Creative Writing and Film & Theatre

Creative writing and film and theatre studies is a degree for people who are both practitioners and critical thinkers, interested not just in what stories are and how they work but in making them. Creative writing develops your abilities as a writer of fiction, poetry, scripts, non-fiction and other literary forms; film and theatre studies gives you the critical and historical tools to understand how stories are told through performance, cinema and screen. Together they produce graduates who can think and write with both creative confidence and critical sophistication.

At the University of Reading, this three-year full-time programme includes a sandwich placement year, a year abroad and a work placement, giving you substantial professional and international experience alongside your creative and critical development. You will write across a range of forms and genres, developing your craft in close dialogue with published practitioners and under the sustained attention of workshop feedback. You will study film history and theory, approaches to theatre and performance, dramatic literature and the ways in which screen and stage have shaped and been shaped by wider cultural forces.

The placement and international dimensions of the programme give you professional connections and a broader perspective on the creative industries in which you will work.

Graduates move into careers as writers, scriptwriters, theatre practitioners, film and television development roles, publishing, education, arts management, journalism, communications and the broader creative industries. The combination of practical creative skill and critical analytical depth is unusual and highly valued by employers who need people who can both make things and think carefully about them. Many graduates also go on to postgraduate study in creative writing, screenwriting, film studies or theatre, or pursue professional training in performance and production.