Film and Theatre with Year Abroad

Film and theatre are art forms with a complex and productive relationship, sharing concerns with representation, storytelling, mise-en-scene, and the ways in which performance creates meaning for audiences. Theatre long predated cinema and provided many of the narrative structures and performative conventions that film inherited and transformed; cinema, in turn, has influenced how theatre conceives of space, time, and the relationship between performance and its audience. Studying them together allows you to understand each art form more fully than studying either in isolation.

At Queen Mary University of London this four-year full-time programme, which includes a year abroad as part of its structure, examines the dramatisation of the world across live and recorded media. You will be introduced to theories of performance and representation, and to key critical practices of twentieth and twenty-first century theatre, performance, and film. Interrelated concepts such as production, mise-en-scene, and spectatorship are examined across both media, developing your ability to analyse and interpret a wide range of works with precision and critical depth.

The year abroad provides an opportunity to study at an international partner institution and encounter film and theatre from a different cultural context, broadening your critical perspectives and your understanding of how these art forms vary across national traditions.

You will develop skills in close reading of visual and textual material, critical writing, research, and the ability to engage with theoretical frameworks from a range of disciplines.

Graduates of film and theatre programmes move into careers in arts administration, theatre production, film and television, journalism, education, cultural policy, publishing, and a range of other roles in the creative and cultural industries. Many continue to postgraduate study in theatre, film, or performance studies.