BA (Hons) Acting

• 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

  • 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.

  • THPF406PP Plymouth Plus: Performance Lab 1

    Offering Dance, Theatre and Acting students the chance to work collaboratively on a site-based project, this module will foreground the city as a rich and vibrant context for the creation of performance materials. Encouraging students to understand the wider socio-cultural positioning of their emerging practice, and encouraging them to build relationships beyond their immediate surroundings.

• 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

  • ACT612 Actor's Research

    Students will plan and conduct a research enquiry into a role from the playtext to be used in the Semester 2 module, Making Theatre 2. Students are expected to research the role that they intend to audition for during Making Theatre 2. 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. Students will present their findings through a 2,000 literature review and a 25 minute `lecture demo'. The `lecture demo' will be given in the format of a `tablework' presentation, to the other students forming the company for Making Theatre 2, as well as for their assessors.

  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.

  • THPF617 Applied Practices

    This module offers students access to community-based professionals and work-based experiences within the realm of the student's employability. Through seminars and independent practice, the student will take an initiative in directing their future endeavours regarding employability within the field.

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 5222

The modules shown for this course are those currently being studied by our students, or are proposed new modules. Please note that programme structures and individual modules are subject to amendment from time to time as part of the University’s curriculum enrichment programme and in line with changes in the University’s policies and requirements.

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.

Interview details:

• No props or scripts to be used at interview or audition.
• Audition and interview will be held in The House theatre, or at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
• Overseas students who aren’t in the country may be offered a skype interview first.

We aim to audition all applicants and all decisions are based on audition, and so we encourage all individuals to apply whatever their qualifications.

English language requirements

You will need fluent written and spoken English (equivalent to IELTS level 7.0). Given the nature of the course, you’ll be expected to read, perform and engage with complex texts and debates for which fluency in English is essential.

View detailed English language requirements.

BTEC National Diploma modules
If you hold a BTEC qualification it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC. Without this information we may be unable to process your application quickly and you could experience significant delays in the progress of your application to study with us. Please explicitly state the full list of modules within your qualification at the time of application.

If you're applying through UCAS you'll receive full details, but if you'd like to know more, please contact admissions.

For a full list of all acceptable qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.