What unis do well regarded English Lit with Drama degrees?

[wildfellhall]

Interested to know what perceptions are.

I've just looked at Royal Holloway which looks impressive.

QUB

Royal Holloway it's nowhere near Esher. It's in Egham / Virginia Water

Thank you these are all useful suggestions.

This young one is more interested in the writing aspect more than the acting, probably much more keen to be writing/directing in the long run. Would be very happy doing straight English lit but also adores all the practical drama writing/colllaborating and performing.

@mumsnoangel You are correct. Memory fail - but Egham is not handy for the London theatre either.

@wildfellhall Places get a “name” because so and so went there. DD has a friend who went to Rada. Another went to the former Central St Martin’s. Lots of famous people went to Rada but that doesn’t guarantee work. They have done next to no acting professionally. It’s also not true that English and drama grads don’t work in the civil service. My friend did. There are numerous roles in banking and business for which English and Drama grads can apply. The notion that these degrees lead to a stellar career in the theatre is just not true for many. Plan B or C is necessary. If DC don't know who might employ them, it’s difficult to say what is respected.

When I go to the theatre, it’s not often an actor has trained doing a drama degree with English. There’s loads of drama schools if that’s the target career. If it’s not, choose the best uni from the CUG and don’t get hung up on alumni. These courses have expanded dramatically and the over supply is huge. Rose Bruford is a major player in training actors, and so are plenty of others.

I did English at Exeter, there was an English + Drama course. Oh my gosh they were luvvies, whooping in the graduation ceremony when they collected their degrees. Nice bunch though, apart from one guy called Sacha who held a door open for me with a lit fag in his hand , I still have a small circular burn scar on my palm …

@HedgehogB Are they all household names now?

I know a few who did the Exeter course - they do write and direct plays but also have full or part time jobs - solicitor and music teacher of top of my head.

English and drama are very good for law and a training ground for barristers. Also marketing and publicity jobs in all sorts of industries as the outgoing personalities are very useful for this

Thanks for this. I think the playwriting will be a big draw for this student. And they are very academic so will be happy to marry practical with deep text work I imagine.

UEA does a degree in drama and creative writing. The university’s creative writing department has a stellar reputation and it’s MA one of the most prestigious around.

It was the first university to offer CW and it was the top MA for a very long time. I was disappointed to see on the league tables that it has been surpassed by a bunch of other places now.

Do also consider Unis they have a great theatre scene. DD is doing an English lit degree at Cambridge but has acted in and produced a large range of plays in a range of venues and is loving the combination, it is like work experience whilst studying. Some of the shows have gone to the Edinburgh fringe, some have gone on tour abroad. She can step up or down the drama commitment depending on the rigours of the forthcoming term etc.

Thank you for all this advice, location and opportunity for seeing drama and creating work would be ideal for my d I think.

@TizerorFizz You are correct. Memory fail - but Egham is not handy for the London theatre either.

2 fast (40 mins or so) direct trains an hour into Waterloo, handy for the National, Old Vic etc, and just across the river from the main West End theatres. Handier and faster than many Zone 4 districts in London itself! Even more travel options if you live in Staines rather than Egham.

I lived in Virginia Water for a year and went to the theatre about 3 times a week. More if I fitted in 3 shows on a Saturday! Last train back from Waterloo on a Friday night can be a bit full of drunken bankers, but it's perfectly possible.

There are regular posters in this section of MN who really should set up their own advice agency and misdirect people for money.

THREE shows on a Saturday! Just trying think how that works?
🎭💕

@wildfellhall It doesn’t really! Plus students won’t do this routinely from Royal Holloway. I think you need the buzz of London to go regularly. I think all that travel and tickets would cost money. DD was a student member of the Royal Opera House to get cheap tickets but could get there easily after college.

Anyway I think the biggest decision is about course content and job she wants. DD is a barrister and speaking well is vital but you don’t need a drama degree for that.

I know various excellent drama departments (I work in a cognate field). Their graduates go on to all sorts of jobs - famously, Andy Serkis (Lancaster) or Steve Blackshall (Exeter).

And you’d be surprised how many people trained in the professions @TizerorFizz reveres, who can’t speak properly in public. Member of my family trains actors, but she has a very lucrative sideline in training barristers and corporate boss how to speak clearly and well in public.

If you’re not good at speaking in public, it is a very difficult so-called “soft” skill. It’s actually not a soft skill - it’s essential in a lot of careers and hard to learn.

@YellowAsteroid DD’s Inn arranged training from RADA. Everyone is aware barristers need to speak clearly and advocate well. DD did LAMDA and loads of school plays and singing. I’m not remotely surprised! I know some do need some coaching. However they don’t need a degree in it.

Slightly old now probably but I did English Lit at York about 13 years ago and absolutely loved it. At the time, they'd just launched a new 'writing, directing and performance' degree and I had lots of friends doing that - no idea if the offering is still the same though, The drama society there was also fantastic and they put on new plays every week, many of them student written. And a good contingent went up to the fringe each year.

Can't speak for it these days but definitely worth a look.

There is no problem wanting to go to the highest ranked university for creative writing (Warwick apparently) but don’t get too obsessed with it. There is definitely no need to take into account how easily you can access London plays as someone has suggested. The most important thing is for dd to practice playwriting and make connections with theatres and other practitioners. If you want to be scientific about things like this look at the profiles of people who are winning/shortlisted for prizes like Bruntwood. I think there are usually a couple of UEA graduates on these lists. I see some posters giving poor advice on niche topics they have no idea of on here. I think overall dd needs to understand that a stellar academic record is no guarantee to a successful career in this field. It will probably help but it is still a very tough industry.

Thanks HistoryMmam, of course there are no illusions here about ease; I'm just interested in hearing more anecdotal experience as I don't know anything about this area academically.

Dd is 💯 an Eng Lit student but it would be interstellar for her to see options and possibilities to consider, that's what I've hoped for her.

Many thanks,

OP

It's useful to hear about well-thought of places based on different criteria so that we can think about how courses are judged, what to look for, what to think about, ask about. It's just to find out more really.

"Interstellar" 🤦‍♀️

If the practical side is important to them then I'd suggest finding out two things in particular.
Firstly how much drama practical the joint students will do, either as part of the course or through extra curriculars. Some of the joint students found it frustrating at times that their course focused much more on lectures and tutorials than any of the practical classes.
And secondly what the uni theatre is like. The latter is why I went to Hull. It used to do a terrible job of advertising itself in the UCAS guides, despite being rated excellent, but the theatre was (possibly still is) head and shoulders above anything on offer at any other uni. The thought of playing and learning in it for 3 years was what put it top of the list to fight my way in to.

Hull is criminally underrated.