Getting Started: An Approach to Relating Practical and Critical Work

It is rare to fmd a drama/theatre degree in British higher education that does not include at least some element of practical work, although the means of integrating practice into the main concerns of what are primarily critical courses are very varied. Single-focus degrees in both the traditional and new universities have included practice since their inception: indeed, the adoption of practical forms of teaching has been a means of defming such degrees as 'different' from the English degrees that were often their point of departure. The recent drift towards substituting degrees for diplomas in vocational drama education has led to a critical/practical mix of a rather different kind, as hitherto entirely practically-based courses have begun to struggle with the demands of a critical agenda.