Media and Performance
Full-time
Three year
September 2025
In a nutshell
Do you dream of being a screen actor, or working with actors, screenwriters and directors to bring a production to life? Or perhaps you’re looking to star in your own radio drama? Do you thrive when working as part of a creative team?
Whatever your professional media goals, our Media and Performance degree is designed to give you the tools you need to achieve them.
As you progress through your studies, you’ll have the chance to explore performance, acting, media and filmmaking within a unique range of contexts, from radio production and performance, to scriptwriting, directing, producing and screen acting. You’ll also take part in video drama projects led by professional directors and industry leaders.
What’s more, your final year project will give you the opportunity to specialise in the area of media or performance that interests you most. So, whether your interests lie behind the camera or in front of the microphone, you’ll be creating cutting-edge media and live performance while building a portfolio of work to establish yourself as a professional.
There will also be an opportunity to study a semester abroad in your second year.
Read Grace’s story about her BA (Hons) Media and Performance experience.
Want to find out more about our media and performance course? You can sign up to an Open Day or explore all our Performance courses.
View the most recent newsletter from our Performance team.
You will:
- Study with highly skilled professional practitioners to create cutting-edge media and live performance in a vibrant city with a fantastic theatre, arts and music scene
- Study a course which has produced household names such as Jason Manford, Steve Edge, Emma Atkins, Warren Brown, Erin Shannagher, Peter Kay and Charley Marlow
- Have the opportunity to engage with the industry through networking, masterclasses and a suite of professional development opportunities
This is for you if...
You dream of performing or acting in front of the camera, microphone, or directing from behind it.
You have a passion for media and are keen to explore live and recorded performance and production in a range of contexts to improve your knowledge of the industry.
You want to launch a professional career as a creative practitioner in film, TV, Radio, Social Media or Audio.
All about the course
Do you have a passion for storytelling? Are you interested in how different platforms can be used to engage different audiences? At Salford, you’ll be given the chance to study a variety of modules that examine the development of performance in the context of television, film, and radio drama. You’ll also gain an awareness of the technical aspects of media production, including camera work, editing, lighting and sound.
In the first year of your studies, you’ll cover the fundamentals of media and performance, from acting for TV and radio to production skills. As your media and performance course progresses, you’ll choose from a variety of optional modules that will allow you to tailor your Media and Performance degree programme to your interests. For example, our Acting for the Camera course will give you the experience of working with ex-broadcast drama scripts which you will rehearse and record for camera under conditions mirroring industry practice.
You’ll learn through a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshop and performance projects, led by industry professionals with a wealth of past and current experience working in media. Your assessments will include practical and performance work, presentations and essays, all designed to enable you to develop a strong portfolio of work in your chosen area.
Want to find out more? Read our course breakdown to learn what you’ll be exploring in each module.
Critical and Textual Studies
This seminar-based module focuses on textual analysis and critical approaches to live and mediated performance texts. It also considers key theories and practitioners who influenced the development of particular disciplines within performance.
Acting for Recorded Media
This module will acquaint you with the range and scope of television and radio drama and involves an exploration of a range of techniques for performing on camera or for the microphone, as well as providing knowledge of fundamental procedures and skills of studio operation.
Acting Methods 1
This primarily practical module focuses on the creative practices essential to build characterisations for live performance in a naturalistic context, drawing on Stanislavsky's System.
Production Skills
The module combines both technical and creative aspects of media production as you develop a broad awareness of the range of skills required for video production, including camera, lighting, editing and sound – imperative to contemporary theatre technology.
Production Workshop
You will learn how to produce from script to screen a short video drama. Working to health and safety guidelines, students develop group-working skills appropriate to a professional drama production.
Analysing Screen Fiction
Analysing Screen Fiction is designed to provide media students with a comprehensive introduction to the theories that underpin the creation, interpretation, and impact of film and television. Throughout the module, students will engage in critical analysis of iconic films and television series from different genres and time periods. They will learn to deconstruct media texts, identifying visual and narrative techniques, themes, and subtextual meanings. The module will emphasize the contemporary relevance of film and television, examining how these media contribute to discussions surrounding identity, representation, and social issues.
Students will explore topics such as diversity and inclusion, media ethics, and the impact of streaming platforms.
Performance Studies
Through lectures, screenings and seminars, the approaches to textual critical analysis introduced in the first year are further developed, as are your academic writing skills.
The module examines artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, specifically focusing on the impact of Postmodernism across the performing arts. The module will address the specific nature of the Postmodern and its development in film, TV and theatre. The module examines artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, specifically focusing on the impact of Postmodernism across the performing arts. The module will address the specific nature of the Postmodern and its development in film, TV and theatre.
A range of optional modules are offered, including:
Radio Performance and Production
This module enables you to work on a range of exercises designed to develop your characterisation, vocal expression and tonal variety in performing audio drama. You are introduced to studio equipment for recording and editing and contribute to studio management for the assignment. You are assessed on the performance and production of a recorded radio drama script.
Directing and Producing
Emphasises the aesthetic aspects of directing for screen along with the practical decision-making and problem-solving aspects of camera and lighting, sound recording, video editing, artistic resources and time management. You will be introduced to the role of the producer with regard to budgeting, scheduling and contingency planning.
Integrated Production Skills
The aim of this module is to give you the skills you need to fulfil core crew roles on video production as well as learn how production techniques elevate your own creative ideas. The module emphasises the decision-making and technical problem-solving aspects of camera, lighting, sound recording and video editing.
Presenting
This module is delivered by seminars and practical classes, mostly in our MediaCity studios. You will explore exercises such as performing pieces to camera, engaging with the audience, working with green screen, autocue and using studio talkback, shopping TV, vlogging, and the importance of performing with energy, clarity and correct intonation. At the end of the module, you will create a presenting showreel.
Comedy Writing and Performance
This module develops student comic ability, creativity and imagination and allows you to generate material that can be applied to many other performance contexts. You may have experience of comedy, you may want to try something new – this is open to writers, performers, comedians, and anyone who wants to investigate how to devise, write and produce effective comedy material.
Acting for the Camera
The aims of the module are to develop practical skills with a range of technical exercises such as hitting marks, cheating eye-lines and body angles; regulating movement in relation to the camera; avoiding dialogue overlaps., and to further awareness and interpretative skills in translating textual and sub-textual elements into effective performance to camera.
Page to Stage: Drama Texts in Translation
This module is two-pronged in its approach. Firstly, it raises issues about how to approach dramatic texts in translation; secondly, it will focus upon the relationship between actor, director, and dramaturg as the central means of moving a theatre text from page to stage.
Introduction to Screenwriting
This module examines fundamental aspects of fictional storytelling for the screen: narrative, structure, character development, character types, relation of character to theme and the use of dialogue, image and action. You will utilise screen writing software to assist in producing the final play.
Playwriting
Playwriting offers you the chance to experiment with a variety of theatre writing styles and forms. We will cover the craft of playwriting, studying character, dialogue, narrative, form, and stagecraft. We will also look at the business of playwriting, exploring the many professional opportunities and routes open to playwrights.
Shakespeare In Performance
This module examines developments in the staging of Shakespeare from Elizabethan times to the 21st century. 20th/21st century developments in approaches to and presentation of Shakespeare texts will encompass both live and recorded performance. As the module progresses you will be encouraged to address particular approaches to the presentation of Shakespeare presentation (e.g. political, feminist, intercultural) by exploring the work of for example; RSC, Peter Brook, Robert Lepage and Kenneth Branagh). A range of plays are studied, with one or two plays as ‘core’ texts – one of these will usually be a text with local stage performance.
Programme Production Techniques
This offers you the chance to explore the practical and creative challenges in planning and producing a studio-based TV show. This module is one of two that are based in our professional quality TV studio on our MediaCityUK campus.
Theatre and Communities
The module provides you with a practical knowledge and theoretical understanding of Applied Theatre and its uses and applications as a tool for social engagement outside of conventional theatre environments.
The module does this through a work based learning project with The Lowry Learning and Engagement team. During the module, you will shadow an applied theatre practitioner and co-facilitate workshops with community participants at The Lowry.
The Lowry, based at Salford Quays, is a venue, arts organisations, and registered charity committed to using visual and performing arts to enrich people’s lives. It presents audiences with a diverse programme of theatre, opera, musicals, dance, music, comedy and visual art as well as events and activities to expand the horizons of audiences and artists alike.
This exciting opportunity is supported with bespoke training in facilitation in taught sessions on campus and at The Lowry.
Voice and Text
Through exercises and analysis you will develop safe vocal and physical technique related to the free, relaxed, aligned body and learn to apply interpretative skills to the speaking of verse, dramatic text and heightened prose. Workshops will also explore the free and flexible use of your home accent as well as the foundations and principles of adopting other accents, including Neutral Standard English.
Introduction to Theatre Directing
A series of workshop/seminars will introduce you to the role of the director, using a range of contemporary and historical play texts. We will explore and apply appropriate theatrical vocabularies in order to help you develop your own directorial approach. You will also have the opportunity to lead small group work in terms of exploring and experimenting with a range of directorial approaches to both script and performers.
Introduction to Multimedia Performance
The module is designed to develop skills in and approaches to the making of multimedia performance. Through practical workshops, which are underpinned by reference to key theories and practitioners in the field, you will develop skills in these areas through practical experimentation and collaborative creative work.
Theatre Acting
Through practical workshops and guided and independent textual analysis, you will learn to apply interpretative skills to the rehearsal and performance of both classical and contemporary theatrical texts. Supporting seminars will explore the vocal performance possibilities afforded by poetic and rhetorical techniques such as rhythm, rhyme, metre and repetition, drawing on examples from the selected performance texts. Seminars will also explore the physical performance possibilities with a focus on modes of status, shape change, stagecraft, animal work and psychological gesture.
Music Video Production
This module introduces you to the diverse styles and formats of music videos, exploring iconic examples and current industry trends, gaining hands-on experience in a professional Manchester-based studio. You will then take the role of director to create your own music video.
Radio Comedy Project
This project is led by a member of staff and/or a visiting practitioner. You will work in an ensemble to create original comedy sketch ideas and develop your own characters within them. This will culminate in a 45 minute long show, performed and recorded live, then edited into a 30 minute programme.
Video Project
The aims of the module are to enable students to expand their knowledge and creativity in crewing roles and performing for camera; to enable students to further develop the use of video and post-production techniques to create original 10-15 minute dramas with a view to public exhibition and festival submission. The module is run as a professional simulation.
Performance Research Project
In this module you will undertake an individually tailored project building out from all you have learned on your degree programme with supervision from staff. You will research relevant materials and current industry trends around your project area. This will lead into the delivery of the project itself, which will follow one of three pathways:
Practical Project: this can be a live performance or a recorded performance (screen or audio) or a script (screen, stage or audio).
Dissertation: this will be a written submission taking the form of a long essay.
Industry Project: this can be a work placement, an organisation study or planning and running a workshop.
Careers and Professional Pathways
You will engage with a range of industry-led masterclasses and workshops, which will equip you with the knowledge of industry practices and career destinations that will benefit your employment endeavours. The sessions will also guide you in the production of specific materials, submitted for assessment in the form of a portfolio, some of which may be used directly in pursuing employment opportunities.
Video Project
The aims of the module are to enable students to expand their knowledge and creativity in crewing roles and performing for camera; to enable students to further develop the use of video and post-production techniques to create original 10-15 minute dramas with a view to public exhibition and festival submission. The module is run as a professional simulation.
You will choose two of the following options:
Scriptwriting for TV and Film
Through a professionally geared script development programme, you will create a premise, a treatment, a step outline, and a first draft of a complete screenplay of at least fifty minutes. In seminars, you will discuss ideas for story, character, and theme within the group. Treatments, step outlines, and the first draft are developed in one-to-one tutorials.
Creative Techniques for Video Drama Production
You will examine specific approaches and processes in direction and production for professional broadcast media. This includes pre-production planning, directing actors, and effective decision-making to ensure fluidity and continuity in editing. You will then develop your knowledge and skills as director, lighting camera-operator/director of cinematography, sound recordist or editor.
Gender and Sexuality in Performance
The module examines the importance of gender and sexuality in the development of contemporary drama and performance in the UK and USA from the turn of the twentieth century to the global streaming platforms of today.
Gender and sexuality are examined through a series of play texts and screenplays and contextualised in the dominant discourses about both in each period. Seminar sessions will function as forums for debate about evolving and competing theories, whilst practice workshops will explore the texts through readings, improvisations, and appropriations.
Radio Acting
This module is designed to develop acting skills for radio drama to a professional standard. Principally working from professional scripts, you will work on vocal control, microphone technique, spatial awareness and ‘lifting the text off the page’. You will have the opportunity to direct each other and feed back to each other, as well as listening to and critiquing some notable radio drama already broadcast with a view to appreciating the breadth of style and content available in the medium. As part of this, you will be encouraged to keep a ‘listening journal’, in which you can critique both broadcast audio dramas and your own vocal performances in class.
This module aims to acquaint you with the range and scope of audio drama, including related audio performance opportunities such as voiceovers, voicing animations and accents, as well as developing the basic skills of fundamental procedures of studio operation.
TV Acting
You will analyse, research, rehearse and perform a number of television drama scripts – and work in depth on a specific character from one of them. Rehearsals of the extracts are recorded and critically reviewed in seminar sessions. Particular attention is paid to the layering of subtext, psychological detail and technical skills.
Documentary to Mockumentary
This module aims to investigate the historical, social and industrial changes in Documentary production. The module is concerned with the development of competing theories around documentary. It will address conflicting definitions of documentary and mockumentary within a global marketplace and will compare and contrast the range of production strategies adopted within mainstream TV and cinematic documentary modes. It will build on the existing production skills from your second year, providing students with the opportunity to produce and direct a short documentary or mockumentary film.
Theatre Directing
This module begins with series of classes exploring the role of the director in relation to a range of contemporary and historical scripts. Under close tutor guidance, you will then consider and apply appropriate theatrical methodologies in order to develop your own directorial approach. All students will be given the opportunity to lead small group work in terms of exploring and experimenting with a range of directorial approaches to both script and to performers.
Making Performance for Social Media
This module will explore the importance of the emerging performance and technologies associated with social media content creation. This is an area that uses a lot of similar skills and theories that students may already have learned in level’s 4 and 5 in modules such as: Acting for Camera, Presenting, Comedy Improvisation, Multimedia Performance, Integrated Production Skills, Programme Production.
The outline for the module will be divided into three sections: content and persona creation, marketing and promotion, and production techniques. These sections will culminate in the students creating their own ‘channel’ in their chosen social media platform.
Making Contemporary Performance
Making Contemporary Performance introduces contemporary approaches to making theatre and performance that challenge the traditions of dramatic plot and character. It may include, interactive, digital, autobiographical, nonfictional, one to one, interdisciplinary and intermedial performance. You will have the chance to make a short performance or performance text in a form introduced during the module.
Acting for Motion Capture
In this module you will learn how to apply your acting and performance skills within a Motion and Performance Capture environment. You will explore a variety of specific acting techniques and develop knowledge of the technical performance requirements of 'the volume'. You will work in a fully equipped Motion Capture studio to create a variety of characters, motion sequences and cinematic scenes suitable for animation, virtual production and computer gaming.
Classical Theatre Acting
Many powerful screen actors developed their skills as classical theatre actors. The physical and vocal skills demanded empower the actor to command a stage and an auditorium, to bring rich, poetic language to life and create characters that live in the imagination. Beginning with the plays of Shakespeare, you will learn how to interpret the language and thought in the text, develop your musicality and your range in conveying the world of the drama to your audience, and become adept at using verse and heightened language with clarity and assurance. Moving on to the witty comedies of the Restoration, you will discover the art of creating through vocal ease and finesse but also through physicality, the movement, posture and gestures typical of the stock characters of these plays – the rake or seducer, the innocent, the fop, the fortune-hunter, the wealthy fool, characters that live on in our comedies to this day.
TV Comedy: Sitcom Writing and Performance
You will explore the key elements that characterise comedy performance and the specific cultural and political contexts that influence scripting and “persona”. Intensive practical workshops, to develop comedy characters (personas) and short routines culminate in recorded in-house performances. Each workshop contains elements of scripting work and improvisation, including performance skills to develop vocal diction, range, expression and tone. You will work towards writing, creating and performing in a 15-minute sitcom pilot, filmed before a live studio audience.
Variety, Stand Up and Solo Comedy
The module provides research preparation and supervision for your solo comedy practice.
It will culminate in a comedy ‘night’ curated by the cohort. Your solo comedy performances may include elements of Stand-up and/or Variety comedy, including influences from magic, music-comedy, clowning, burlesque and drag. You will research the legacy of variety as well as observational or storytelling comedic formats in examples from current professional practice.
Please note that it may not be possible to deliver the full list of options every year as this will depend on factors such as how many students choose a particular option. Exact modules may also vary in order to keep content current. When accepting your offer of a place to study on this programme, you should be aware that not all optional modules will be running each year. Your tutor will be able to advise you as to the available options on or before the start of the programme. Whilst the University tries to ensure that you are able to undertake your preferred options, it cannot guarantee this.
Be a part of a creative, supportive community
All our Theatre and Performance courses are delivered by the Salford School of Arts, Media, and Creative Technology. We are a creative community with a focus on creating a collaborative environment where you can thrive and gain the skills needed to pursue your dreams.
Our Engagement Team coordinates school-wide events such as the Create Student Awards, academic conferences, networking and volunteering opportunities, welcoming and wellbeing fairs and exhibitions like our annual Degree Show.
For non-course matters, you will have access to our university-wide support service askUS, who will support and guide you to be successful in all aspects of your life.
Throughout your time at Salford, you’ll be mentored and supported by experts. And once you graduate, it won’t end there. You’ll join a thriving alumni network across Greater Manchester and beyond, meaning you’ll be supported professionally and personally whenever you need it.
Performance facilities
This Media and Performance degree is based at our £55 million New Adelphi building, the home of performance and creativity on campus.
Our range of performance facilities include:
- New Adelphi Theatre – this 350-seat venue provides an opportunity for you to stage shows in front of live audiences. It also regularly hosts professionals shows and performances.
- Studio theatre - this classic black-box performance space offers a more intimate venue than the New Adelphi Theatre. It features flexible seating and staging, so you can shape the space to meet your creative needs.
- Voice acting studio - from podcasting and video game dialogue to radio drama and foley sound effects, this facility gives you the flexibility to produce a range of audio for your projects.
- Screen acting studio – are you passionate about a career on the screen? You’ll learn to hone new skills using our two-screen acting studios. featuring fixed and flexible sets.
Explore our Performance facilities at the University of Salford or take a 360 tour of our New Adelphi building.
Meet the performance teaching staff
Looking to learn more about the background of our Performance tutors and technical demonstrators or put a face to a name?
Find out who'll work with you throughout your academic journey at the University of Salford.
Explore the Performance faculty at the University of Salford
What about after uni?
Employment
With the increasing popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon and the rise of podcasting platforms like Spotify, there’s never been a better time to study Media and Performance. As people are watching, listening, making and broadcasting media in more ways than ever before, there’s never been more appetite and opportunity for new productions.
Many of our graduates have progressed to employment in an impressive range of arts, entertainment and media organisations, working as writers, researchers, production managers, producers, directors, actors, presenters, comedy writers and performers, influencers, social media content creators and in education. And with our reputation for providing the industry with highly skilled and dynamic graduates, you’ll also be equipped to secure roles in teaching, community work or as creative workshop leaders.
Further study
Graduates showing strong academic and research skills can pursue a further postgraduate path through our Postgraduate programmes on a full-time or part-time basis subject to a satisfactory proposal.
Career Links
As part of your media and performance degree course, you’ll learn from practitioners who have worked with, and have active links to, leading film and TV companies, including BBC TV and Radio Drama, ITV, Channel 4 and Red Productions.
Our performance teaching staff have also worked with traditional and experimental theatre companies of many kinds including the Royal Exchange, the Young Vic, the UK's leading contemporary performance companies Blast Theory, Imitating the Dog, Plane Performance and Reckless Sleepers.
What you need to know
Applicant profile
To gain a place on this media and performance degree, you will have to submit a personal statement and meet our entry requirements when you apply.
Within your personal statement (up to 4,000 characters) we will want to understand:
- What aspects of acting or performance interest you?
- What experience or prior training have you had in either acting or film making or production?
- What actors, performers, writers or directors inspire you?
- What aspect of Media would you like to work within?
- Why have you chosen the University of Salford and why would a degree in Media and Performance allow you to meet your future goals?
Applicants may be asked to attend an audition workshop and provide an example of their writing. If that's the case we will provide all the information you need to prepare.
Once you’ve made your application to study with us, we’ll contact you and let you know the next steps.
GCSE
English Language at grade C/level 4 or above (or equivalent). Maths at grade C/4 or above (or equivalent) is preferred but not essential.
You must fulfil our GCSE entry requirements as well as one of the requirements listed below.
UCAS tariff points
104-112 points.
A level
104-112 points.
T level
Merit
BTEC National Diploma
DMM including Performing Arts or similar subject
Access to HE
112 UCAS Tariff Points from a Level 3 QAA approved Access programme. Must include Media/Performance.
Scottish Highers
104-112 points including Performing Arts or similar subject
Irish Leaving Certificate
104-112 points including Performing Arts or similar subject
International Baccalaureate
29 points, 5 or 6 (Higher level) in a relevant subject
European Baccalaureate
Pass Diploma with 72% overall
International students
We accept qualifications from all around the world. Find your country to see a full list of entry requirements.
If you are an international student and not from a majority English speaking country, you will need IELTS 6.0 with no element below 5.5.
We also accept a range of other English language qualifications. If you do not have the English language requirements, you could take the Pre-Sessional English course to gain entry onto this degree.
Salford Alternative Entry Scheme (SAES)
We welcome applications from students who may not meet the stated entry criteria but who can demonstrate their ability to pursue the course successfully. Once we have received your application we will assess it and recommend it for SAES if you are an eligible candidate.
There are two different routes through the Salford Alternative Entry Scheme and applicants will be directed to the one appropriate for their course. Assessment will either be through a review of prior learning or through a formal test.
How much?
Your tuition fees are regulated by the UK government who has proposed changes to tuition fees for UK students studying in England from 1 August 2025. The fee stated reflects this proposed change, but remains subject to parliamentary approval. Your tuition fees may increase in your first and each subsequent year of your programme to the maximum amount permitted by UK law or regulation for that academic year.
| Type of study | Year | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time home | 2025/26 | £9,535 per year |
| Full-time international | 2025/26 | £17,650 per year |
Additional costs
You should also consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits.
Scholarships for international students
If you are a high-achieving international student, you may be eligible for one of our scholarships. Explore our international scholarships.
All set? Let's apply
Enrolment dates
Student information
Terms and conditionsUCAS information
Course ID W400
Institution S03