Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change (MA)

Explore our Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change taught Master's degree at Warwick

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P-W440

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

29 September 2025

Theatre and Performance Studies (SCAPVC)

University of Warwick

The MA in Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change addresses contemporary practice in applied theatre and socially engaged performance in national and international contexts. This MA is aimed at emerging practitioners with a background in theatre, education, politics or activism, as well as at more established practitioners who want to reflect upon, refresh and develop their skills.

The MA in Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change is a taught postgraduate degree that addresses contemporary practice in applied theatre and socially engaged performance. It invites you to explore, make and interrogate performance practices that are broadly concerned with contributing to social change in a variety of settings (e.g. criminal justice, theatre for development, homelessness, learning disability, schools, the elderly and healthcare). With a strong focus on professional practice and development, the degree addresses the ways in which performance modes can contribute to different applied, community and institutional settings nationally and internationally.

It investigates the claims made about performance and its potential to be transformative and rehabilitative and tests these claims through close consideration of contemporary practices in the field. It also addresses the political and ethical implications that come into play and the importance of constantly questioning what is at stake when working in specific contexts. It explores what it means to be an artist working for change and aims to develop skills of project design, facilitation and evaluation.

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This degree will help you to:

• Understand a range of socially-engaged forms of theatre and performance and how these vary in response to different contexts
• Develop practical skills specific to applied theatre environments that are responsive to the needs of different types of organisations
• Understand your own practice, while learning to design, manage and evaluate projects better, demonstrating an awareness of the possibilities and limitations of live performance and digital media in interventionist practices
• Develop advanced research and practice skills through a supported extended written or practice-based research project in the area of applied or socially-engaged theatre
• Confidently communicate your creative and critical thinking in well structured, logically developed and carefully prepared ways
• Further develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback, and improve your communication skills and advanced analytic abilities in discussions

Associate Companies

The MA in Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change will provide opportunities to work with and learn from a number of professional companies and practitioners working in the fields of applied theatre, socially engaged performance and arts-based action projects through workshops, guest lectures, weekend intensives, project work and industry placements.

Our Associate Companies include:

• Arts and Homelessness International: work globally at the intersection of homelessness and creativity bringing positive impacts to people, projects and policy via homeless arts festivals from the Rio Olympics to Coventry UK City of Culture; the first cultural leadership programme for creatives who are or have been homeless and policy co-creation with local councils using Legislative Theatre.
• B Arts: a combined and participatory arts organisation that designs multidisciplinary arts projects that creatively intervene in people’s lives.
• Cardboard Citizens: an organisation that has been making theatre with and for homeless people for 25 years.
• C & T: a company combining applied theatre methodologies with digital technologies to explore and grow creativity with children and adults.
• Creative English: a company that develops language skills by using drama, puppets and games.
• Common Wealth: a socially-engaged company producing site-specific theatre events for and with communities.
• Open Theatre: a company working with young people with learning disabilities through non-verbal physical theatre.
• Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation): a company employing arts-based approaches when working with prisoners and staff in UK prisons.
• Phosphoros: a company undertaking theatre projects with refugees and asylum-seekers.
• Tender: a company using theatre-based methods to encourage healthy relationships amongst young people to help tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence.
• Warwick Arts Centre Creative Learning: generating hands-on learning opportunities for schools, audiences and members of the community as part of a large-scale arts organisation.

Teaching methods will vary and include lecture-seminars, workshops, case studies and student-led presentations/workshops. The course will provide opportunities for students to learn through study with professional practitioners and organisations in the applied theatre and socially-engaged fields to ensure that the course focuses on the practical competencies required to be an employee within an organisation or as a freelance practitioner.  

It may also be possible to further specialise and deepen your practice by taking modules from MAs in other related disciplines. You will also benefit from having two intensive weekend teaching blocks (subject to module choices) that will facilitate a more immersive teaching/learning experience with professional practitioners.

You will complete essential preparation (e.g. reading, desk research, studio-based practice) for each session, and we encourage you to read more widely around the topics explored. 

The course also offers the scope to further develop and refine your practice through a flexible final project that can be taken as a written (15,000 words) or practical route (practice-based project and 4000-word documentation). In both cases support will include regular meetings with project supervisors, presentations of project proposals (to enable peer and tutor feedback) and work in progress demonstrations (to monitor progress and enable peer and tutor feedback).

Groups will normally consist of fewer than 15 students in most modules.

You will normally attend two 3-hour sessions each week during the Autumn and Spring Terms. In the Autumn Term, you will participate in weekend intensive. Depending on your choice of options, you will also participate in a weekend in the Spring Term.

If you are a part-time student you will attend one 3-hour seminar a week during the Autumn and Spring Terms of Year One and Year Two. You will also attend one weekend intensive in the first year of study and, depending on your choice of modules, a further weekend intensive in your second year.

Assessment processes, methods and outcomes are designed to enhance your personal and professional development. You will encounter ‘real world’/employer-focused assessments that may include the creation of creative projects, the delivery of a workshop, the presentation of a creative brief, the submission of a funding application and evaluative reports. You will be assessed individually and, in some instances, as part of a group.

Reading lists

If you would like to view reading lists for current or previous cohorts of students, most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library on the Talis Aspire platformLink opens in a new window. 

You can search for reading lists by module title, code or convenor. Please see the modules tab of this page or the module catalogueLink opens in a new window.  

Please note that some reading lists may have restricted access or be unavailable at certain times of year due to not yet being published. If you cannot access the reading list for a particular module, please check again later or contact the module’s host department.

Additional course cost

Mandatory costs will include materials and printing for project assessment work at approximately £50 in total for the course. There may also be costs associated with travel to/from shows residencies (if these are offsite), and other engagements with professional practice up to £40. Purchase of a laptop computer, at approximately £400, is recommended.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

You will have, or be expecting to obtain, at least a 2:1 undergraduate degree from a UK university or an equivalent qualification from an overseas university. Your degree will normally be in an arts, humanities, media or social science-related subject.

Alternative subject routes for entry are possible if you can demonstrate that you have suitable experience and aptitude in order to meet the range of demands of the course.

The University of Warwick operates an Equal Opportunities Policy and values Diversity; it welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds.

• Band B
• IELTS Overall (Academic) score of 7.0 and minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional requirements for this course.

You may also choose modules from other units within the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures, or from across the University.

Please visit the Theatre and Performance Studies websiteLink opens in a new window to read more about the optional modules offered on this MA.