English and Theatre Studies

English and theatre studies is a degree built on the conviction that literature and performance are inseparable, that texts written for the stage demand to be understood as scripts for live events and that the history of drama is central to any serious account of English literature. The combination asks you to read plays as literature and as theatre simultaneously, attending to both the language on the page and the possibilities of the space, the body and the voice. More broadly, studying English alongside theatre studies means engaging with the ways in which writing for performance has always been entangled with history, politics and social change, addressing audiences whose worlds the work both reflects and seeks to alter.

At the University of Warwick, a department with strong reputations in both literary studies and theatre and performance, this three-year, full-time programme develops your skills as a reader, analyst and critic of drama and literature across periods and traditions. You will examine how theatre has intervened in history to foster social and political change, reading canonical and contemporary playwrights alongside novels, poetry and other literary forms. Practical and theoretical approaches to performance inform your critical work, and you will engage with the history and theory of theatre as well as the texts themselves.

The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study at an international partner institution and encounter different literary and theatrical traditions.

Graduates of English and theatre studies pursue careers in theatre direction, dramaturgy, literary management, arts administration, teaching, journalism, publishing, broadcasting, screen and scriptwriting, and the broader cultural industries. The combination of textual rigour and performance knowledge is valued in roles that require both critical intelligence and an understanding of how cultural products reach and affect audiences. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in English literature, theatre, creative writing or performance studies.