of our professional recording studios. You will also be cast in a final year performance directed by a third year student. The Theatre side of this course gets you ready to understand the work of professional practice as a working actor, director, teacher, etc.
Year Two
Explorations in Drama & Theatre
Your second year invites you to investigate the key areas of drama production today: traditional theatre work, applied theatre practices and contemporary performance. Your lecturers, who publish and practice in these areas, will guide you through the exciting opportunities offered to artists within these areas as well as equipping you with the diverse backgrounds and rich histories of these practices. You also begin to investigate a ‘signature practice’ – meaning, you get to start thinking about what kind of theatre artist you would like to become in the third and final year of your degree.
For the Theatre side of your pathway, you will be cast in a large scale production directed by a member of the Drama Department staff. You will also write and record your own podcast exploring a current topic that excites your interest. You will have the opportunity to focus on the area of the performing arts you would like to pursue as a career and get one-to-one tuition to put a plan into action and choose the correct electives in the final year to enhance your opportunities as a graduate.
Year Three
Advanced Studies in Drama & Theatre
Your final year gives you the opportunity to specialise (or ‘develop your signature practice’).
Advanced Playing the Classics gives you the opportunity to adapt a classical play for a contemporary audience.
Advanced Community and Applied Drama gives you the opportunity to set up a theatre company and deliver a drama programme for a group or community in the city.
Advanced Contemporary Performance affords you the opportunity to work towards solo and group performances, performed for public viewing.
All areas enable you to acquire the performance and project-management skills to stage your new work effectively.
You will also undertake a dissertation study supervised and supported by a leading thinker in the field of drama from within the school of Creative and Performing Arts.
Also in your final year, you will take technique-focused classes to hone your skills in movement and ensemble work. You can also opt to study directing with a cast of first year students, work intensively towards the public rehearsal of a scene from classic drama, or create a solo spoken-word storytelling show.
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
There is a range of career opportunities available to Drama and Theatre graduates. For many of our students, their degree will lead to a PGCE, and a rewarding career in teaching. Other graduates choose to work with young people or communities across a range of settings, as applied drama practitioners in the areas of youth work, addiction and recovery, and theatre-in-education. For some, professional training in dramatherapy will offer a pathway to using healing aspects of drama as part of the therapeutic process. Many of our graduates take up front-line roles across the creative industries; as actors, performance-makers, stage-managers, writers, and directors. Some choose to form their own theatre companies, creating touring or site-specific performances across the UK. Jobs in creative development, audience engagement, and arts management are also exciting destinations for graduates. Or, if you wish, a Drama degree equips you to take up the challenge of postgraduate study.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as tuition fees, you will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
With Foundation year, this degree is only available to study as a Single Honours course.