Theatre

The Theatre programme at the University of Surrey will provide you with a supportive and collegiate research experience within our conservatoire, the Guildford School of Acting (GSA).

The University of Surrey University of Surrey is 33rd in the UK rankings for overall research quality by the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. The University is now also ranked in the top 20 in the UK for the overall quality of research outputs – research papers and other published works.

Career opportunities

We belong to TECHNE, an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded doctoral training partnership, which offers funding and a fully formed training programme for academic, professional and early-career development. As a research conservatoire, we can offer dedicated time and support to practice-led research experiments and practical modes of knowledge enquiry. GSA’s research activity at Surrey includes access to the Surrey Shakespeare Centre which is hosted within the School. We welcome proposals that will result in an 80,000-word thesis or a practice research-curated portfolio (c.40,000).The final assessment on the Theatre Theatre programme will be based on the presentation of your research in a written thesis, which will be discussed in a viva examination with at least two examiners. You have the option of preparing your thesis as a monograph (one large volume in chapter form) or in publication format (including chapters written for publication), subject to the approval of your supervisors.

Research themes

• Actor training

• Disability and performance

• Equality, diversity and inclusion in the arts

• Musical theatre

• Performance and cognitive science

• Shakespeare.