MA Drama Writing

The MA Drama Writing course is taught through masterclasses, workshops and seminars with experienced industry professionals, and cross-course collaborative projects with actors and directors to help support the development of your distinct writing voice. You’ll graduate as an adaptable, imaginative and flexible drama writer with a broad portfolio of industry-ready work, offering professional skills for creating scripts in a variety of producing contexts.

Course highlights:

• 1-to-1 feedback with industry dramaturgs, literary managers, producers and directors
• Receive bespoke support and practitioner visits to develop your personal writing craft
• Spend a year as a working writer, scripting multiple projects across a variety of media with different collaborative teams
• Create a broadcast-quality 15-minute radio play in professional conditions
• Find your future artistic partners with students from across creative disciplines at the School 
• Industry visits to regional and national producing venues, making professional connections now to build your professional network in the future
• New Writing Festival – where your new full-length plays are presented as script-in-hand readings to an invited industry audience

Launching your career
You’ll leave the course with a bespoke year-long plan for entering the drama writing industry, collaborators for future projects and an exciting and diverse portfolio including short and full-length scripts, a fully-produced radio play, treatments and scenes for film or TV and proposals for writer-led creative projects. 

This course is delivered from a practitioner’s perspective and the hands-on experience will ensure an excellent start to your drama writing career, providing a practical and critical understanding of the business of freelancing, including:

• learning strategies for self-promotion
• knowing how to advocate for your professional practice
• vital opportunities to build industry contacts with visiting professionals
• up-to-date knowledge on script commissioning and adaptable skills for script development across different media
• strategies for creative collaboration across a range of scriptwriting contexts. 

Graduate successes include commissions and development roles in TV and audio drama (BBC Cardiff, Casualty, Crimewatch, Radio 4 Afternoon Play, Merman Productions, Channel 4 New Writers Scheme); new international productions (Bridge Theatre, Brussels; Chengdu-Chongqing International Theatre Festival) and UK productions (Hope Theatre,  Jermyn Street Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Edinburgh Festival Fringe); independent film production (Indefinite Films, Gentlewoman Productions); writing for opera and musical theatre (Royal Academy of Music); artist development programmes at The Bank (Sheffield Theatres), Kali / Birmingham REP Discovery, Bristol Old Vic, Mercury Theatre Colchester and Puppet Place, and winners of the Phoebe Waller-Bridge Keep it Fringe Fund and Arts Council England funding. 

Find out more here - MA Drama Writing