Live Theatre

Benefit from our long-running educational partnership with Live Theatre, Newcastle. Gain exposure to a live working theatre and develop key skills in acting, scriptwriting, facilitating, and staging. Meet playwrights, actors, producers, and casting agents, and hear their experiences of working in the industry.

Get experience of a live working theatre

Live Theatre is a real, live working theatre based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It's gained an excellent reputation as a place for new talent to showcase their skills, regularly producing new plays written by up-and-coming playwrights.

You'll work closely with Live Theatre while you study your performance degree, taking advantage of exciting opportunities such as performing in new plays, participating in workshops with industry experts, and working alongside technical staff to learn lighting, sound, and staging skills.

Some of your classes will take place at Live Theatre's base, near Newcastle Gateshead Quayside – you'll even rehearse in their professional studio spaces. You can get involved outside of class too, as we'll take you to see the plays Live Theatre have produced.

A group of students in a drama studio facing the camera and smiling

Industry experts

Our partnership with Live Theatre provides you with excellent networking opportunities, as you'll get to work alongside industry experts through workshops and guest lectures.

You'll participate in improvisation workshops with The Suggestibles School of Improv, and learn drama facilitation through Live Tales, picking up valuable employability skills along the way.

Our guest lecturers, who include playwrights, actors, producers, and casting agents, will share their experiences of working in the industry, as well as provide you with tips and advice about writing, acting, and how to break into the area of the industry you want to work in.

Emmerdale Actor Charlie Hardwick sitting in the middle of a group of Performing Arts students. Everyone is facing the camera and smiling.

In recent years we have welcomed:

Willy Russell – playwright ('Blood Brothers', 'Educating Rita', 'John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert', 'One for the road', 'Our Day out', 'Shirley Valentine', 'Stags and Hens')
Lee Hall – playwright and screenwriter (plays include 'I Luv You Jimmy Spud', 'Cooking with Elvis', 'The Pitman Painters', 'Billy Elliot', 'Warhorse', ' Victoria and Abdul', 'Rocketman')
Shelagh Stephenson – playwright ('Memory of Water', 'Five Kinds of Silence', 'An Experiment with an Air Pump', 'Harriet Martineau')
Charlie Hardwick – actor ('Emmerdale', 'Ackley Bridge')
Michael Chaplin – writer ('Monarch of the Glen', 'The Black Velvet Gown')
David Almond – writer ('Skellig', 'The Savage')
Brian Lonsdale – actor ('Warhorse', 'Goal!', 'The Pitman Painters')
Joe Caffrey – actor ('The Ship', 'Wethouse', 'Doctors')
Elijah Young – playwright ('Isolation', 'Cast of Your Aunt Fanny').

Explore

Our media facilities: producing excellence

If you’re interested in media or film production, and getting hands-on with the latest technology, look no further than the University of Sunderland. In addition to our established equipment, you’ll have access to new and upgraded facilities, including our 4K-UHD virtual studio, broadcast standard HD TV studio, and our refreshed Spark Sunderland radio studio.

Careers in the creative industries

Are you considering a creative career? Do you wonder what it’s really like to work in the creative industries? This sector can offer you an exciting and varied career, where no day is the same and creative thinking is actively encouraged. There are so many creative job roles up for grabs and there’s something to suit everyone’s career goals.

Everything you need to know about studying Performing Arts

For anyone who has a passion for performing, a degree in Performing Arts can be your path to a fulfilling and hugely engaging career. Here at the University of Sunderland, our Performing Arts department has a proud history of delivering quality degrees that are an immersive, enlightening and interactive experience for students.

Five tips to get the most out of your Screen Performance degree

Our BA (Hons) Screen Performance course offers a good balance between performance, production, and theoretical knowledge and experience, preparing you for an exciting future in the performance and screen industries.