Applied Theatre MA

This course is in clearing

Why study at UEL?

Top 40 UK university

Guardian University Guide 2026

1st in England

Overall Positivity*, National Student Survey 2026

Fastest Rising in England for graduate employability

Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025

Overview

Course modules

The programme shares modules with MA Acting for Stage and Screen and MA Directing for Stage and Screen. Through modules such as Research Methods, Practitioners and Praxis and Project Platform, you will have the choice to work across disciplines exchanging skills with theatre and film-makers interested in social practices. The MA in Applied Theatre offers placements in community, organisational, institutional, or municipal contexts that are critically engaged with society. A defining feature of your studies, placement learning enables investigation into your specific interests through practitioner-led experiences that enhance your professional practice.

NOTE: Modules are subject to change. For those studying part time courses the modules may vary.

Download course specification

Entry requirements

MA:

What makes this course different

Independent projects and placements

Practice-led placements in a variety of settings, including established theatre companies.

Flexible study

Offered as evening study for students who are working or have family commitments.

Interdisciplinary practice

Work with students of Contemporary Performance Practices and Acting and Directing for Stage and Film.

Course options

Start date

MA

Applied Theatre MA, home applicant, full time

  • Home Applicant ,
  • Full time, 1 year
  • £ 10980 per year

Applied Theatre MA, international applicant, full time

  • International Applicant
  • Full time, 1 year
  • £ 16620 per year
Applications for September 2027 open soon

Performing arts at UEL

What we're researching

At the University of East London, we are working on some of the big issues that will define our future; from sustainable architecture and ethical AI, to health inequality and breaking down barriers in the creative industries.

Our students and academics are more critically engaged and socially conscious than ever before. Discover some of the positive changes our students, alumni and academics are making in the world.

Please visit our Research section to find out more.

The MA Applied Theatre is affiliated with the Centre for Social Change and Justice at UEL where research on emerging critical social questions is carried out. As part of your postgraduate studies in applied theatre, you will participate in seminars at the centre.

Course leader, Dr. Lynne McCarthy, currently researches the housing crisis exploring its representations in social performance and engages with nomadic groups through socially-turned performance on questions of mobility. She is interested in the intersection of law and performance and has worked on performance based feminist approaches in the Irish context of reproductive choice. 

Liselle Terret is a neuro-divergent performance artist and director of Not Your Circus Dog Collective (2018), a subversive crip queer learning disabled and neuro-divergent performance company. She also makes feminist crip performance as Doris La Trine, re-performing mis-understandings and discrimination surrounding eating disorders.

Your future career

This applied theatre programme prepares you for a variety of careers in socially engaged theatre-making. Applied theatre postgraduates generally work in the creative sector or in social fields where creative interventions are supported. Graduates in applied theatre are also encouraged to design and fund their own projects with communities and to pursue PhD studies.

Industry links

Our academic staff are professionals in the field and the programme is weighted towards placement learning helping you to create connections to applied theatre companies in London, nationally and internationally. Our links with Applied Theatre India provide annual cultural exchange projects for students. Previous collaborations have taken place with the V&A, Theatre Troupe, Collective Encounters, Synergy, Tie Dye, Learning Stages, The Clod Ensemble, Islington People’s Theatre and London Renters Union.

Graduate employers

East London Drama Teachers and Facilitators Network is hosted by UEL’s MA Applied Theatre, Creative Newham and EastEd. The network is formed of independent creative facilitators across the borough of Newham helping to connect, sustain and build your professional practice after your postgraduate. 

Applied theatre plays an important role in the UK theatre sector. Rooted in a long history of community arts and theatre-in-education, it demonstrates how performance can support learning, strengthen communities and drive social change. The MA Applied Theatre offers placements in community, education, charity, or municipal contexts.  A defining feature of your studies, placement learning and experiences enhance your professional practice while connecting you to sector.

Job roles

Graduates of MA Applied Theatre can typically (but are not limited to) work across areas such as:

  • Theatre for young people
  • Disability arts
  • Theatre outreach work
  • Community arts
  • Popular theatre
  • Theatre-in-education
  • Theatre and homelessness
  • Applied theatre and health
  • Creative aging
  • Theatre and migration
  • Theatre and heritage
  • Queer and trans arts
  • Applied theatre and criminal justice
  • Arts policy

Further study

After studying your Master's in Applied Theatre, you could go on to further study with our postgraduate research courses:

MA Theatre Performance
This MA Applied Theatre is sector-leading; offering access to industry pathways and professional practitioners held in the utmost respect and providing its students with invaluable placements and contacts. This is an exciting time for applied theatre and it feels timely for UEL to pioneer the way in using theatre for social justice, politics and performance."
Rob Lehmann

Director of Young Lyric, Lyric Hammersmith.

How we support your career ambitions

We offer dedicated careers support, further opportunities to thrive, such as volunteering and industry networking. our courses are created in collaboration with employers and industry to ensure they accurately reflect the real-life practices of your future career and provide you with the essential skills needed. You can focus on building interpersonal skills through group work and benefit from our investment in the latest cutting edge technologies and facilities.

Career Zone

Our dedicated and award-winning team provide you with careers and employability resources, including:

  • Online jobs board for internships, placements, graduate opportunities, flexible part-time work.
  • Mentoring programmes for insight with industry experts
  • 1-2-1 career coaching services
  • Careers workshops and employer events
  • Learning pathways to gain new skills and industry insight

Mental Wealth programme

Our Professional Fitness and Mental Wealth programme which issues you with a Careers Passport to track the skills you’ve mastered. Some of these are externally validated by corporations like Amazon and Microsoft.

Our Mental Wealth programme

We are careers first

Our teaching methods and geographical location put us right up top

  • Enterprise and entrepreneurship support
  • Ranked 2nd for graduate start-ups (2023/24)  
  • Networking and visits to leading organisations
  • Support in starting a new business, freelancing and self-employment
  • London on our doorstep

How you'll learn

The programme combines taught learning, practical projects and professional placements to help you develop your specialist interests and career goals.



You will gain hands-on experience through placements with arts organisations and practitioners working in community, educational and cultural settings.



Throughout the course, you will design and deliver participatory arts projects while developing practical facilitation skills and creative approaches to engagement.



You will also build professional skills in leadership, project design, fundraising and funding applications, preparing you to lead collaborative projects in a range of social and cultural contexts.

Guided independent study

When not attending timetabled lectures, MA Applied Theatre postgraduates will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for exams. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and Moodle.

Academic support

Our academic support team provides help in a range of areas - including learning and disability support.

Dedicated personal tutor

When you arrive, we'll introduce you to your personal tutor. This is the member of staff who will provide academic guidance, be a support throughout your time at UEL and who will show you how to make the best use of all the help and resources that we offer.

Your timetable

Your individualised timetable is normally available to students within 48 hours of enrolment. Whilst we make every effort to ensure timetables are as student-friendly as possible. For our Postgraduate performing arts courses, seminars are scheduled in the evenings between 17:30 and 21:30 to enable study alongside work. Timetables for part-time students will depend on the modules selected.

Class sizes

The MA Applied Theatre usually takes 10-15 students a year. This ensures full participation in classrooms and access to resources and mentoring that are tailored to your learning journey. In Term 2 and Term 3, there are opportunities for collaborative and interdisciplinary projects with your peers across the postgraduate space

How you'll be assessed

Assessment methods on the MA Applied Theatre degree reflect an ethos of learning that nurtures original theatre-based practices and rigorous understandings of how cultural politics is encountered and practised in collective situations.

An array of assessment types evaluates and prompts your development while offering opportunities to try out and test ideas through practice, creative documentation, critical interrogation/ reflection, and project delivery. Your final independent project can be undertaken as a practical project or as a written dissertation.

Feedback is offered within 15 working days after submission of your assessment.

Campus and facilities

What our students and staff say

Dominic Hingorani smiling
I can't think of a more exciting place to start your career, build your networks and access world-class professional theatre than in East London.

Professor Dominic Hingorani

MA Theatre Performance
I was attracted to the MA Theatre Directing course because not only does it concentrate on text-based theatre but also various methodologies and different ways to create a performance.

The Black Box studio is a professional theatre production space at University Square Stratford. I love our performances there at the end of every term."

Orsolya Nagy

MA Theatre Directing student

Applied Theatre FAQs