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 with professional audio producers
- Find your future artistic partners on practical projects with our MA Directing, MA Performance Design, - BA Professional Acting and MA Screen Acting courses
- Make professional connections now to build your professional network in the future
- New Writing Festival – where your new full-length plays meet the public and the industry

Career pathways
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: 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 playwriting 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 BBC TV and Radio Drama (BBC Cardiff, Casualty, Crimewatch, Radio 4 Afternoon Play); new writing productions at Jermyn Street Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres and Edinburgh Festival Fringe; independent film production (Indefinite Films, Gentlewoman Productions); writing for opera and musical theatre (Royal Academy of Music); artist development programmes at Channel 4 New Writers Scheme, The Bank (Sheffield Theatres), Kali / Birmingham REP Discovery, Bristol Old Vic, Mercury Theatre Colchester, 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