About Drama and Theatre Studies, BA - at Trinity College Dublin
Special entry requirements:This is a restricted entry course.
Applications MUST be submitted to the CAO by 1 February of the proposed year of entry. Applicants will receive a questionnaire in March which must be completed and returned.On the basis of the completed questionnaire, some applicants will be called to attend a workshop and interview (during April and May), before final selections are made.
Please note:If you are interested in vocational training as an actor, you should apply for the Bachelor in Acting Studies, a three-year professional actor training programme offered in collaboration with the Abbey Theatre.
Drama and theatre studies can be studied as a single honor subject (TR025). Alternatively, drama studies can be taken in combination with one other subject within the two-subject moderatorship (TSM) programme. TSM is a joint honors programme; both subjects are studied for three years and one subject only is studied in the fourth and final year.Both degree tracks are four-year, non-vocational courses that combine historical, theoretical, and practical elements
Drama and Theatre Studies (single honor):Students in this course devote their full time to the history, theory, and practice of theatre and performance studies. It is particularly appropriate for those who already have experience in theatre work, and it includes considerable work in practical theatre activities. Single honor students will have approximately 12 hours per week of classes plus rehearsals.
Drama Studies (TSM joint honors)The two-subject moderatorship course explores theatre and drama mainly from a theoretical and historical perspective. It combines library-based courses with training in critical and analytical skills. While it follows a similar format to its single honor equivalent - drama and theatre studies (TR025) - the amount of practical content is more limited. TSM students will have approximately 7 hours per week of classes plus rehearsals.
Is this the right course for me?The strong developmental nature of drama and theatre studies means that, in addition to a high level of analytical ability, you will need to possess resourcefulness, self-motivation and good time-management skills. By its nature, practical theatre work calls for full-time commitment to rehearsal and production at certain times of the year. As this happens in tandem with regular scheduled classes, you can assume that a relatively high number of contact hours result. You will also need to have the ability to work as a member of a team to succeed on this course.
Course contentThe aim of these courses is to enable you to explore the relationship between the theory and the practice of theatre, to discover how and why theatre works. It does this by uniting elements of literary, cultural, historical and sociological studies with a practical understanding of the various performing arts.
