BA in Acting

The three year BA in Acting (validated by King's College London) is a vocational training course designed to provide a thorough preparation for a career in a wide variety of media, including theatre, television, film and radio.

The Programme

The programme includes the development of individual skills in the areas of voice, movement and acting, and their application in a variety of projects and productions across the three years. Work is continuously assessed and students have regular feedback sessions with teachers. The aim is to train actors with a high degree of technical facility and flexibility but also individuality and imagination. The course includes work on contemporary plays and styles and classes in camera and microphone technique, but the training is classically based because we believe this provides the best possible foundation and all-round preparation for acting in any form or media.

Acting Work

Acting work in the first year moves from Stanislavsky-based exercises to scene and project work around realist material; these run in parallel with classes on classical text and improvisation. In the second year the project material is chosen in order to stretch students both imaginatively and technically; this includes Shakespeare, Greek or Jacobean Tragedy, Contemporary Writing and Style Comedy. Acting for camera and microphone technique are primarily taught in the second year.

Voice Training

Voice training develops the range, clarity, strength and flexibility of the actor's voice and speech. Speaking and singing are closely connected, focusing on breath, rhythm, tune, and phrasing, and releasing the authentic truthful voice in heightened forms. The study of dialects and phonetics aid in flexibility and the mastery of unfamiliar speech patterns, sight reading in spontaneous interpretation of text.

Movement Training

Movement is an integral part of the training and runs thorughout the course. Teaching draws on a variety of sources, including Laban, Pisk, Grotowski and Lecoq with an emphasis and play. The students also study period dance (Medieval to 20th Century), animal, mask (neutral and character), stage fighting (armed and unarmed combat) tumbling and acrobatics. Alexander Technique is taught on a individual basis.

Professional Development

Throughout the course professional development sessions introduce guest speakers from across the industry to stimulate, provoke and broaden the students' application of the career on which they have embarked.

Public Productions

The first opportunity to perform in front of the public comes at the end of the summer term of the second year, when students rehearse a production designed for young audiences which is toured to secondary schools as well as playing at RADA. The third year is spent mainly in rehearsal and performance of productions in one of RADA’s These productions draw on the diversity of world repertoire and are directed by industry professionals, often of national or international standing. Recent directors at RADA include Bill Gaskill, Jonathan Miller and Lindsay Posner.

Mentoring

Final year students also benefit from the RADA Buddy mentoring scheme. This programme supports the transition from student to professional actor. Graduate ‘Buddies’ provide professional advice, feedback and networking opportunities throughout the final year and beyond.

Industry Showcase

The ‘Tree’ performance by final year students takes place in April each year and is named after the Academy’s founder, Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Students present scenes or speeches to an invited audience of agents, casting directors and industry professionals.