Course summary

Are you drawn to storytelling on stage and screen? When you study this BA Performance and Digital Arts at Birkbeck, you will investigate how performance and screen media practices shape the world, learning from world-leading academics while based in the heart of central London’s vibrant cultural scene. You will explore theatre histories and theories in depth alongside the many ways in which it is possible to tell stories. From the perspectives of spectator and practitioner, you will examine performance and screen media in context and test the intersections between the live and the recorded. Option modules offer you knowledge of other areas of the arts, literature and languages, or the opportunity to produce your own creative work independently and in collaboration with others. Throughout your degree, you will visit the world’s most exciting theatre institutions and analyse live and digital performance. Your final full-length dissertation project examines a topic of your choosing under the guidance of our world-leading theatre and film specialists. If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. Highlights

• Our BA Performance and Digital Arts makes full use of the rich context of Birkbeck's position in Bloomsbury, in London's West End, allowing us to engage with guest speakers and practitioners and make analysis of live performance and cinema screenings a central focus.

• Birkbeck is located in the heart of literary London and writers and academics maintain strong links with publishers, broadcasters and the creative industries. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group. The building houses our own creative hub which includes the Peltz Gallery, the Gordon Square Cinema and a theatre and performance space.

• You will be eligible to submit work to the Scratch Night as part of Birkbeck Arts Week, and attend public events and performances curated by Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image and Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre.

• Birkbeck was ranked 2nd in the UK for its English Language and Literature research and in the top four for its Art and Design research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

• author

• journalist

• arts administrator

• charity officer

• theatre director

• higher education lecturer.