BA (Hons)Musical Theatre

Core modules

Opening Number

In this module you'll be directed in a short musical theatre production. Using relevant practitioners, musical theatre styles, skills and methods, including dance, acting and song, you will prepare, rehearse and polish a short piece of musical theatre performance in preparation for a live, or filmed, performance. You'll also prepare an accompanying logbook which illustrates and evaluates your use and development of the appropriate performance process.

The Musical Theatre Technique Toolkit

This module develops the practical skills essential to a musical theatre performer's craft through training in the core performance disciplines of acting, singing, and dance to develop a practical toolkit of techniques essential for musical theatre performance. You'll take part in studio workshops that cover dance techniques such as musical theatre jazz, modern, and lyrical; and practical workshops that introduce complementing vocal techniques and explore singing technique and acting through song.

Choreograph and Create

In this module you'll explore the principles of choreography through practical experimentation and creative practice. You'll engage with key practitioners and choreographic devices such as motif development, variation, and structuring, while developing confidence in improvisation and devising original movement sequences.

Performing in Digital Media

In this module you'll develop the foundational skills required to act effectively across single-camera and multi-camera productions, exploring the use of green screen, location-based, and studio-based filming. You'll also develop microphone skills and techniques for audio-recorded productions such as radio drama, podcasting and audiobooks. Through practical workshops, technical simulations and studio-led exploration, you'll learn how to adapt your performance technique to industry-standard digital platforms and workflows.

Core modules

Musical Theatre in the Community

During this module you will apply your musical performance making skills to respond to a local or national community need, generating a new music-driven performance work tailored towards the specific requirements of a pre-selected audience demographic. The ‘applied’ nature of this exercise encourages you to consider how musical theatre can be used ethically as a beneficial tool in improving the lives of those who engage with it.

Period Acting for Musicals on Stage and Screen

This module introduces you to the techniques, coon both stage and screen. Through practice-led learning, you'll explore historical movement, vocality, etiquette, and stylistic embodiment to create authentic and contextually informed character work. Workshops and rehearsal laboratories will build your confidence in adapting performance for contrasting mediums, developing the ability to shift between the heightened physicality of stage musicals and the technical precision required in single-camera screen work.

The Big Musical

This module emulates what it means to put on a full musical show in relation to industry timeframes and standards. You'll need to learn taught music, harmonies, script and choreography/movement and blocking and practice this in rehearsal settings and independently to produce work to an excellent standard. You'll undertake the full process, auditioning for specific roles and then becoming a key member of the cast, while developing the skills to work efficiently during an intensive rehearsal period to highly tune your vocal, physical, and acting techniques.

Optional modules

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

Performing Arts Education

In this module, you will plan, research, resource and teach an observed drama lesson that is aimed at a specific and stated age-group and which will be accompanied by a detailed lesson plan and scheme of work. With its fun approach and its consideration of theory and practice, the module is great preparation for PGCE study and/or for teaching in a professional environment - perfect for anyone interested in using performing in teaching as a career, or in developing skills in leading workshops.

Finding Your Voice

The number one fear among people is speaking in public. Learning how to use our voice is an important skill - it assists and secures our ability to tell a story. All aspects of performing and presentation require breath control, proper vocal technique, and posture - it’s important to have an understanding of the anatomy of our voice box and mouths in order to create the sounds we intend to, as well understanding what keeps an audience engaged.

Directing

This module gives you the opportunity to direct a scene from a play script/musical theatre libretto and present it to an invited audience/screening. The work you do on this module will give you an insight into what's required of the professional theatre director – working with actors, working with scripts, and organising people and time.

Core modules

Theatre Maker Festival: Professional Partnership

In this module, you'll create your own theatre company and present your work in a celebratory festival of theatre. Working in small groups, you'll gain experience in researching, preparing and performing a production which you'll present to the rest of the class, assessing tutors and an external audience. The piece may comprise of an adaptation of a pre-existing work or be an originally-devised performance.

Innovation Lab

The Innovation Lab enables you to design, test, and evaluate an original practice-as-research (PaR) inquiry, working independently to investigate a self-generated research question relevant to contemporary performance practice. Responding to real-world industry expectations for reflective, research-informed practitioners, you'll use studio experimentation, rehearsal laboratories, and iterative creative testing to develop new methods, models, or artistic provocations.

Musical Theatre Cabaret

In this module, you'll participate in practical creative workshops covering popular performance disciplines including cruise ship/holiday camp entertainment, compering, drag, cabaret musical theatre, comedy, and solo singing, while learning how to develop appropriate and skilled performance techniques applicable to a variety of professional contexts. You'll also produce a solo or group performance demonstrating acquisition of skill in relation to one of the performance disciplines introduced.

Show Business

This module prepares you to transition from university training into the professional musical theatre industry. Through practice-led learning, you'll engage directly with industry-standard processes, including creating showreels and singing reels, preparing online casting profiles, undertaking headshot sessions, and developing advanced audition techniques. You'll gain an understanding of current casting expectations, navigate digital casting platforms, and present yourself as a competitive, informed actor.