MA/PGDip (Drama and Theatre)

Course details

The MA in Drama and Theatre Studies is a world-leading course that allows students to build a programme that suits their own interests – whether in theatre practice, Irish drama, playwriting, theatre criticism, or a blend of all four. Weekly theatre visits in Galway and Dublin are an essential part of the programme.

Students on the course benefit from NUI Galway’s unique partnership with Druid Theatre, recently described by The New York Times as ‘one of the world’s great theatre companies’. The partnership involves masterclasses, workshops, and visits to shows.

NUI Galway also has one of the world’s richest collections of Irish theatre archives, including the Abbey Theatre Digital archive, which features scripts, designs, videos and images from throughout the history of Ireland’s national theatre.

Full-Time MA

This one-year full-time programme blends academic and practical approaches to the study of drama, and is particularly suited to applicants who wish to work in the theatre, write or review plays, teach drama, or carry out further academic research. Applicants with a general interest in theatre are also very welcome.

Part-Time MA

This is a two-year part-time programme, offering students the opportunity to study drama from a practical, theoretical and historical perspective, and building skills in a range of different areas in drama and theatre. Students take three modules each year and write a minor thesis at the end of second year.

Key facts

Entry requirements

A university Arts degree (minimum standard 2.2, or US GPA 3.0). Students will be accepted on the basis of the degree result, a personal statement addressing their theatre experience and aims, and the names of two people who can provide references. Applicants who do not meet the minimum entry requirements may be admitted via a qualifying exam if they have relevant professional experience, or may be admitted to the PDip. Students who do not meet the honours degree requirement but have a Level 7 degree (Merit 2) may be admitted to the PDip course with the possibility of progressing to the MA if they receive a minimum of 60% in their course work during the year.

Course outline

• There are two options for study:

Full-Time MA

All students select a course entitled Fieldwork and Theatre Business (a year-long series of workshops with visiting practitioners and scholars, which includes an internship), and also take a course on writing about theatre. They also complete an end-of-year portfolio. They then choose four other modules from the list below:

Courses with a Practical Focus

• Ensemble Acting and Devising
• Twentieth Century Directors and Theorists
• Directing
• Changing Stages: Performance Pre-1900

Courses with an Academic Focus

• Druid Theatre: Past, Present and Future.
• Discovering the Archives
• Irish Playwrights Since the 1960s
• Theatre and Modernity: the Irish Literary Revival
• Theatre and Globalization
• The Abbey Theatre Archives

Courses on Writing

• Playwrights’ Workshop
• Screenwriting
• Vocabularies of Theatre Composition
• Reviewing Theatre in Ireland Today

Students can pick any courses from the list above, depending on their interests. They can specialise in one of the above areas, or may choose to sample all three in order to have a broad degree. Students should note that where some courses are mainly practical and others mainly academic, most will blend both approaches to some extent.

Part-Time MA

This is a two-year part-time programme. Students take three modules each year and write a minor thesis at the end of second year.

Year One

In Year One, all students take a module on writing about theatre. This involves weekly theatre visits and allows you to develop the skills you will need as the course progresses. Students then choose an additional two modules from the following list:

• Theatre in Irish Literary Revival
• Playwriting
• New Approaches to Performance
• The Abbey Theatre Digital Archive

Second Year

In Second Year, students choose three modules from the following list:

• Irish Theatre and Film
• Devised Work and Ensemble
• Directing for the Stage
• Exploring Theatre Archives: Druid Theatre
• Performance Lab
• Theatre and Globalization

Students also undertake a minor dissertation which can be an independently completed research project, the staging of a production, or a creative writing project involving the composition of a new play.

Requirements and assessment

Continuous assessment of regular writing assignments, performance work, and end-of-semester projects (66%); year end portfolio of selected writings done in each course, revised and developed to the fullest extent possible in the time allowed (compromises 33% of marks).