English and Theatre with a Year Abroad

English and theatre together form a natural partnership, both being concerned with how language, narrative and performance create meaning and affect audiences. English literature develops your capacity to read closely, think critically and engage with the full range of written forms, from medieval poetry to contemporary fiction and drama. Theatre and performance studies extends that engagement to the live, embodied and collaborative dimensions of storytelling, examining how texts become productions, how performance communicates what the written word cannot, and how theatre has functioned as a social and political force across different cultures and periods.

At Queen Mary University of London, this four-year full-time programme with a year abroad combines practical and theoretical study across both disciplines, providing a variety of approaches to drama and literary studies as active, dynamic fields. You will read widely across literary history and genres while also engaging with theatre practice, performance theory and the craft of making and staging work. The year abroad gives you the opportunity to study in a different academic and cultural environment, broadening your perspective on both literature and performance as global phenomena.

The programme is based at a London university, giving you access to one of the richest theatre and literary cultures in the world.

Graduates from English and theatre programmes pursue careers across the creative industries, education, journalism, publishing, writing, arts administration, cultural policy and broadcasting. Many go on to work in theatre companies, cultural organisations, higher education and research. The ability to read, write and communicate with precision and nuance, developed through English study, combined with the creative, collaborative and performance skills developed through theatre, makes graduates versatile and competitive across a wide range of professional contexts.

Postgraduate study in English literature, theatre studies, drama or creative writing is a natural next step for those who want to specialise or pursue academic careers.