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Programme Information & PLOs
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Title of the new programme – including any year abroad/ in industry variants
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BA in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance
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Level of qualification
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Please select:Level 6
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Please indicate if the programme is offered with any year abroad / in industry variants Year in Industry Please select Y/NNo
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Year Abroad Please select Y/NNo
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Department(s): Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department
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Lead Department Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
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Other contributing Departments: N/A
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Programme Leader
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Please name the programme leader and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
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Dr Louise LePage
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Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
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Statement of purpose for applicants to the programme
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The BA in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance offers you a unique opportunity to study and make theatre in a rich and stimulating environment. The programme focuses on the roles of writer, director and performer. It combines historical and textual exploration with practical experiment, enabling you to analyse key aspects of playwriting, theatre production, acting and directing in our specially designed teaching and performance spaces. We also explore the ways in which theatre draws on and influences film and television. We pair close engagement with contemporary practice with an emphasis on the need to understand longer histories and past achievements that underpin what we do now.

The programme provides a rounded learning experience through which you will gain deep theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. The unique combination of these areas is designed to ensure that you will acquire the necessary analytical, creative and practical skills to enable you to work with creativity and flair, whether your future is in professional theatre or in related areas (such as film and television, arts administration, journalism, publishing, education or further study). The programme combines practical work with the contextual analysis of theatre history, trends in contemporary theatre, and studies of particular forms such as political theatre and comedy. The programme is designed to appeal to a wide range of students with different kinds of academic backgrounds, interests and strengths. You will benefit from some of the best-equipped theatre spaces at any UK university, and be taught by leading academics and practitioners. In addition to scheduled classes, you will also benefit from contact with leading theatre-makers via the department’s professional visitor programme and work experience opportunities. These include theatre projects, masterclasses, lectures and workshops exploring a wide range of creative disciplines. Upon completion, you will have acquired a detailed knowledge of the theory and practice of theatre and a broad range of academic and creative skills that are essential for pursuing careers in highly competitive creative industries as well as also being transferable to other fields or future study.
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Programme Learning Outcomes
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PLOOn successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
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1Interpret how scripts are, and historically have been, translated into a range of performance events by critical evaluation of a range of scripted drama.
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2Combine independent research skills, practical exploration and experiment in successfully undertaking ambitious research projects.
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3Apply the practical and organisational skills necessary to effectively contribute as writers, directors and performers in realising the production of a successful performance from a challenging script.
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4Actively reflect the organisational, practical and technical skills that they have gained from working with theatre professionals, academic tutors and through work experience opportunities, so as to improve and develop their own theatre practice and enhance their employability for future careers.
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5Write and develop practical work with creativity and with flair, both independently and within teams, to respond to challenges and to communicate their ideas with clarity and focus to a range of audiences.
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6Effectively employ a set of transferable skills (such as presentation, leadership, project management, and research skills) that will allow them to work across a range of media (theatre, television and film) and within a variety of roles.
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Programme Learning Outcome for year in industry (where applicable)
For programmes which lead to the title ‘with a Year in Industry’ – typically involving an additional year – please provide either a) amended versions of some (at least one, but not necessarily all) of the standard PLOs listed above, showing how these are changed and enhanced by the additional year in industry b) an additional PLO, if and only if it is not possible to capture a key ability developed by the year in industry by alteration of the standard PLOs.
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N/A
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Programme Learning Outcome for year abroad programmes (where applicable)
For programmes which lead to the title ‘with a Year Abroad’ – typically involving an additional year – please provide either a) amended versions of some (at least one, but not necessarily all) of the standard PLOs listed above, showing how these are changed and enhanced by the additional year abroad or b) an additional PLO, if and only if it is not possible to capture a key ability developed by the year abroad by alteration of the standard PLOs.
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N/A
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Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
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i) Why the PLOs are considered ambitious or stretching?
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This programme aims to develop students’ intellectual, practical, creative and analytical skills in a way that ambitiously combines academic rigour and independent critical thinking with high-quality practical experiment and group theatre productions.
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ii) The ways in which these outcomes are distinctive or particularly advantageous to the student:
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(PLO1) The programme is designed to support students in developing their knowledge and understanding of script-based theatre. The vast majority of professional theatre companies (along with the associated disciplines of film, television, and radio) rely on scripts. However, many of our competitors focus on devising and improvisation. Thus, to ensure maximum employability, students on the BA will gain the analytical, research and practical skills indispensable for working on scripted drama. In particular, they will gain an understanding of, and practical experience in, how scripts are translated into performance events.

(PLO2) Students will develop study skills, including digital literacy skills, which allow them to pursue ambitious independent research. The BA combines analytical and historical investigation across a wide historical and cultural range (from Greek and Roman theatre to the immediately contemporary), with equally adventurous practical exploration and experiment. This combination is very unusual across the sector; most courses are less ambitious in their practical work, and practically-focused courses (such as those at conservatoires) tend not to focus on the analytical investigation which is at the heart of our programme. Students will recognise research and practice as being inseparably combined, and mutually reliant.

(PLO3) Students will gain knowledge and practical understanding of the distinctive (but overlapping) responsibilities and contributions of writers, directors and performers, and will employ practical skills to demonstrate the performance potentiality of challenging scripts from a diverse range of periods and performance traditions. This focus distinguishes our course from our competitors' programmes and many students acknowledge that this combination was key to them applying to our programme. Through a carefully scaffolded learning environment, students are supported in their progression from workshop exercises in Year 1 to an ambitious, fully staged, public production in Year 3, and from short playwriting exercises to creating their own full-length plays. By doing so, students gain experience of the importance of collaboration and teamwork.

(PLO4) Students will gain work experience in a professional environment and direct interaction with practitioners. Both on the degree programme and via extra-curricular events, the BA is in dialogue with professional theatre and the wider creative industries. Through visiting speaker events, projects and placement schemes, students will work with an array of professional companies and theatre-makers. Recent collaborators include York Theatre Royal, Pilot Theatre, Slung Low, Company of Angels, and the National Railway Museum. Leading professionals who have recently conducted workshops with students include Simon Stephens, Penelope Wilton, Nick Payne, Jenny Topper and Laura Wade. These sessions will develop a range of practical skills such as theatre design and model-box making, how to work with agents and casting directors, as well as how to set up their own companies and how to develop the digital literacy skills needed to publicise their own work effectively.

(PLO5) All students will be equipped with transferable skills for use within the creative industries and related areas. Through the combination of practice and analysis, students develop excellent communication and written skills, characterised by creative flair and initiative as independent-thinkers, makers and researchers. They are well-rounded students who understand the importance of collaboration but are also confident in working independently. As teamwork and collaboration with peers on ambitious projects is at the core of the programme, their transferable skills, and therefore employability, are significantly enhanced by the BA.

(PLO6) We give students the option to pursue and develop particular interests related to the core studies of the degree programme. These focus on the relationship between skills for theatre, television and film. Many of today’s professionals move fluently between these areas, and students have the option to expand their studies to embrace them. They can also gain experience of developing practical and digital literacy skills in theatre design and production, further enhancing their employability.
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iii) How the programme learning outcomes develop students’ digital literacy and will make appropriate use of technology-enhanced learning (such as lecture recordings, online resources, simulations, online assessment, ‘flipped classrooms’ etc)?
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Digital literacy has an important place in our programme, but it must be emphasised that theatre is predicated on face-to-face interaction, and thus this form of communication is privileged in our programme. That said, the way that theatre is publicised relies on digital platforms, as do many of the design components of theatre.
PL02 includes digital literacy in the research skills that are a central component in the degree programme.
PLO4 identifies digital literacy as a key component in how to publicise their work, and the skills associated with this are taught in the second and third year of the programme.
These skills are also central to PLO6 as much theatre design is now based on computer design software.
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iv) How the PLOs support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)?
The programme's employability objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
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http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/careers/staff/
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(PLO1) To ensure maximum employability, students on the BA will gain the analytical, research and practical skills indispensable for working on scripted drama. In particular, they will gain an understanding of, and practical experience in, how scripts are translated into performance events.

(PLO2) Students will recognise research and practice as being inseparably combined, and mutually reliant. This combination is critical to their employability when they graduate, and both graduates and their employers cite this as a key strength of our course.

(PLO3) Understanding of the distinctive (but overlapping) responsibilities and contributions of writers, directors and performers is central to working in any of these fields. Through a carefully scaffolded learning environment, students are supported in their progression from workshop exercises in Year 1 to an ambitious, fully staged, public production in Year 3, and from short playwriting exercises to creating their own full-length plays. These final year projects are very much 'real world' experiences, involving many visiting professionals, as including key employability skills such as project management, budgeting, scheduling and working to precise and exacting deadlines. By doing so, students gain experience of the importance of collaboration and teamwork.

(PLO4) Both on the degree programme and via extra-curricular events, the BA is in dialogue with professional theatre and the wider creative industries. Through visiting speaker events (which take place at least twice a term), projects (such as theatre productions Blood and Chocolate and Clocking In (Pilot Theatre/York Theatre Royal) and placement schemes (such as with Pilot Theatre, Ambassador Theatre Group), students will work with an array of professional companies and theatre-makers. Recent collaborators include York Theatre Royal, Pilot Theatre, Slung Low, Company of Angels, and the National Railway Museum. Leading professionals who have recently conducted workshops with students include Simon Stephens, Penelope Wilton, Nick Payne, Jenny Topper and Laura Wade. These sessions will develop a range of practical skills such as theatre design and model-box making, how to work with agents and casting directors, as well as how to set up their own companies and how to develop the digital literacy skills needed to publicise their own work effectively.

(PLO5) All students will be equipped with transferable skills for use within the creative industries and related areas. Through the combination of practice and analysis, students develop excellent communication and written skills, characterised by creative flair and initiative as independent-thinkers, makers and researchers. They are well-rounded students who understand the importance of collaboration but are also confident in working independently. As teamwork and collaboration with peers on ambitious projects is at the core of the programme, their transferable skills, and therefore employability, are significantly enhanced by the BA.

(PLO6) We give students the option to pursue and develop particular interests related to the core studies of the degree programme. These focus on the relationship between skills for theatre, television and film. Many of today’s professionals move fluently between these areas, and students have the option to expand their studies to embrace them. They can also gain experience of developing practical and digital literacy skills in theatre design and production, further enhancing their employability.
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vi) How will students who need additional support for academic and transferable skills be identified and supported by the Department?
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We work closely with supervisors to identify students who require additional support, and the Department's Disability Rep is in close contact with Student Support Services, the Open Door Team and will guide students to find the support they need via the Student Support Hub. Once this is complete, a Student Support Plan is put in place and this is shared with and consulted by all tutors.
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vii) How is teaching informed and led by research in the department/ centre/ University?
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All staff members on the programme are active researchers and many are theatre professionals. The six PLOs are based on the relationship between the innovative research that the staff are conducting and the undergraduate programme. Staff are encouraged to teach to their research strengths and this is a crucial element in module and programme planning.
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Stage-level progression
Please complete the table below, to summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of each year. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules.

Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each PLO, but this can be done if preferred (please add information in the 'individual statement' boxes). For a statement that applies across all PLOs in the stage fill in the 'Global statement' box.
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Stage 0 (if your programme has a Foundation year, use the toggles to the left to show the hidden rows)
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Stage 1
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On progression from the first year (Stage 1), students will be able to:Global statement
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PLO 1PLO 2PLO 3PLO 4PLO 5PLO 6PLO 7PLO 8
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Apply appropriate research skills to be able to interpret how scripts are, and historically have been, translated into performance events, and to have a sound understanding of these contexts.Combine foundational independent research skills and considered modes of practical exploration and experiment to successfully undertake modest research exercises and practical demonstrations.Apply the practical and organisational skills necessary to effectively contribute as writers, directors and performers in realising the staging of short practical demonstrations of a script, or short pieces of their own playwriting work.The first year of the programme develops the students' practical and research skills and by doing so starts to equip them for the opportunities to interact with industry in the second and third year of the programme.Develop their own work as scholars and theatre-makers. To begin to work creatively, both independently and within small groups. To respond to challenges and to communicate their ideas with clarity and focus in short written assessments and exercises and in modest practical experiments. Begin to develop an array of transferable skills that will allow them to work productively in their work with others, and in their independent work.
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Stage 2
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On progression from the second year (Stage 2), students will be able to:Global statement
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PLO 1PLO 2PLO 3PLO 4PLO 5PLO 6PLO 7PLO 8
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Apply a developed range of appropriate research skills confidently to evaluate a range of scripted drama. To use these skills to interpret how scripts are, and historically have been, translated into performance events.Combine independent research skills, practical exploration and experiment to successfully undertake research exercises and ambitious practical demonstrations, including a public performance of a short play.Confidently apply the practical and organisational skills necessary to effectively contribute as writers, directors and performers in realising the staging of extended passages from a challenging script, of a short play of the students’ devising, or in their own short playwriting projects. Begin to engage with work experience opportunities available on the programme (particularly in module teaching) to improve and develop their own theatre practice and transferable skills. Work creatively and with ambition, both independently and within teams, to respond to challenges and to communicate their ideas with clarity and focus in practical performances and increasingly sophisticated written work. Identify and begin to confidently employ a set of transferable skills that will allow them to work across a range of media (theatre, television and film) and within a variety of roles.
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Stage 3
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(For Integrated Masters) On progression from the third year (Stage 3), students will be able to:Global statement
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PLO 1PLO 2PLO 3PLO 4PLO 5PLO 6PLO 7PLO 8
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Individual statements
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Programme Structure
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Module Structure and Summative Assessment Map
Please complete the summary table below which shows the module structure and the pattern of summative assessment through the programme.

‘Option module’ can be used in place of a specific named option. If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists these lists should be provided in the next section.

From the drop-down select 'S' to indicate the start of the module, 'A' to indicate the timing of each distinct summative assessment point (eg. essay submission/ exam), and 'E' to indicate the end of the module (if the end of the module coincides with the summative assessment select 'EA') . It is not expected that each summative task will be listed where an overall module might be assessed cumulatively (for example weekly problem sheets).

If summative assessment by exams will be scheduled in the summer Common Assessment period (weeks 5-7) a single ‘A’ can be used within the shaded cells as it is understood that you will not know in which week of the CAP the examination will take place.
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Stage 0 (if you have modules for Stage 0, use the toggles to the left to show the hidden rows)
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Stage 1
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CreditsModuleAutumn TermSpring Term Summer Term
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CodeTitle123456789101234567891012345678910
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20Introduction to Play AnalysisSEA
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20Introduction to PerformanceSEAA
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20DramaturgySAEA
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20Scriptwriting 1SEA
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20DirectingSEAA
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20ActingSEA
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Stage 2
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CreditsModuleAutumn TermSpring Term Summer Term
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CodeTitle123456789101234567891012345678910
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20TFT00002ITheatre Texts and ContextsSEA
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20TFT00020IOption module: Theatre Design and ProductionSEA
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20TFT00019IOption module: Scriptwriting 2SEA
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20TFT00001IComedy: Genres and Sub-GenresSEAA
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20TFT00004IPolitical TheatresSEA
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20TFT00022IResearch SkillsSEA
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20TFT00023IPolitical Theatre ProjectSEAA
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Stage 3
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CreditsModuleAutumn TermSpring Term Summer Term
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CodeTitle123456789101234567891012345678910
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30TFT00002HPre-1900 Theatre Production Project - Summer Term. As this starts (S) in Week 1 of Summer Term (not Week 2 in Autumn), the performance Week should be Week 8, with A Week 10.SEAA
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10TFT00033HOption module: Directing for Theatre, Film and TelevisionSEAA
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10TFT00032HOption module: Current Trends in Theatre: New Writing, New Practices, New ContextsSAEA
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40TFT00044HIndependent Dissertation ProjectSEA
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40TFT00045HOption module: Independent Group Production Project SAEA
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40TFT00043HOption module: Independent Playwriting ProjectSAEA
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Optional module lists: If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists these lists should be provided below. If you need more space, use the toggles on the left to reveal ten further hidden rows.
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Option List AOption List BOption List COption List DOption List EOption List FOption List GOption List H
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Theatre Design and ProductionDirecting for Theatre, Film and TelevisionIndependent Group Production Project
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Scriptwriting 2Current Trends in Theatre: New Writing, New Practices, New ContextsIndependent Playwriting Project