The answer: a lot.Hullo, xkcd fans! ::waves::
And while I'm getting all this random international traffic...
Can anyone recommend a graduate-level dramatic writing program in the U.K.?
I'd like to consider studying in the U.K., but my anglophilia does not extend to the university system and have absolutely no idea how to go about finding good programs. I'm talking to you, random Welsh stranger reading this - if you're thinking "well obviously she knows about the blahdiblah program, but I don't know of anything other than that", then you should leave a comment telling me about the blahdiblah program, because I in fact do not know about it.
In other news, the Doctor Who Christmas special airs in six days. (which is to say, there are six days till Christmas). This is excellent because:
1) new Doctor Who to reward me in the middle of my awful never-ending application slog!
2) spoilers, real actually spoiling-y spoilers, now abound on the internet, which means I have to avoid the internet, which means I am forced to focus on my awful never-ending application slog. Yay?
::waves back:: :)
ReplyDeleteSigned : xkcd fan who LOL when reading "everyone's internet crush Randall Munroe"
::blushes::
Yet another XKCD fan... And, incidentally an Doctor Who one. The Christmas special was pretty fun, right?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I'm breaking my usual lurking habits to say the best way of finding graduate programs is just by looking at university websites. For a specifically dramatic writing program you're gonna want to look at one of the... hem, less prestigious/newer unis - simply because they tend to have more specialised courses. To be honest, I'm only an undergrad, so I don't know a whole lot about graduate programs, but that's just my (unhelpful) suggestion.
i love you.
ReplyDeleteOK, so I stumbled across this as result of reading about your sonic screwdriver escapades on the Staten Island ferry (on io9). Anyway. here's some courses for you to check out. I think mithual is referring to the so called New Universities which were originally set up as Polytechnics with a remit to have a more practical and less purely academic emphasis (I'm not sure how much this applies now that they're all Universities). By the way, the more traditional universities (Oxford, Cambridge and other old institutions, plus the "red brick" and "plate glass" universities) are largely members of the Russell Group. Hopefully those links are enough for you tell the difference between the types of university (by the way, almost all universities in the UK are government funded, they aren't private in the US sense - although non-UK citizens can still pay to attend).
ReplyDeleteTeaching writing is generally pretty new in the UK, so I don't think the practical traditions of the former polytechnics is much use here, except in the case of those that have specialised in film production (see below for more). In fact, in the absence of any other factor, I'd plump for a university with a good academic reputation first. The problem with creative writing courses is that they're so new - and so you run the risk of getting one that's just trying to cash in on a fad.
On the basis of this, here's a few courses to check out:
The oldest creative writing course in the UK is the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, which was founded by Malcolm Bradbury and is famous for producing novelists (Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others). It does have a dramatic writing version, although this is a more recent development.
The first specific playwriting course is the one offered by the University of Birmingham. It was founded by David Edgar and is, I think, still very well respected.
The course offered by the University of Leeds, looks interesting to me - but mainly because that's where I live and I was quite impressed with the new theatre building they've just built. I'm not sure if it has a good reputation or not.
Lastly, here's a list of institutions that have Skillset accreditations (see the website for details of what this means). This does include quite a lot of the "new universities" but the emphasis does tend to be on film/TV rather than theatre.
I hope this helps, feel free to drop me an email on maccy69 [at] gmail [dot] com if you want to know anything more.
Good luck!
Wow, Matthew. That is wonderfully useful! Thank you so much! I look forward to looking into all the links you provided, and will follow up if I have questions. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one....
ReplyDeleteFrom the president of the Perth division of the Randall Munroe fan club.