A young female university student in a black top holding a notebook and pen while watching fellow students block a scene on a coloured tape-marked floor in a black-box studio, with a lighting rig overhead with teal and warm gels, a whiteboard with scene notes and black drapes on the walls, representing the devising, directing and performance-making focus of Drama degrees

DEGREE GUIDE

Drama

What do Drama degrees involve?

Drama degrees teach you how to explore theatre and performance through acting, directing, writing, and critical analysis. You will study key areas such as theatre history, script analysis, stagecraft, improvisation, and performance theory. These courses help you develop creativity, confidence, and collaboration skills while understanding how drama is used in theatre, education, and the wider creative industries. You will also gain hands-on experience through live productions, devised performances, and workshops with industry professionals. With opportunities for practical training, research, and specialisation, you’ll graduate prepared for careers in theatre, education, arts management, and beyond.

Example
Modules

Theatre Making: Work collaboratively to devise, direct and perform original work, learning how creative ideas are developed through rehearsal and improvisation.

Scenography: Explore how set, lighting, sound and costume design bring stories to life, creating visual worlds that support character, mood and meaning on stage.

Introduction to Dramaturgy: Study how plays are shaped and understood through research, script editing and the role of the dramaturg in live performance.

Common Degree Names

💼 Many Drama degrees offer placement or applied theatre opportunities in education, community arts, or the creative industries.
🌍 Study abroad is available at several universities.

BA (Hons) Drama
BA (Hons) Drama and Theatre Arts
BA (Hons) Drama and Performance
BA (Hons) Drama and English
BA (Hons) Applied Theatre

Drama is typically offered as a BA and focuses on performance, production, and theatre theory. Some courses may include directing or writing pathways.

A director's notebook with blocking diagrams and actor cues alongside a highlighted Hamlet script with character motivation notes, a theatre history textbook open to Brecht's epic theatre, a scenography sketchbook with set design and costume drawings, a model box stage set with miniature furniture and a cityscape backdrop and an Applied Theatre for Social Change book on a rehearsal room floor, illustrating the creative, critical and production skills developed in Drama degrees

Level 3 (A-level / IB Diploma (HL) / Scottish Highers)

Drama degrees vary from practical performance training to academic study of theatre history and theory. You don't necessarily need Drama – many students come from other creative or humanities backgrounds. What matters most is showing genuine passion for theatre.

Universities usually expect:

Drama or Theatre Studies – a natural choice but not essential
English Literature and/or Language – excellent for textual analysis and essay writing
Performing Arts or Music – useful for creative and performance skills
History or Sociology – helpful for understanding cultural context

✨ Drama or English Literature (or English Language and Literature) keeps the widest range of options open. Practical, conservatoire-style courses usually require auditions, while academic courses focus on essay-based subjects – see Other Requirements.

Universities may also accept:

BTEC Extended Diplomas in Performing Arts or Performing Arts Practice
BTEC National Extended Certificates or National Diplomas alongside relevant A-Level subjects
T-levels in Media, Broadcast and Production may suit courses with a production or screen focus. The Education and Early Years T-Level could be relevant for Applied Theatre or Drama in Education pathways
IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) with at least two IB Higher Level subjects (ideally three - see relevant subjects above) alongside your Career-Related Study; a Performing Arts pathway would be directly relevant

Drama degrees vary from very practical to academic and theory-focused. Always check specific course requirements.

Level 2 Qualifications (GCSE / MYP / National 5)

Most courses require:

GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or equivalent such as National 5s or MYP

📘 A strong grade in English is particularly important for script reading and writing.

GCSE Drama (or equivalent) is helpful but not essential.

🎭 Auditions
Most practical or performance-focused Drama degrees include an audition. You may be asked to:

Perform one or two monologues (classical and/or contemporary)
Take part in a workshop or improvisation session
Discuss your interests and theatre experience

More academic drama courses may not require an audition.

✨ Audition Tips

Choose contrasting pieces that show your range. Research what each institution is looking for – some prefer classical, others contemporary. Be prepared to take direction and show you can adapt.

💬 Interviews

Some courses, particularly those balancing theory and practice, may invite you to an applicant day that includes a short interview alongside practical activities.

🔍 Work Experience

You don't need formal work experience to apply for Drama — your creative involvement is what counts. Performing, directing, writing, or working backstage in any context — school productions, youth theatre, amateur dramatics, community theatre — all help you develop. If you're looking to broaden your experience, try something you haven't done before: direct a scene, design a set, run a workshop for younger students, or volunteer at a local theatre or festival.

✨ Personal Statement Tips

What draws you to drama - and what have you discovered through making it? Reflect on the productions you've been involved in, whether performing, directing, writing, designing, or working backstage. Think about what you've learned from creating and collaborating, and the theatre-makers, companies, or productions that inspire you. If you've experimented with your own projects or explored different ways of making theatre, reflect on what excited you and what you want to develop further. Admissions tutors want to see curiosity about the creative process and enthusiasm for exploring drama in all its forms.

If your qualifications don't match the usual entry requirements, there are some other possibilities.

🌱 Foundation Year in Performing Arts or Theatre

Some universities offer a foundation year if you don't have the required subjects or grades. This helps you develop practical skills and performance experience before applying for the full degree.

🎓 Access to HE Diploma (Performing Arts or Creative Arts)

Accepted by many universities offering Drama degrees. An audition or practical workshop will often form part of the application alongside the academic qualification.

Is this degree right for you?

Members can explore whether this degree fits who they are:

Skills you'd develop and whether they match your strengths
How this aligns with your interests, motivators and values
Career paths and where graduates end up

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Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Use the tabs to explore the kind of person that this would be a good fit for. Do you share the Interests, Motivations, Values, Work identity and skills that people who thrive in this course tend to have?

Not sure what these things are? Explore your Identity Tree with us first.

Interests that connect well with a Drama degree

Students who enjoy this degree often share these interests. You don't need to feel strongly about all of them, and interests develop over time. If one or two catch your curiosity, or sound like something you'd like to know more about, that's a good sign.

Theatre, Dance & Live Performance: Theatre making is at the centre of the degree. You'll act, devise, direct, and collaborate on live performances, while constantly reflecting on what performance does and how it works. The making and the questioning feed each other throughout.

Society, Communities & How People Live Together: You'll engage with theatre's social role through applied theatre, community performance, and work for social change. The degree examines how performance can speak to political and cultural issues, and how it creates dialogue with the communities it touches.

The Past & How It Shapes Us: You'll study theatre history from across cultures and eras, from classical traditions through modernist experiments to contemporary practice. The degree treats history as a living conversation that shapes how today's makers think about what performance can do.

Language, Stories & Writing: Scripts and dramaturgy sit at the core of the degree. You'll analyse plays critically, study how dramatic writing builds meaning through dialogue and structure, and may try your own hand at writing or editing texts for performance.

Students who thrive in a Drama degree are often motivated by

Movement and Physical Activity

You're energised by work where your body is part of what gets the job done. Training and competing, dancing or performing, coaching others through physical activity, the hands-on side of nursing, midwifery, dentistry or veterinary practice, or the operational work of being a paramedic, firefighter or outdoor instructor: the actual job happens through what you do with your body. You'd rather be the one doing the physical work than the one analysing or organising it from a desk.

Curiosity and Learning

You're energised by the activity of learning itself: diving into a subject you've never explored, watching documentaries, taking apart how something works, or constantly asking "why?" The process of learning gives you energy, not just the outcome. You don't just want the answer; you want to understand how things connect, why they matter, and what's underneath the surface explanation.

Storytelling and Communication

You're excited by crafting a compelling narrative, whether that's writing a script, performing a speech, producing content, or simply finding the perfect way to explain something complex. You notice when stories are told well and when they fall flat. Shaping how people understand and feel about a topic gives you real energy, and you're always thinking about how to land a message.

Performing and Presenting

You love being in the spotlight, whether that's on a stage, in front of a camera, or giving a presentation to a room full of people. The energy of a live audience or the focus of all eyes on you doesn't make you nervous; it makes you come alive. You thrive on the immediate connection between performer and audience, and you miss it when it's gone.

Sharing Your Work with Others

You take pride in showing what you've created to others, whether that's exhibiting artwork, demonstrating an invention, publishing writing, or presenting project results. The moment when someone else experiences or responds to your work gives you a buzz. You create with an audience in mind, even if that audience is small.

Analysing and Investigating

You're energised by making sense of information, looking for evidence, spotting patterns, and piecing together how things connect. Whether it's pulling apart data, questioning assumptions, or tracing a problem back to its source, you find energy in the process of understanding what's really going on. You'd rather dig into the details than accept things at face value.

Creativity and Innovation

You're energised by the act of creating something new or finding a fresh way to approach a problem. Whether it's designing, writing, building, or experimenting, you feel most alive when you're generating original ideas rather than following established methods. The possibility that something has never been done before excites rather than intimidates you.

What makes Drama click for the students who love it?

They want to be on stage and feel a scene working in their body, and they want to understand why it works at all. Drama gives them both: making and performing on one side, questioning and taking it apart on the other. A rehearsal that finally lands can light them up, and so can a seminar that changes how they read a play. They love shaping a story and carrying it to an audience, and the constant switching, between building a piece and working out what makes it tick, is what keeps it alive for them.

These are the skills that students who love this degree tend to enjoy using. You don't need to be great at them already, but if they sound like you, that's a good sign.

Skill Name

Skills that suit this degree

You don't need to be great at these already — but if you enjoy using them or want to get better at them, that's a good sign.

Do you enjoy creating something from scratch with a group — bouncing ideas around and building on each other's suggestions?
Do you find yourself thinking about why a scene in a film or play works — not just whether you liked it?
Do you like expressing yourself in different ways — sometimes through writing, sometimes through speaking, sometimes through performing?
Do you enjoy making up scenes or stories rather than just acting out ones that already exist?

Careers a Drama degree could lead you to

Drama

What do Drama degrees involve?

Example Modules

Common Degree Names

Is this degree right for you?

Skills you would develop in X degree

Skill Name

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Is this a good fit for you?

Careers a Drama degree could lead you to

Example
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