East 15 Acting School’s BA Acting course develops your individual talent, imagination and skill so that you graduate as a creative, proactive and collaborative practitioner ready for a career in the performance arts industries.
From the start of your course you are introduced to the basic methods and theories of acting, particularly the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sanford Meisner and Rudolf Laban, working in small groups with our professionally experienced staff.
In the first and second year, through a step-by-step process you will advance your knowledge and versatility as an actor. In your final year, you will concentrate on professional development adapting your skills to work with a range of visiting directors and other industry professionals.
Our training in acting is about exploration. You will experience a wide range of rehearsal techniques - learning technical skills and applying them to many diverse acting challenges. You will leave as a knowledgeable, professional actor with a creative approach and a solid process.
Acting is a choice, not just a dream.
EU and international students are encouraged to apply for BA Acting (International) which provides a complete preparation for careers in acting tailored specifically for international students.
This course is taught at our Loughton Campus.
On our practice-based Stage and Production Management MA course, you’ll work closely with fellow GSA students to deliver stellar productions.
Through intensive seminars and workshops, you’ll be introduced to stage management and technical disciplines and begin your professional development planning. You’ll then work on a wide variety of production projects across performance spaces within the University and at external venues. There will also be opportunities to take on senior production-critical roles as deputy stage manager, stage manager or production manager on our public productions, under the guidance of our experienced and industry-connected staff.
You’ll also have the chance to complete an industry placement and your professional development planning will culminate in presenting your work at a London showcase event.
This highly practical two-year course is perfect for any training performer looking for solid foundational skills and technique to transition into higher education.
In our first graduating class alone, we saw 94% of our student cohort move on to study at higher education in accredited drama and musical theatre schools, universities and our own industry-led ICTheatre degree.
Throughout the course, you will have plenty of opportunities to follow your passion and develop your performance skills. You’ll also explore and improve on the techniques required for success in the creative industries. You’ll then direct your study focus into one of three pathways:
Musical Theatre – Triple Threat
Acting & Theatre Making
Dance Artistry & Performance
One Diploma: Three Pathways
With each pathway, you’ll receive a minimum of 18.5 contact hours, training across various disciplines specific to your route of study. You’ll also have a range of optional modules to choose from. These allow you to home in on the career-specific skills and techniques that interest you most.
As a performing arts student, you’ll have the chance to expand your creative and networking skills with an array of unrivalled opportunities. These include classes with visiting industry professionals, exclusive Masterclasses and panels, theatre trips and the chance to get involved in our full-scale productions (such as plays, cabarets and concerts). We also help our students gain work experience both on and off the stage and set with esteemed local film and theatre companies.
So, what are you waiting for? To start your future as a successful performing arts practitioner, join the movement!. Join ICTheatre.
As a musical theatre performer you must be passionate, creative, and able to form a deep connection with your story, character and audience.
Guildford School of Acting (GSA) is one of the UK’s leading accredited drama schools, providing dedicated conservatoire training within a purpose-built environment.
Successful entry on to GSA’s MA Musical Theatre means you will be part of a carefully selected and committed ensemble of performers-in-training, equipped with the self-discipline and motivation to master new skills and refine existing capabilities. Building on our international reputation in musical theatre, this course will enhance your skills with opportunities to launch your career.
BA (Hons) Performing Arts consists of three pathways: Musical Theatre, Acting and Hip-Hop Artistry; each providing in-depth training shaped by current industry trends.
Technique, work ethic, confidence, self-awareness and imagination are key tools for any performer looking to build a sustainable and fulfilling career in the arts.
During the first two years of your training, you will develop and embed technique, explore new ideas and ways of working, discover yourself as a creative artist, and learn how to promote yourself and your work in a competitive market.
In the third year the training becomes industry focused with professional preparation, public shows, a filmed show reel, self-taping tuition as well as an independent project of your choosing.
Uniquely during your final year, you also select from a range of options, all created to meet the demands of the industry. This allows you to drill down into a specific area of performance and enhance your skill set further.
Our pathways encourage independence, entrepreneurialism and innovation because these qualities will be required of any performer entering the contemporary performing arts industry. We don’t want you just to get work, we want you to make work.
All learning is underpinned by personal development classes, enabling you to find strategies in time management, organisational skills and control of performance related anxiety. These are life skills that you can apply far beyond your three years with us, and within a variety of contexts.
This course encourages independence, entrepreneurialism and innovation because these qualities will be required of any performer entering the contemporary performing arts industry. We don’t want you just to get work, we want you to make work.
All learning is underpinned by regular mental and physical resilience classes; another key element of your training.
You will need to be resilient on entering this notoriously hard profession. You should also be equipped with life skills, which you can apply within a variety of contexts far beyond your three years of training.
On our BA Theatre Production course, you‘ll work on a variety of productions including plays, musicals, devised projects and events.
Beginning with a comprehensive introduction to all core subjects relating to professional theatre production, you’ll build experience in a range of skills including sound, lighting, stage management and construction and Scenic Arts. You will also get an overview introduction to video and theatre design. We are proud to have strong industry links, and teaching current industry standards linked and integrated with key organisations is at the heart of our vocational training.
As you progress through the course, you’ll be able to select one dedicated area for specialist development, eventually taking senior Head of Department production-critical responsibility across a range of public performances. Industry placement and professional development modules are also a core part of this course and you’ll have the opportunity to present your work at a final year showcase.
Our BA Musical Theatre course will develop your professional and collaborative sensibilities through a rigorous programme of training. You’ll gain individual technical, critical and evaluative skills, with practical classes in a range of core disciplines.
On this course, your skills are continually developed through integration exercises, scene work, project rehearsals and productions of classic and contemporary musicals. Classes in dance and singing are highly-prioritised alongside acting classes and projects, which will enable you to become multi-skilled and highly versatile, ensuring your appeal to the industry and a flying start to your career.
Be trained, employable* and industry ready in two years (*84% graduate employment, figures correct as of September 2019).
Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting Accelerated Degree offers some of the most comprehensive and contemporary training for artists entering the industry today. With three years worth of training in two, our intensive approach incorporates all the relevant disciplines vital for a successful career in this ever-changing and rapidly-diversifying industry.
The training includes five public performance seasons, one being an industry showcase, as well as a professionally produced acting showreel and voice reel.
With an alumni employment rate of 84% within 12 months of graduation, Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting Accelerated Degree is suitable for those looking to forge a career as a professional actor and theatre maker. Fourth Monkey’s Accelerated Degree offers innovative and cutting edge actor training with opportunities unparalleled in contemporary actor training.
This course provides students with the unique experience of training in an ensemble environment. You will learn by working in repertory alongside established industry professionals, whilst also creating and producing your own work and becoming industry ready in two years. This is an extremely cost effective and efficient way to train as the student receives the same amount of contact training hours as on a three-year degree programme, more momentum in development due to the intensive nature and structure of the course, and the skills necessary for a career of longevity and variety due to the content of the programme and Fourth Monkey’s ethos of ensemble.
There are also opportunities to gain a bursary for the winner of Fourth Monkey’s Experimental Fringe Project, professional and paid employment with our professional ensemble company, the Fourth Monkey Ensemble, and continued professional career development, maintenance and guidance through masterclasses and workshops on Fourth Monkey’s Actor’s Co-Lab programme post-graduation.
FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY AND FOURTH MONKEY ACTOR TRAINING COMPANY PARTNERSHIP
Fourth Monkey’s BA (Hons) Acting accelerated degree is awarded by Falmouth University, which has been ranked gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, the new classification of degree teaching standards. Gold is reserved for institutions where teaching, retention and graduate outcomes are consistently outstanding and are of the highest quality found in the UK.
Falmouth University has a history of over 100 years at the leading edge of creativity and is now at the forefront of driving innovation and entrepreneurialism across the creative economy with its mission of ‘‘doing it for real’’.
Below is an outline of the key features of the programme:
• 40+ hours per week contact training time
• Training with internationally renowned practitioners, working professionals and internationally renowned and award-winning theatre companies
• British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (BASSC) certifications
• Theatre making training and opportunities
• Professionally produced actor’s showreel
• Professionally produced actor’s voice reel
• Five public performance seasons including an industry showcase
• Fourth Monkey Experimental Fringe Bursary
• Opportunity to gain paid employment with Fourth Monkey’s professional ensemble company, Fourth Monkey Ensemble
"The Fourth Monkey training is my personal steel core, I’ll always have it and I can depend on it. This place is me and I am this place. I’m so proud to be a graduate of this school.” - Amy Rushnet, Two Year Alumni 2019
This is a unique and renowned course designed specifically for those who are already practising as or who wish to establish themselves as professional theatre directors.
MA/MFA Theatre Directing is open to emerging theatre directors from the UK and to students from around the world. Teaching is by a wide range of leading directors and professional practitioners from the UK and overseas. The programme benefits from its close ties with the London theatre world, which provides training expertise of the highest calibre and the professional networks that are vital to launching a career.
East 15 also runs some modules overseas, most recently in Moscow and Bali, involving specialist practical study in an alternative cultural environment.
The MA runs for one year on a full-time basis and the MFA for 24 months. For the MA, you take four modules during three consecutive terms, followed by a three-month period of independent study, at the end of which you present your Director’s Production Workbook (or, alternatively, your MA Dissertation).
For the MFA, running over 24 months, you take eight modules during six consecutive terms, followed by independent study that results in a fully resourced practical project at one of East 15’s spaces or in a London theatre (or, alternatively, an MFA Dissertation).
Each year you have the opportunity to choose four modules out of the seven or eight different options that we offer every year. The menu of modules rotates on a regular basis but always covers a range of directorial practice that is unrivalled in its diversity and will include several of the following:Shakespeare, Contemporary British Drama, Comedy, Musical Theatre and Opera, Physical Theatre, Brecht, Techniques of Adaptation, Improvisation and Devising Techniques, Contemporary Irish Drama, Rehearsal Processes and Workshops, Collaboration with Designers, Attachment (Assistant Director), The Artistic Director, Commedia dell’Arte and Directing for Camera.
Overseas modules in Bali and Thailand include: World Theatre and Theatre of the East. In Moscow, at the GITIS Institute, modules include: Stanislavskian Acting Methodology, Meyerhold and Biomechanics, Michael Chekhov.
MA/MFA Theatre Directing is open to applicants with a background in theatre directing or related fields and is specifically tailored to those seeking professional development in this area. Study is full time but some module choices enable periods of time away to pursue professional theatre work.
East 15 Acting School’s MA Acting is a challenging course that encourages the development of a personal methodology based upon East 15’s unique practices.
On one level, it is a thoroughly practical, highly intensive, vocational course. On another level, it is a thought-provoking, life-changing reflection on the function and art of the actor – exploring techniques from some of Europe’s most influential practitioners as well as innovative professional practice from the UK and internationally.
MA Acting is a specialist course of one academic year with additional work on marketing students to the industry with a showcase. You will need discipline and motivation to work at an advanced level. Beyond these, the requirements are abundant energy, insatiable curiosity and a robust sense of humour.
Some students may already possess a university degree (not necessarily in a related discipline) whilst others will have established themselves in other career paths and now seek to change the direction of their lives towards that of a professional actor.
This course also attracts professional actors who feel the need to reflect on their practice, extend their range and skills, refresh their creativity, increase their professional contacts and gain academic recognition.
This course is taught at our picturesque Loughton Campus.
