BA (Hons) Acting

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• Teaching may be delivered solely at University of Plymouth campus or a combination of specialist spaces at the University and the rehearsal and educational spaces at Theatre Royal Plymouth.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.

  • ACT404 Introduction to Acting

  • ACT405 Training for Actors 1: Voice and Body

    This module develops basic expressive vocal and movement skills necessary for the successful interpretation of dramatic and non-dramatic performative material. Through workshop study, the student will embark on a creative exploration of the physical and mental processes embedded in core traditions of actor training.

  • ACT410 Page to Stage 1: The Physical Action

    This module encapsulates the aims of the programme in a condensed and intensive experience of theatre-making: students work together, with leadership from staff to read, rehearse design and present a number of fully realised scenes from plays. Students will experience all aspects of theatre production in a concentrated rehearsal process, with a performance at the end of each process.

  • ACT411 Page to Stage 2: Discovering the Through-line

    Page to Stage 2 builds on the work done in Page to Stage 1, teaching students techniques for building a character to help them to play more challenging roles. Techniques of dramaturgical analysis, `scoring¿ a role and marking up a text provide the basis for building complex characters, with varied and unusual life experience; where Page to Stage 1 helped students to play characters that were much like themselves Page to Stage 2 challenges students to build characters very different from them. Physical skills, for example `animal work¿, help students to find a physical lexis for presenting the dramaturgical information about characters that they have uncovered through text analysis.

  • PLYCO423 20th Century Performance Practices

    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

  • ACT505 Training for Actors 2: Embodying Text

    This module furthers the study of expressive vocal and movement skills necessary for the successful interpretation of dramatic and more broadly `performative¿ material. Through workshop study, the student will continue the exploration of the physical and mental processes embedded in core acting training techniques, exercises and traditions.

  • ACT506 Acting for Recorded Media

    This module trains students to work professionally in mediatised/recorded settings. Students learn techniques appropriate to the preparation and performance of non-theatrical formats (such as audio drama) through text-based analysis, narrative and dramatic theory and genre-specific acting techniques.

  • ACT510 Page to Stage 3: Beyond the System

    This module complements and builds on the work done in Page to Stage 1 & 2 by teaching students how to play their character alongside other characters, and actors on stage. This module introduces scene performance (and not just monologue) and teaches students methods and approaches to `reacting¿. Students will be able to apply the skills and techniques acquired through Page to Stage 1 & 2 in this module, and will learn how to apply these skills when working alongside other actors in the presentation of fully realised scenes and plays.

  • PLYCO522 Theatre Residency

    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.

  • PLYCO523 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

  • ACT600 Acting Rediscovered

    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.

  • ACT601 Making Theatre 2

  • ACT603 Training for Actors 4

  • PLYCO610 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.

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 5222

UCAS tariff

104

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.