BA (Hons) Acting

If you are yet to make an enquiry to study with the University of Plymouth and are interested in securing a place for September 2020, you can pre-register for Clearing to receive priority treatment on results day.

Read our Clearing advice

• Gain professional experience with a course delivered in collaboration with the prestigious Theatre Royal Plymouth.
• Enhance your employability with a vocational course providing professional training standards.
• Create your own works and perform in purpose-built and fully accessible theatre and studio spaces.
• Access industry expertise at Theatre Royal Plymouth, and network with professionals and prospective employers through training and workshops.
• Enjoy voluntary and paid placements, internships and training, 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

  • ACT441 Introduction to Acting

    This module provides an accessible introduction to the process of creating a role and playing a character. Students are asked to select a monologue by a character, from a play, that they can identify with and are given some basic techniques for building the character from their own life experiences and personal traits.

  • ACT442 Page to Stage 1

    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.

  • ACT443 Page to Stage 2

    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.

  • ACT444 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.

  • ACT445 Training for Actors 1

    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.

  • PLYCO400 20th Century Performance Practices

    Taught through a series of weekly workshops, students will acquire a number of basic vocal and movement techniques that will foster the development of key expressive skills. The course will seek to provide students with an introductory knowledge of vocal technique, which will include the study of breathing, projection, resonance, pitch control and posture. Students will develop basic techniques for usages of the voice in performance, in both singing and spoken registers. The module will also introduce students to basic movement techniques seeking to develop an awareness of concentration, observation, relaxation, sensitivity, responsiveness, focus and ‘presence’.

• 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

    This module introduces students to the skills techniques and process required to produce a theatrical text for an audience. By offering a contextual and historical grounding of chosen playwrights, students will be introduced to key theories of contemporary theatre making. Through dramaturgical research and intensive practice, students will explore the ideological, cultural and social concerns of contemporary theatre. This study will culminate in the production of a public performance.

  • 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

    Students will audition for a role in a professional level production directed by an experienced theatre-maker. Students will develop their skills in character development, textual analysis, and identification of key performance making principles, in order to explore the implications of this research through the collaborative production of a public performance. All students must be involved in the process, and all students will perform in the final production.

  • ACT603 Training for Actors 4

    This module will allow students to specialise in a number of expressive vocal and movement techniques necessary for the successful interpretation of a specific theatrical genre/style. The module will also prepare students to develop a number of skills essential to boost their employability.

  • 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

Diversity and Accessibility are really important to us and so we audition all of our candidates, UK-based and international in a way that works for you and for FREE.

You may choose to come to one of our audition days at our fully accessible studios and theatres or, if you have specific mobility requirements, if the costs of travel are prohibitive for you, if you work full time or if you live abroad, you might like to take part in one of our innovative ‘digital auditions’.

Digital auditions are individual, real-time online auditions in which you will work one-on-one with a member of our teaching staff. This option allows us to reach out to talented applicants who are not in a position to travel.

Whether you come onsite to audition or whether you audition on line you will have the same welcoming and inclusive experience.
  
All applicants will be asked to perform two, short contrasting theatre monologues.

We’re not just looking for talent, we also want to see:

• 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.