ArtsEd offers inclusive, detailed contemporary, BA actor training for Stage, Film, Television and Audio. Preparing you to become world-leading artists, theatre-makers and performers in all genres, by focusing on the ever-evolving developments in the creative industries.

Our tutors are inspiring, passionate industry professionals who are committed to work with you to craft the core skills you will need as an actor.

Dynamic, diverse and rigorous, this vocational three-year BA (Hons) degree in Acting course will develop your technical skills through practical classes, workshops and performances, motivating and challenging you to become an inventive and imaginative actor. By exploring imagination, improvisation, storytelling, play, text analysis, character realisation, vocal technique and movement skills you will discover how to develop a truthful, responsive and resilient individual acting process.

Our training creates graduates who are ready for a career in the industry. This can be seen on our Screenwork page, which features recent examples of original films and showreels, which students produce in their third year.

This programme is validated by City, University of London and you will receive a City, University of London award on successful completion.

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 two-year course is equivalent to 3 A Levels and is designed to help you extend your understanding of the performing arts, develop your performing skills and learn new ones in our purpose-built performance spaces. It combines practical assignments and the study of variety of performance arts disciplines. You will work on production projects and be involved from backstage to front-of-house.

This is a practical course in the performing arts for 16-18 year olds. You will devise and perform in plays and learn dance, singing and mask making. You will get involved in productions and see professional musicals and stage shows. You may also take part in workshops with performing arts professionals.

You will choose some specialist units in either dance or acting and complete a final major project. The course is equivalent to 4 GCSEs at grades A*-C and provides a good basis to go on to further qualifications and progress to a career in the performing arts.

Studying on the Design for Performance pathway of the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice course, you will:

- Be prepared to work creatively and professionally as a set and costume designer
- Receive intensive design training with industry-wide interaction
- Develop skills through speculative and realised performances at Central
- Collaborate with performers, directors, other designers and production team.

The course develops practitioners with a strong sense of direction and identity, and an ability to think conceptually. From the first year you undertake speculative design projects that will challenge and test ideas in a broad range of performance contexts, from text-based drama to opera, dance, site-specific performance and installations, under the guidance of professional directors, designers and choreographers.

The work of the costume constructor is to interpret the given costume designs, whether period or modern, abstract or representational. Students on this course will learn to be sensitive to the stylistic intentions of the designer and director, and how to research and understand the time, place and narrative of the production through analysis of the scripts or creative concepts.

Alongside training in high level and diverse making skills, students will also learn and develop skills in time management, resource management, budgeting and scheduling, working closely with students of all other theatre disciplines to realise productions.

On the Costume Construction pathway of BA (Hons) Theatre Practice, you will:

- Develop skills in costume interpretation and creative
- Learn pattern drafting, women’s and men’s costume making, hat making and accessories
- Undertake costume supervision and placements with professional companies and designers
- Work closely with students of all other theatre disciplines to contribute to the overall understanding of performance and theatre production.

Technically skilled and creatively inventive ‘makers’ are an essential part of any production team, sensitive to the stylistic intentions of the designer and director. The training will principally be in theatre, but these skills are widely transferable to different environments, including television, film and major live events.

Experimental Arts and Performance is a course for exploring and creating new forms of performance and spaces for culture.

As a student on the Experimental Arts and Performance course, you will:

- Develop your creative work by exploring a wide range of experimental performance from across art forms and cultures
- Develop performance-making and critical skills to investigate, theorise and develop new theatre and performance
- Use performance to critically reflect on the world
- Develop knowledge and skills to change how culture is made, and who gets access to culture
- Develop producing and cultural leadership skills that foster social change and sustainability
- Undertake projects with national and international arts organisations and leading artists
- Explore the futures of performance in a range of cultures and communities
- Become part of an international community of artists, cultural leaders, facilitators and activists, through workshops with guest artists, talks, professional collaborations and our growing alumnae community

Experimental Arts and Performance is for everyone who wants to shape the future of performance.

This course is for creative people interested in making, developing and supporting innovative contemporary performance. The course brings together aspiring artists, producers, thinkers, activists and cultural leaders committed to exploring the futures, forms and politics of experimental performance.

On the Writing for Performance course, you can:

- Develop skills for writing for performance practices
- Create new performance work and explore innovative forms of writing for solo performance, verbatim theatre and devised theatre
- Work with award-winning playwrights, arts practitioners and directors
- Position yourself as a writer within the performance process
- Explore a broad curriculum that is centred around socially engaged performance practices and the dramaturgical skills of writing
- Develop your writing skills in different community contexts in the UK and abroad
- Study alongside students on the BA DATE and BA Performance Arts programmes, offering a vibrant meshing of writing and live performance art at undergraduate level at Central.

You will work with a variety of high profile writers, arts practitioners and directors, encountering a diverse range of innovative performance practices that use writing for performance in different ways.

On the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) course, you can:

Perform in, direct and devise theatre, explore performance that takes place outside traditional theatre environments. Make theatre to change lives and inspire change in communities . Build industry contacts worldwide through placements and outreach projects. Develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.

Applied Theatre at Central is highly regarded internationally and the Drama, Applied Theatre and Education (DATE) is a world leading course that will train you as a highly adaptable theatre maker. You will focus on performance making in diverse settings such as community centres, parks, prisons, pupil referral units, refugee camps, hospitals, playgrounds, schools and nursing homes, in the UK and abroad. Such innovative work aims to bring about change in communities and participants from all walks of life.

We believe that excellent professional applied drama theatre makers are skilled practically, intellectually and come from a diverse set of backgrounds themselves. We work with you to help you meet the challenge of developing your practice and intellectual abilities. You will have the opportunity to develop skills in areas such as facilitating, devising, directing, performing, playwriting and filmmaking.

Central's BA (Hons) Acting (Musical Theatre) degree course provides you with the skills to work in classical and contemporary theatre, musicals, feature film, television and radio. Throughout the course, you will explore acting through a range of contemporary approaches to sung and spoken voice, movement and dance. This will include an intensive musical theatre training with the emphasis on acting.
Extensive engagement with industry professionals and external performance opportunities/collaboration with artists, theatre companies and producers. This is a 3 years full-time course, and students are entitled to full Equity status upon graduation.
As an actor, you will interrogate both musical and non-musical settings ranging from Shakespeare and the modern American realists to Sondheim and the popular musical. As the course progresses you will acquire the necessary skills for the realisation of ‘character’ in both the transformational and heightened theatrical styles of both spoken and sung performance.

The course has outstanding links with the performing arts industry and this is reflected in the wide range and high percentage of graduate employment.