Â鶹Éçmadou

How do we learn about theatre and performance? What skills do we need to develop a successful career in the arts? Drama invites you  to practically explore historical contexts, techniques and the craft of theatre and performance making Whether you intend to apply your learning as a theatre maker, scholar or teacher, the course will provide you with the creative and critical prowess to excel in the professional world. By the time you graduate you will know how to work professionally in your field of practice and how to make theatre and performance work which is relevant , to contemporary audiences.

On this course you will:

• learn the collaborative skills and process involved in creating and staging plays;
• experiment with key contemporary performance practices;
• explore all aspects of theatre, front and backstage, including the audience. Who are they? What do they want from a performance? How can you reach them?;
• challenge conventional assumptions of what the performing arts can be and who they are for, from both a practitioner and audience perspective; and
• engage with a vibrant diversity of practical and theoretical approaches that balance practice, history, research, critical thinking and employability skills.

Structure

You will enroll onto the honours degree, but you can choose to exit with an ordinary degree after three years.

Teaching, learning and assessment

You will be taught through practical workshops, lectures and seminars. There is a strong focus on group work and on independent study outside timetabled sessions. You will be assessed in a variety of ways, including essays, reports, portfolios, vivas, performances, post-show discussions and exams. You will complete a Year Four Honours project (written or -practice-based). There will be individual and group assessments.

Facilities

Our fully-resourced studio theatre and rehearsal studios are fully kitted out with sound, lighting, and projection equipment for your use. In addition, we have a scenic workshop for building sets and props, a scenography studio for set design and a costume studio and store. You will have access to seven bookable rehearsal studios (two with sprung floors), as well as to our dance studio and gym hall.
Media resources include access to our edit and post-production suites, our infinity green screen studio, and equipment including cameras, photographic equipment, VR and motion capture kit.

Placement

You will have the opportunity to complete a placement in Creative Learning and the Community, Drama in Education and Experiential Learning options in Years Three and Four. Students will source a placement host with support from Â鶹Éçmadou staff. Placements are usually in the creative sector but we will consider other options suggested by students if we feel they offer an opportunity for you to develop your practical skills.

Exchange opportunities

Studying abroad through our exchange programme can be one of the most exciting and rewarding challenges for a student to experience. The opportunity to travel and live in another country, learn different customs and traditions, meet new people and future career draws many students into the exchange programme. In Year Three you have the opportunity (subject to availability) to study for one semester at a university overseas. Please visit the Exchanges and Study Abroad pages for more information.

Teaching staff, class sizes and timetables

You can read more about the teaching staff on this course at the bottom of this page. Please note that teaching staff is subject to change.

For more information, please also visit ‘How we teach and how you’ll learn’.

Year One

You will:

• work in collaborative experimental workshops, finding creative solutions to the staging and performance of classic and contemporary genres and texts;
• explore a range of roles (performing, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy and scenography) and share your different perspectives and insights with fellow students; and
• learn foundational voice, movement, acting and production skills.

You will study the following modules:

• Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies: This module begins the journey of critical thinking that runs through the theoretical and theatre history modules on the Drama degree. It introduces you to theoretical study of theatre and performance. You will gain confidence in reading play texts from a range of genres and periods and will access performances both in live and digital environments. The module includes visits to live performances in Edinburgh and accesses digital performance work; offering opportunities to see a range of new work of different styles and genres.  
• Introduction to Theatre Production: This module offers an introduction to theatre production, focusing on the essential skills and workflows of the field. You will explore production processes from concept to execution and will learn about the broad range of roles and skills necessary for the creation of theatrical production (including arts and project management, risk assessment and marketing). A key aspect is learning how production crafts and technologies create unique theatrical languages, empowering you to unlock your creative potential on stage. 
• Studio Practices: This module provides an introduction to performance training, focusing on improvisation and psychophysical techniques. You will engage in exercises aimed at enhancing skills such as deep listening, heightened attention, embodied presence, spontaneous play, responsive impulses, and ensemble collaboration. Through structured improvisational activities, reflective discussions, and collaborative ensemble work, you will develop an understanding of the interplay between body, mind, and creative expression.
• Stage Skills: This module aims to introduce you to the principles and practice of core performance elements. It establishes a practical understanding and awareness of vocal and physical skills; working collaboratively as an ensemble; and connecting with an audience. This will prepare you for future making, examination and framing of performance.
• Origins of Theatre: This module will acquaint you with a range of theatrical conventions, forms, practices and individual practitioners from around the world that have helped shape non-western and European theatre. The material covered in this module can include ancient Egyptian, classical Greek and Roman theatres, African ritual forms and South Asian dance theatre (focusing on Kerala), medieval European, Chinese and Japanese classical drama, up to European Renaissance and Neoclassical dramatic forms. You are encouraged to identify and explore key theatrical movements, practices and styles, both in a series of seminars/lectures and practically working towards a 15-minute performance. By the end, you will gain an understanding of interconnectedness between different historical theatrical traditions and conventions around the world. 
• Analysing Texts and Performance: In this module, you will examine how we read both performances and texts. It focuses on practical criticism of texts and their applied use in theatre contexts. The module will also offer enhanced work on performance evaluation and makes use of applied practical criticisms as a way of illuminating understanding of performance practices. The module focuses on core skills required to analyse a text and a performance in depth. It will equip you with the language and conceptual knowledge to discuss the deeper symbolic meanings carried within texts and performances.

Year Two

You will:

• work in collaborative groups to make work for live performance in both digital and in-person forms;
• investigate key historical and contemporary practitioners and create original performance work based on their research;
• learn about theatre history and critical and performance theory, which will inform the development of your creative work.

You will study the following modules:

• Theatre of Ideas and the Stage: This module seeks to introduce you to a range of key theatrical movements that have helped shape European and Anglo-American theatre from early Modernism until 1960s, including Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, and Avant-garde. It introduces you to the historical development of directing, design and stage management roles in the 19th and the 20th centuries, including the rise of intermedial and interdisciplinary practices as theatre enters into conversation with other media.
• Staging Texts: This is a practice-based module which allows you to explore elements and processes of stage craft. You will be able to explore and engage with processes of theatre making and production areas, developing an integration of different strands (performing, production and design) into a practical application. A pulling-together of theory and embodiment of techniques will result in critical self-reflection and the completion of a creative group task. 
• 20th and 21st Centuries Scottish Theatre: This module introduces you to current scholarly research and debates on the subject of the position of Scottish theatre in national and international contexts in the 20th and 21st centuries. It also provides a historical, theoretical and dramaturgical overview of Scottish theatre from the amateur movement, through professional repertory theatres to contemporary performativity of gender and sexuality, political and national identity, and postcolonial discourses in Scottish theatre. 
• Ensemble Devising: This core module will develop your abilities in creating performance as an ensemble and in group creative practice, essential skills for working collaboratively within the creative sector. It offers you an opportunity to practically engage with a variety of contemporary devising techniques, theories and historical legacies, integrating analysis and embodied experimentation of creative methodologies in the field of ensemble devising and collaborative performance making. The module addresses ensemble companies as a business model for freelance creative work and also prepares students to consider a variety of sustainable production and marketing strategies for independent artistic projects.
• Transformations in UK Theatre: This module offers a comprehensive and dynamic exploration of theatre in the United Kingdom, focusing on pivotal movements and changes across different eras, with a substantial emphasis on developments that happened throughout the 20th century. The module covers a range of relevant historical contexts, social movements, and developments in theatrical technique and form.
• Creative Writing for New Technolgies: This module covers a range of interdisciplinary approaches to creative writing, which will be deployed in the production of a digital performance or short film. You will develop writing practices applicable to several digital media and digital technologies. Classes will cover topics such as worldbuilding for video games, co-writing dialogue with artificial intelligence, creating character for films, or multimedia storytelling. In the second part of the module, you will be introduced to digital production techniques (such as filming and video editing) and will be tasked with writing and producing your own digital performance.  

Year Three

You will:

• study core modules plus two optional modules allowing you to focus your interests in specific areas;
• have the opportunity (subject to availability) to study for one semester at a university overseas. For more information, visit Exchanges and Study Abroad; and
• learn about research methods and practice research to prepare you for your personal final Honours dissertation.

You will study the following modules:

• Arts Funding in its Policy Context: This module is designed to equip you with a practical as well as theoretical understanding of the principles and techniques of levering funding for your work from public and charitable funders; important for employability in the cultural arts sector and giving you a valuable transferable skill. We will study how the funding system works and what drives it as well as how funders’ requirements connect to broader policy environments. During the semester you will develop a funding application in a group, applying best-practice approaches explored in class week by week.  You’ll get practical feedback from the tutor on your application to help build your ongoing fundraising skills. As well as developing your skills as an applicant communicating the value and impact of your own work, training and creative expertise, you’ll adopt the role of a funding panel evaluating applications to deepen your insights about what makes a successful application and why.    
• Current Debates in Performance Theory: This module engages with cutting-edge research and theoretical discussions in theatre and performance studies. It introduces you to the major questions driving contemporary performance research, alongside the academics and projects exploring these areas. While the module places a strong emphasis on theoretical discourse, it also highlights diverse research methodologies used in the field. You will learn about various practical and creative methods, enabling them to contribute their own insights to ongoing debates. This approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of both the theoretical and methodological aspects of performance studies.
• Performance Project: This module will allow you to create an ensemble performance response to a pre-existing work of drama, and to develop practice of a preferred area in depth through taking on a specific role in the creation and staging. Through mentored group work, drop-in sessions and group rehearsals, you will be guided through the development and performance of a new work that adapts a dramatic stimulus of your choice. Each group member will acquire different skills as you work together as a company towards a final performance on campus at the end of the second semester.
• Designing a Research Project: This module introduces you to a range of approaches, methods and practices for researching culture and society. It prepares you to develop and design research projects which may support your written or creative practice dissertation or be developed for other purposes. It looks at different kinds of research, how research might be conducted, and what ethical issues arise in research. You will study topics most relevant to your degree, from the areas of creative practice, textual analysis, researching audiences and people, and discourse and content analysis.
• Plus two elective modules*

Year Four

You will:

• study core modules plus two optional modules allowing you to focus your interests in specific areas;
• learn about how to maximise your employability opportunities alongside developing your creative practice; and
• complete a personal final project, which can be a practical or a written dissertation.

You will study the following modules:

• Creative Practice and Enterprise: This module offers you the chance to refine your creative practice within a specific context and audience, focusing on developing and executing a project that blends practical skills with critical thinking. It encourages strategic career planning through evaluating various business and career paths in the performing arts, including freelancing and entrepreneurship. Through mentorship, collaborative projects, and insights from industry experts, students will learn to manage projects sustainably, navigate the intricacies of creative collaboration, and craft a detailed Personal Development Plan for their future career in drama, performance, or theatre sectors.
• Honours Project
• Plus two elective modules*

*Year Three and Four elective modules

In Years Three and Four you will have the option to choose four elective modules in total from a vast range on offer, allowing you to pursue your interests, develop an area of specialisation and work towards your own career goals. Options could include the following:

• Advanced Improvisation
• Global Performer Training
• Site-Specific Performance
• Playwriting
• Writing for Aural Media
• Screenwriting
• Creative Learning and the Community
• Drama in Education (Community Workshop Placement)
• Digital Performance for Social Change
• Directing, Designing and Performing Shakespeare
• Directing, Designing and Performing Contemporary Plays
• Staging the 20th Century: How Scenography Built the Modern Imagination
• Advanced Theatre Production
• The Only Way is Ethics: Art, Participation and Ethics
• Student Initiated Module
• Working in Performance Archives
• The Business of Creativity
• Experiential Learning 

The Drama course offers four distinct routes – Foundational, Research, Practice and Production – all intersected by learning strands which enable you to explore a diverse range of careers related to the performing arts. Creative entrepreneurship and employability is a crucial element of the course and it is embedded throughout the curriculum . Many of our students have successfully started freelance careers in the creative sector and are supported by Â鶹Éçmadou as they set up their businesses, including the chance to be located in our graduate Startup Studio. The world’s largest arts festival happens right here in Edinburgh and many students successfully perform, produce or get involved in the Festival Fringe, with which we have a strong relationship as a department.
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As a Drama graduate you will be able to choose from careers ranging from performing, writing, directing, teaching, producing, to managerial careers within arts organisations and self-employment/freelance work, backstage roles in theatre production or creative facilitation and graduate jobs in any sector that values strategic thinkers with highly proficient communication and writing skills.

At Â鶹Éçmadou we have a lively and dynamic careers service who will help guide you through your choices.

You can find out about the careers of some of the graduates of our various drama and performing arts graduates on our dedicated website.

My career: Dr Vlad Butucea, Lecturer in Drama and Performance at Â鶹Éçmadou

Entry requirements

Scottish Higher: Standard: AABB, Minimum: BBBB

A Level: BBB

Irish Leaving Certificate: H2 H3 H3 H3 H3

International Baccalaureate: 30 points

International: IELTS of 6.0 with no element lower than 5.5.

Required subjects: English and Drama at Higher/A Level preferred. English required and Maths preferred at Nat 5/GCSE level at grade C/4 or above. We can also accept National 5 Application of Maths or Lifeskills at the same grade.

Am I a Widening Access student?: We apply the minimum entry criteria to applicants who meet one or more contextual factor. To see if this would apply to you, please refer to the access and application page.

Mature/Access: We welcome applications from mature students with relevant qualifications and/or experience. See our College Leavers and Mature Students pages for more information. 

Direct Entry:

Year Two

• HNC in related subject with B in the graded unit

Year Three

• HND with a BB in the graded units
• Successful completion of two years of an undergraduate performing arts degree in a relevant subject area.

For details of related HNC and HND courses, see our College Leavers and Mature Students pages for more information. 

Other requirements

A satisfactory criminal records check from the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme will be required if you select the optional module Drama in Education later in your studies.

Disability/health conditions

If you have a disability, long-term physical or mental health condition, or learning disability, it should not stand in the way of your studying at Â鶹Éçmadou. However, if you are not sure whether your disability might be a barrier in your studies or in relation to the professional standards, please contact the Disability Service who will be able to have a conversation with you about reasonable adjustments and supports available to you.

Fee information

Fees: Please follow the link in the 'Course Overview' box for information on fees for 2027 entry.

Other costs:

• The cost of the PVG check is your responsibility. For more information on this, visit the 
• You will be required to pay any additional costs associated with placement travel and accommodation. If you receive SAAS funding you may be able to claim for some of these expenses to be reimbursed.

Application information

How to apply: Application for this course should be made through . More application information is available in the 'Start your Application' box at the top right of this page.

Â鶹Éçmadou

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• The delivery of this course is subject to the terms and conditions set out in our 2027/28 Entry Terms and Conditions (Undergraduate).
• The course information on this page is correct at the time of posting (Feb 2025) but is subject to change. Please check back here for updates.