BA (Hons) Acting

Don’t worry if you’ve missed the UCAS January deadline. 

If you want to study with us in September 2018, contact us for advice about available spaces on this course.

Get in touch with our friendly admissions team on +44 (0)1752 585858 or email us at admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.

The final deadline for UCAS applications is 30 June 2018.

• Gain professional experience with a course delivered in partnership with the prestigious Theatre Royal Plymouth. You’ll benefit from joint teaching and access to the production of new work at the Theatre Royal Plymouth.
• Develop and deepen your skills with an average of 30 contact teaching hours per week.
• Enhance your employability with a vocational course providing professional training standards.
• Create your own works and perform in purpose-built theatre and studio spaces in The House, our stunning, new performing arts facility where you’ll mix with other music, dance and theatre students.
• Access industry expertise with the Theatre Royal Plymouth's creative staff, and network with professionals and prospective employers through training and workshops. You’ll be able to apply for volunteering professional opportunities, such as the Theatre Royal Plymouth's Assistant Practitioner scheme.
• Benefit from highly practical teaching and master acting skills for both stage and recorded media.

• Year 1
• In your first year, you’ll learn the principles of acting and how to put theory into practice. You’ll also experience the process of creating performance, from page to stage.

  Core modules

  • ACT400 Self and Character

    This module is all about preparing actors to work in a profession with certain innate dangers to personal mental and physical health. The process of adopting a character, and enacting a role can mean that actors have to negotiate some very personal feelings and experiences, and giving them tools to do this is a health and sustainable way is what this module is all about.

  • ACT401 Page to Stage 1

  • ACT402 Page to Stage 2

  • ACT403 Training for Actors 1

  • ACT404 Introduction to Acting

  • THPF403 Performance Praxis 1

    This module comprises both a lecture and a workshop series that surveys the key elements of dance, theatre and performance, including the terminology and discourses that help to develop a critically engaged practice. It includes an introduction to contemporary and historical theories and debates, while offering students an introduction to appropriate modes of study, research, devising and workshop skills.

• Year 2
• In your second year, you’ll study the different styles of acting in more depth and develop your own practice by participating in the production of performances with industry experts. You’ll learn to craft and market your own performance work, and develop networks of collaborators for your future profession.

  Core modules

  • ACT501 Making Theatre 1

  • ACT502 Page to Stage 3

  • ACT503 Training for Actors 2

  • ACT504 Training for Actors 3

  • THPF502 Performance Lab 2

    This module addresses collaborative and interdisciplinary practice. It is a practical and studio-based module that emphasises the development and presentation of student-led work and collaboration across year groups.

  • THPF503 Performance Practices

    This module encourages students to find their creative voice through the exploration and application of a specific performance practice. Students will develop and practically interrogate the skills and understandings that establish specific forms of contemporary performance practice as both skilled activities and culturally significant artistic statements.

• Final Year
• In your final year, you’ll focus on refining the skills and knowledge of your craft. A strong focus on professional development and employability in the competitive theatre industry will prepare you for a lifelong career.

  Core modules

  • ACT601 Making Theatre 2

  • ACT603 Training for Actors 4

  • THPF610 Performance Research

    Students will plan and conduct a research enquiry relevant to the application, practice and study of performance (including acting, dance, theatre, live art, and cross-form practices). Through lectures, workshops and tutorial guidance, students develop appropriate ways of collecting, analysing, documenting and organising material to present and evidence their research process and findings. Projects can be articulated in one of three ways; lecture demo, practice as research or dissertation.

  Optional modules

  • THPF601 Advanced Performance Training

    The module fosters deep understanding and practical knowledge of a form/approach to performance training. Through expert-lead practice, students will experiment with techniques, strategies and approaches to training that will help them to develop and deepen their understanding of skills germane to a specific style.

  • THPF614 Cultural Embodiment

    Students will pursue research into a topic of contemporary relevance to performance theorists and/or practitioners that consolidates aesthetic, social, historical and cultural products. This approach recognises the interdependency of related disciplines and also the role of theatre and performance processes in the production of culture in its widest sense.

Every undergraduate taught course has a detailed programme specification document describing the course aims, the course structure, the teaching and learning methods, the learning outcomes and the rules of assessment.

The following programme specification represents the latest course structure and may be subject to change:

BA Hons Acting Programme Specification 2018 19 5222

Entry is strictly by audition:

For your first audition, you'll give a rehearsed performance of two contrasting theatre monologues for a panel of staff.

You need to show evidence of: 

• a serious, ongoing commitment to an acting career in the professional theatre
• trainable vocal, physical and imaginative/emotional skills
• potential that you'll benefit from the study in acting offered at Plymouth
• an ability to understand, interpret and embody a dramatic text
• an ability to participate actively in group or ensemble situations
• a readiness to take risks in creative work, and an open, receptive and enquiring mind
• enthusiasm and readiness for hard, rigorous work requiring sustained 
concentration
• a sense of language and rhythm, and the potential for identification with 
the thought process of a dramatic text
• the ability to portray and inhabit an imagined or fictional situation
• physical, vocal and imaginative/emotional skills with significant theatrical potential.