| Code | Faculty | Department |
|---|---|---|
| 01130117 | Faculty of Humanities | Department: School of the Arts |
| Credits | Duration | NQF level |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum duration of study: 3 years | Total credits: 386 | NQF level: 07 |
This programme is directed towards the study of performance in relation to theatre, drama/theatre in education, performing arts management, film and television and the interface between technology and performance. The programme guides the student towards an understanding of the academic discourses and the practical skills required to interrogate, create, manage and promote multiple forms of performance.
Important information for all prospective students for 2025
The admission requirements below apply to all who apply for admission to the University of Pretoria with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) and Independent Examination Board (IEB) qualifications. Click here for this Faculty Brochure.
Minimum requirements | |||
Achievement level | |||
English Home Language or English First Additional Language | APS (Grade 11) | APS (NSC/IEB completed) | Additional requirements: |
5 | 30 | 28 | Applicants must complete and pass an audition process. |
* To retain admission, you must obtain an APS of at least 28 in the NSC.
Admissions for the Bachelor of Drama degree will take place in August, Ad-hoc.
Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
Applicants currently in Grade 12 must apply with their final Grade 11 (or equivalent) results.
Applicants who have completed Grade 12 must apply with their final NSC or equivalent qualification results.
Please note that meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission.
Successful candidates will be notified once admitted or conditionally admitted.
Applicants should check their application status regularly on the UP Student Portal at click here.
Applicants with qualifications other than the abovementioned should refer to the International undergraduate prospectus 2025: Applicants with a school leaving certificate not issued by Umalusi (South Africa), available at click here.
International students: Click here.
Transferring students
A transferring student is a student who, at the time of applying at the University of Pretoria (UP) is/was a registered student at another tertiary institution. A transferring student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance. Students who have been dismissed from other institutions due to poor academic performance will not be considered for admission to UP.
Closing dates: Same as above.
Returning students
A returning student is a student who, at the time of application for a degree programme is/was a registered student at UP, and wants to transfer to another degree at UP. A returning student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance.
Note:
Closing date for applications from returning students
Unless capacity allows for an extension of the closing date, applications from returning students must be submitted before the end of August via your UP Student Centre.
Prospective students from other universities, who successfully passed the first year of study, may only register at the beginning of the second year of study.
Admission is subject to the presentation of a programme, as well as the successful completion of a preliminary examination.
Audition:
During August the Department conducts an audition (practical and theory) in order to admit the most eligible candidates to study for this degree. The Department will communicate the date for the audition directly to the prospective students. The Department reserves the right to exclude a candidate based on the outcome of the audition.
Note:
Academic literacy
The academic literacy of all students who enrol at the University of Pretoria for the first time and all new students enrolling with the Faculty of Humanities for the first time will be assessed at the start of the academic year by means of their NSC marks Grade 12 English mark.
Students who have obtained a mark of 4 or lower in English Home Language are deemed at risk in terms of academic literacy and must register for ALL 110 and ALL 125.
Students who have obtained a mark of 5 or lower in English First Additional Language are deemed at risk in terms of academic literacy and must register for ALL 110 and ALL 125.
All students in the Faculty of Humanities who are not at risk in terms of their academic literacy, are compelled to obtain at least 12 credits in language modules
Department of English
ENG 110 Introduction to literature in English (I)
ENG 120 Introduction to literature in English (II)
ENG 118 English for specific purposes
Departement Afrikaans
AFR 110 Afrikaanse taalkunde en letterkunde
AFR 120 Afrikaanse taalkunde en letterkunde
AFR 114 Afrikaans vir sprekers van ander tale (I)
Department of African Languages
NDE 110 Introduction to isiNdebele grammar – Capita selecta
* Students who want to take isiNdebele in the second semester, should also register for AFT 121 (African languages literature: Capita selecta)
ZUL 110 IsiZulu for beginners
ZUL 111 Introduction to isiZulu grammar – Capita selecta
* Students who want to take isiZulu in the second semester, should also register for AFT 121 (African languages literature: Capita selecta)
SEP 110 Sepedi for beginners
SEP 111 Introduction to Sepedi Grammar – Capita selecta
* Students who want to take Sepedi in the second semester, should also register for AFT 121 (African languages literature: Capita selecta)
STW 110 Setswana for beginners
STW 111 Introduction to Setswana Grammar – Capita selecta
*Students who want to take Setswana in the second semester, should also register for AFT 121 (African languages literature: Capita selecta)
Department of Modern European Languages
DTS 104 German for beginners
DTS 113 German: Cultural-professional (1) *Prerequisite: Grade 12 German
FRN 104 French for beginners
FRN 113 French: Cultural-professional (1) *Prerequisite: Grade 12 French
SPN 101 Spanish for beginners
SPN 102 Spanish for beginners
PTG 101 Portuguese for beginners
Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures
HEB 110 Hebrew
LAT 110 Latin
GRK 110 Greek
LANGUAGE GROUPS FOR SELECTION IN PROGRAMMES
Note: Consult the yearbook for module-specific requirements/prerequisites by searching for the relevant language module.
Module group 1 – Afrikaans
Year level 1
• As a first language: AFR 110, 120
• For speakers of other languages (also for speakers of other languages who are registered for qualifications in education and law) AFR 114
Year level 2
• As a first language: AFR 214, AFR 210 ,220
• For students following a programme in education: AFR 214, AFR 220
Year level 3
• As a first language: AFR 311, 321
• For students following a programme in education: Any modules with alpha codes AFR offered at year level 3.
Module group 2 – English
Year level 1
• For special purposes: ENG 118
• For academic purposes: ENG 110, 120
Year level 2
ENG 210, 220
Year level 3
• ENG 310, 320
• ENG 311, 322
Module group 3 – French
Year level 1
• For beginners: FRN 104
• Cultural-professional (for students who have passed French in Grade 12): FRN 113, 123
Year level 2
FRN 211, 221
Year level 3
Cultural-professional: FRN 361, 362, 363, 364
Module group 4 – German
Year level 1
• For beginners: DTS 104
• Cultural-professional (for students who have passed German in Grade 12): DTS 113, 123
Year level 2
DTS 211, 221
Year level 3
Cultural-professional: DTS 361, 362, 363, 364
Module group 5 – Greek
Year level 1
GRK 110, 120
Year level 2
GRK 210, 220
Module group 6 – Hebrew
Year level 1
HEB 110, 120
Year level 2
HEB 210, 220
Module group 7 – Latin
Year level 1
LAT 110, 120 (students who passed Latin in Grade 12 may start immediately with Latin at year level 2)
Year level 2
LAT 210, 220
Year level 3
LAT 310, 320
Module group 8 – IsiNdebele
Year level 1
For speakers of isiNdebele as home language or first or second additional language
NDE 110, AFT 121
Year level 2
NDE 210, AFT 220
Year level 3
NDE 310, AFT 320
Module group 9 – IsiZulu
Year level 1
• For beginners: ZUL 110, 120
• For speakers of isiZulu as home language or first or second additional language: ZUL 111, AFT 121
Year level 2
• For students who did ZUL 110, 120 at year level 1: ZUL 210, 220
• For students who did AFT 121: ZUL 111 at year level 1: AFT 220, ZUL 211
Year level 3
ZUL 310, AFT 320
Module group 10 – Sepedi
Year level 1
• For beginners: SEP 110,120
• For speakers of Sepedi as home language or first or second additional language: SEP 111, AFT 121
Year level 2
• For students who did SEP 110, 120 at year level 1: SEP 210, 220
• For students who did AFT 121, SEP 111 at year level 1: AFT 220, SEP 211
Year level 3
SEP 310, AFT 320
Module group 11 – Setswana
Year level 1
• For beginners: STW 110, 120
• For speakers of Setswana as home language or first or second additional language: STW 111, AFT 121
Year level 2
• For students who did STW 110, 120 at year level 1: STW 210, 220
• For students who did AFT 121, STW 111 at year level 1: AFT 220, STW 211
Year level 3
STW 310, AFT 320
Module group 12 – Spanish
Year level 1
For beginners: SPN 101, 102
Year level 2
SPN 211, 221
Year level 3
SPN 311, 321
Module group 13 – Portuguese
Year level 1
• For beginners: PTG 101
• Portuguese language and culture (for students who have passed Portuguese in Gr 12): PTG 113, 123
Year level 2
PTG 211, 221
Year level 3
PTG 311, 321
Promotion to the second year of study:
Obtain 12 credits from the fundamental modules, including all ALL modules, as well as 50 credits from the core modules in the first year of study.
Promotion to the third year of study:
Obtain all first-year credits as well as 90 credits from the second year.
Any deviation from these requirements may only be done subject to the approval of the Dean, on the recommendation of the head of department.
A student must obtain a weighted average of at least 75% (not rounded) in all the theoretical modules as well as 75% in the TNP praxis module at third-year level.
Minimum credits: 100
Module content:
Find, evaluate, process, manage and present information resources for academic purposes using appropriate technology.
Module content:
Apply effective search strategies in different technological environments. Demonstrate the ethical and fair use of information resources. Integrate 21st-century communications into the management of academic information.
Module content:
This module intends to equip students to cope more confidently and competently with the reading and understanding of a variety of texts, to apply these skills in a variety of contexts and to follow the conventions of academic writing.
Module content:
This module equips students to understand and use a range of discipline-specific terminology; apply the strategies of critical and comprehensive reading to their own academic literacy; apply the conventions of academic writing to their own writing, using the process approach, to produce intelligible academic texts and use the correct referencing technique as required by the faculty.
Module content:
The languages of drama and film
This module introduces the languages of drama and film as well as approaches to drama and film analysis. In addition, historical and contemporary drama and film theories will be used to read various drama and film texts.
A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016.
Module content:
Drama and film genres: This module introduces the notion of genre as part of a wider concept of narrative building and storytelling in both drama and film. Different types of genre are introduced and discussed with regard to film and drama and furthermore linked to the idea of emerging identities in contemporary storytelling. All these parts are conceptually introduced and provide an introduction to reading, interpretation and giving meaning to various discourses in film and drama narratives.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Text analysis and performance
The self in relation to role, character, persona, embodiment and the creation of performance metaphors will be explored through analysis of prose, poetry and drama texts in order to establish a relationship between structural and aesthetic contents of the text and the construction of meaning in performance.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Bodied Spaces
This module explores the ways in which the elements of scenography engage with the body to make meaning in a theatrical performance. The course demonstrates how visual codes can be used as narrative devices and how components of the spatial field can be used to support the primacy of the body as a maker of meaning in theatrical performance.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
*Students have to pass all components of this module in order to be promoted to the next year level
Basic techniques of acting will be introduced. Aspects of self, other and space will be explored and applied by means of acting exercises, theatre games, improvisation and interpretation of applicable material. The notions of storytelling/narrative/playmaking/construction and interpretation/recreation will be explored.
The module further introduces experiential somatics for the actor and performer. Students will engage with the building blocks of body/voice integration towards the safe, interactive and heightened use of the body and voice in performance. Students will apply these building blocks in discipline-specific skills training and in performance, including acting.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Performing arts management
In this module students will be introduced to the current state of the performing arts in South Africa. Students will explore the language and technical aspects of theatre. It includes the processes involved with creation and performance of theatre productions. Focus will be placed on the ways in which the creative vision of the director is supported and manifested, to consolidate the aesthetical quality and conceptual framing of the production. The skills and responsibilities of the technical and creative theatre practitioners will be explored and put into context.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Theatre and performance studies
In this module students will explore the fundamental principles of role play and important elements are identified and described. The framing of a role play in various social, cultural and political arenas and the strategies applied forms the point of departure for this investigation. Students develop the skills to draw lines from the duality of text as well as life during the process of character development.
Minimum credits: 126
Module content:
Historical modes of Western performance
The module involves a study of the socio-political contexts of Western Classical and Renaissance theatre, redirecting the focus to the notion of violence in performance during the age of Enlightenment.
A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016.
Module content:
Realism and contemporary South African performance
Concepts of naturalism and realism will be interrogated in relation to dramatic texts and performance values in both drama and film. Ways in which dramatic realism emerges from and reflects historical perspectives since the "Age of Reason" will be offered. Against this background, the concept of "realism" will be interrogated in relation to performance texts and performance values in the emergence of interdisciplinary framework of performance studies. Ways in which dramatic realism emerges from and reflects historical perspectives will be offered and discussed, so as to draw connections between realism, and contemporary South African performance.
A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Performance: body/ voice studies
There are many points of convergence between the foundational principles of various voice and body movement pedagogies for performers. These commonalties pivot around the organic principles of kinesiology and vocology (function) that can be applied to performance (expression). This module will identify these common principles across a range of voice and body movement pedagogies and explore the ways in which they inform performance.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Digital media
This module trains students to utilise available hardware and software used in filmmaking processes. With its emphasis on camera and editing technologies, the module introduces students to studies of mise-en-scene, decoupage and haptic criticism in engaging with the visual image. Students will also be introduced to radio as medium for fiction by interrogating the dynamics and processes of radio as a medium for communicating fiction.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
*Students have to pass all components of this module in order to be promoted to the next year level
Performance techniques will be explored and located within selected modes of performance linked to the notions of enactment and embodiment by way of acting exercises, improvisation and interpretation of suitable material.
Students will further apply somatic principles to various modes of performance involving the heightened use of the body and voice in the context of discipline specific skills training. This module will facilitate the development of heightened physical and vocal dynamics in expression and communication in performance.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Directing
In this module students will interrogate the ritual mode of performance as the embodiment of self-expression versus role-play as a representational mode of performance. The purpose of the course is to explore the dialectical notion between these differentiated modes of performance and directing. The aim is also to conceptualise the dynamic position of the director in the application of a multidimensional approach to the process of directing.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
Applied theatre
The module investigates the use of theatre as methodology and participatory practise in a variety of socio-cultural and educational contexts. The module frames applied theatre as a medium of communication that stimulates action, reflection and transformation. The module culminates in practical applied theatre programmes.
Minimum credits: 160
Module content:
Reading cultural representation
Against the framework of post-colonialism, issues of signification, representation and meaning in performance will be considered in relation to selected theoretical approaches to performance and their concern with gender in theatre and film. Representation and subjectivity and how they are revealed as gendered fictions rather than "natural", inevitable realities will be explored through various drama and film texts. The student will explore how the body, as codified cultural product, can become a symbolic battleground for cultural supremacy in and through performance.
A & B: For students who enrolled for the BA Drama programme prior to 2016, as well as for students entering the BDram programme in 2016.
Module content:
Module content:
Module content:
Module content:
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
*This module offers a choice between Applied drama and Intermediate directing
Applied drama
The module investigates the use of drama as methodology in educational, community and corporate contexts. The interface between applied theatre and applied drama will be explored. The module culminates in a practical project.
or
Intermediate directing
This module investigates the notions of concept, space, style, method and aesthetic in order to harness a praxis in directing. The module aims to activate conceptualisation skills and refers to contemporary directing methodologies in its aim to develop a directorial praxis. The module further provides the opportunities to begin to develop a distinctive directing style and voice while studying contemporary directing methods and concepts. The module culminates in a short directing scene.
Module content:
*Closed – only for BDram students
*This module offers a choice between intermediate performance studies and intermediate performing arts management
Intermediate performing arts management: Managing the production and managing the artist
Being subjected to constant flux and change, the current state of the performing arts industry in South Africa (as introduced in TNT 111), will be reconsidered in this module. Aspects of production management, including organisation and administration, the writing of proposals and budgeting for productions/performances will be investigated. To enable students to secure a career in the industry, they will be introduced to the notion of managing the self/the artist as a business/product. This will include, amongst others, negotiating contracts, compilation of CVs and portfolios and preparation for interviews and auditions (interacting with TNP 310).
or
Intermediate theatre and performance studies
In this module students will explore and interrogate selected western and non-western theories, paradigms and practices of actor and performer training with particular emphasis on embodiment by the performer. The work of key contemporary practitioners will be examined in order to establish how their training systems and approaches relate to performance traditions and how they have changed our perception of the artist's body/instrument in contemporary performance.
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