Theatre Studies/Classics

Theatre studies is an academic discipline that examines performance across its historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions, asking how theatrical traditions have developed, how dramatic texts work, and what theatre reveals about the societies that produce and consume it. Classics gives you direct access to one of the oldest and most influential dramatic traditions in the world: the tragedies and comedies of ancient Greece and Rome. These works were not only the foundation of Western theatre; they have been continuously performed, adapted, and reinterpreted across two millennia, and they remain among the most alive and challenging of dramatic texts.

At the University of Glasgow, you will study theatre studies with close connections to the industry, giving you opportunities to learn from and engage with practitioners of national and international standing. Alongside this, you will study classics, engaging with the dramatic texts and theatrical culture of ancient Greece and Rome and with the long history of their reception and reinterpretation. The programme includes a year abroad and is studied part-time, offering flexibility for those who need it.

You will develop skills in textual analysis, performance theory, dramatic criticism, and the historical understanding of theatre as a social and political institution.

Graduates of theatre studies and classics programmes pursue careers in theatre, arts administration, education, journalism, broadcasting, publishing, cultural institutions, and academia. The combination of performance knowledge and classical training is particularly valuable in work concerned with the reception of classical theatre, opera, and the performance of ancient drama in contemporary contexts. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in theatre, performance studies, or classics, where the combination of disciplines provides an unusual and productive academic foundation.