Playwriting MSc
The University of Manchester
Key Course Facts
Course Description
Our MA Playwriting course is an intensive one-year programme designed to provide a genuine gateway into a writing career in the theatre and performance industries.
Like our successful MA Screenwriting course, the MA Playwriting is taught by practitioners and is vocationally-oriented and industry-focused.
Over the course of the year, you will work with leading industry practitioners to develop your playwriting, pitching and dramaturgical skills. You will learn about and develop skills in writing for performance across a diverse range of contexts, genres and themes.
By the end of the course, you will have developed at least one full-length stage play, a collection of one-act dramas, a full-length festival play and at least one play that adapts elements of a classic text to engage with a contemporary context.
You will have access to individual career guidance and training in how to navigate entry-level writing work in the theatre and performance industries. The course features regular speakers from the industry, including returning alumni who have established successful careers as writers, dramaturgs and producers.
In Semester 1, you will study the basics of playwriting as a craft, with a focus on form and structure. This will include engaging with plays in textual form and in live performance, and the study of plot/story, character, genre, scene development, monologue and dialogue, dramatic action, beginnings, endings, features of staging and audience relationship.
You will study a diverse range of new and historical works, including historical plays that have brought about innovations in dramatic form and structure, as well as new writing staged in Britain and further afield in recent years.
In the second semester, we turn to industry-oriented study, focusing on developing new pieces for festival contexts, and on the skills and resiliencies needed to sustain a living in playwriting.
There will be an industry day based at our studio theatre on campus, with talks from directors, agents, producers, publishers, literary officers and writers.
Entry Requirements / Admissions
Requirements for international students / English requirements
IELTS academic test score (similar tests may be accepted as well)
-
- 6.5
- All other courses
-
- 6.5
- Manchester Business School East - Undergraduate Degrees
-
- 6.5
- Manchester Business School - Graduate Degrees
-
- 7.0
- Graduate Degrees
- (no subscore less than 6.0)
-
- 7.0
- Undergraduate Degrees
- (no subscore less than 6.0)
We normally expect students to have a First or Upper Second class honours degree or its overseas equivalent in a humanities-based subject area.
Costs
Average student cost of living in the UK
Rent | £518 |
Water, gas electricity, internet (at home) | £50 |
Supermarket shopping | £81 |
Clothing | £35 |
Eating out | £33 |
Alcohol | £27 |
Takeaways / food deliveries | £30 |
Going out / entertainment (excl.alcohol, food) | £24 |
Holidays and weekend trips | £78 |
Transport within city | £17 |
Self-care / sports | £20 |
Stationary / books | £13 |
Mobile phone / internet | £13 |
Cable TV / streaming | £7 |
Insurance | £51 |
Other | £95 |
Average student cost of living | £1092 |
London costs approx 34% more than average, mainly due to rent being 67% higher than average of other cities. For students staying in student halls, costs of water, gas, electricity, wifi are generally included in the rental. Students in smaller cities where accommodation is in walking/biking distance transport costs tend to be significantly smaller.
University Rankings
Positions of The University of Manchester in top UK and global rankings.
See all 40 university rankings of The University of Manchester
About The University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a publicly funded research university with a mission to advance education, knowledge and wisdom for the good of society. University of Manchester’s main site is home to the majority of its faculties and is referred to by its students as ‘the campus’, although in reality Manchester does not have a campus but is instead interspersed throughout the city of Manchester.
List of 622 Bachelor and Master Courses from The University of Manchester - Course Catalogue
Student composition of The University of Manchester
-
Total number of students enrolled at The University of Manchester by level Academic year 2021/22 - Full-time equivalent student enrollments published by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on February 2022
- undergraduates:
- 30130
- postgraduates:
- 12730
- Total:
- 42860
-
Number of students enrolled in courses of subject “Creative Writing”: Academic year - Full-time equivalent student enrollments published by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on February 2022
Where is this programme taught
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