Liverpool Hope University - People's theatre takes centre stage

A new masters in popular theatre will be the first of its kind at a UK university. The course will focus on the study of British and Irish theatre from the 1950s to the present day. Liverpool Hope University, which will offer the course from September, said that most postgraduate theatre studies programmes denied popular theatre the rigorous academic analysis enjoyed by more "traditional" theatre works. John Bennett, senior lecturer in drama and theatre studies at the university, said: "Thousands of people are watching and enjoying these plays every year and yet there is barely any academic study of them."