Playwriting MA

Year of entry: 2026

Course length: 12 months full-time

About the course

Our MA Playwriting course is an intensive one-year course designed to provide a genuine gateway into a writing career in the theatre and performance industries.

Over the course of the year, students work closely with leading industry practitioners to develop your playwriting craft, dramaturgy, and to nurture your unique voice.

This is a hands-on course, involving four taught units and a dissertation. Taught units, assessed by plays and reflective pieces, include:

• Playwriting and form • Playwriting and structure • The Festival Play • The Working Playwright

These are example course units based on 2025/26 options and are subject to change each year.

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Develop at least one full-length stage play, a festival play, and a contemporary adaptation.

Attend intensive writing workshops, industry Q&As, one-to-ones with tutors, including active leading playwrights Chloe Moss, Carmen Nasr & Time Price.

The programme culminates with an industry showcase at the Royal Exchange Theatre, launching your writing career.

Where will your degree take you?

We will prepare you for a successful career in playwriting and writing for performance, and you’ll have access to individual career guidance and training to help you secure work. The industry focus of the programme ensures that you will be equipped with the practical knowledge to manage your career as a writer, and the ability to pitch your own initiatives, as well as work both as an individual writer and collaboratively with others. Additional possible career paths include work as literary officers and agents, and within publishing, art journalism, dramaturgy and producing.

Chloë Moss

Lecturer (Playwriting)

Chloë Moss is an accomplished playwright and screenwriter. Her celebrated play This Wide Night 2008/2009 (Clean Break, Soho) won the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn prize and was subsequently produced off Broadway, starring Edie Falco. Chloë has written numerous other shows including The Gatekeeper 2012 (Royal Exchange Theatre), Fatal Light 2010/2011 (Soho Theatre) and Christmas is Miles Away 2005/2006 (Bush theatre and off Broadway).

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