Acting

Content

Performance forms the core of this acting course based in London with training in acting, character analysis, voice and movement for stage, radio, film and television. The course explores the Stanislavski, Littlewood and Laban approaches to acting and performance.

This acting course is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training.

Three principal approaches to acting are considered in depth. The most famous and detailed is the Stanislavski Method, the point of departure for many subsequent developments. The course looks at some of these developments in the Actors' Studio and at the HB Studio of Uta Hagen and Herbert Bergof. It also explores the work of Rudolf Laban, architect of the European Modern Dance, and of Yat Malmgren, whose work on character analysis is a unique feature of our undergraduate training. This represents the practical and theoretical investigation of the expressive power of movement or 'gesture'. Finally, the training reflects the influence of Bertolt Brecht and his ideas on a theatre of aerial relevance.

Assessment is entirely practical, based on performance and class work. There is no written assessment. It is based on your developing capacity to apply lessons learned in the classroom to the increasingly complex and challenging requirements of the rehearsal exercise throughout three years of training. This requires you to have a clear grasp of the theoretical basis and the philosophical principles upon which the training is based.

Structure

The BA Acting course offers a methodological approach to conservatoire training and develops an understanding of both the classical and the modern repertoire.

The core of the whole is Performance. While the course encompasses a range of disciplines - Acting, Character Analysis, Movement, Improvisation, Voice & Speech, Music & Singing, and Play Analysis - the disciplines are taught not for their own sake but as contributions to an overall process.

From the first year emphasis extends to acting in front of the camera and acting for radio, and throughout the final year a whole unit is devoted to an examination of the challenges associated with entering the profession, audition procedures, agents, casting directors, critics and criticism, accountancy, management of independent touring companies and so on.

There are public performances throughout the third year designed to equip you with an active experience of the interpretative problems attached to an extensive repertoire. A well-attended Agents' Showcase is also presented. The course operates a mentoring scheme twinning final year students with graduates who help to bridge the often difficult move from training into the profession.