What will I learn?

The PG Dip/MA Acting course is designed for graduates who wish to undertake advanced studies to further their knowledge and widen their experience of acting in order to take up a professional acting career upon graduation.

The course seeks to create independently minded performers and practitioners who are able to apply a variety of methodologies to their creative work. Its aim is to inculcate forward thinking practitioners able to create real employment opportunities for themselves, both in finding work and creating work.

This laboratory programme provides opportunities for students to enhance their experience and understanding of acting by focusing on the repertoire of the British and European traditions. Students form an acting company and each exercise, workshop or production is designed to challenge the student actor and to progressively develop the imaginative, intellectual and creative skills required for acting.

The delivery of the course is based on the conservatoire model which requires an intensive taught delivery of a minimum of thirty to forty hours per week over a minimum of thirty weeks per year. Its focus is practice-based learning through which the student is enabled to develop the requisite intellectual, imaginative and physical skills of the professional actor.

WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS COURSE?

The MA Acting course is a full-time programme delivered intensively over one year (4 terms – September to September) that provides a fast track to entering the industry in the UK. Whilst there is a specific focus on entering the UK industry, the focus of work within the repertoire is, initially, European, and later widens to include repertoire from World theatre. Studies focus on the ensemble, the tools of Psychological Realism, and the demands of classical texts, professional preparation, and personal research.

Delivered through a series of exercise, workshop and performance opportunities the programme also includes acting for the camera and voice over work, and for MA students culminates in a showcase, a final production and a practice-based research project.

Students are supported through this highly intensive course by a robust pastoral system led by personal tutors who will support students throughout the course. Students can seek tutorials with specific tutors or their course director at any time. Each student receives an individual tutorial on their progress and development every term. This also provides an opportunity for them to speak about their experience of the course and raise any areas of concern.

Students are also given more formal opportunities to feedback on their course through the formal BCU structures. In addition to these, the Course Director holds debriefs for the group after the completion of every performance module and a termly meeting is held in which the cohort can express any areas of concern they may have about the course and its delivery.