Through intensive practical and performance-based training, this course enables you to develop the skills, knowledge and experience required to sustain a career in professional theatre and its related industries. The training develops students’ physical resources – voice and movement – enabling them to respond to the wide range of demands made upon the modern actor. Rather than adhering to any single philosophy of actor training, the course seeks to bring many influences to bear on your work, encouraging you to be able to make informed choices about various approaches.

First year modules introduce professional rehearsal practice and explore fundamental approaches to acting through daily classes and rehearsals. You will receive a thorough introduction to voice and text work, movement skills and singing. You will also begin to investigate the specific practices and demands of the film and television industry. Through Reflective Practice, you will build a toolkit for survival as an actor in industry.

Through second year modules, you will explore accent and dialect work, develop your individual song repertoire, explore physical theatre and learn a series of dance sequences. Performance-based projects introduce the world and language of Shakespeare, approaches to comedy, musical theatre and radio acting. Further training in acting for screen culminates in the realisation of short films. A collaboration project will give you the opportunity to work with musicians and create a piece of theatre that engages with the community.

In the third year, you will be given the opportunity to assimilate, develop and integrate the skills acquired in the first two years, through rehearsal and performance of a series of full-length plays under professional working conditions, as part of the Richard Burton Company. Each student will undertake five consecutive performance modules, encountering a variety of roles, styles and venues. One of the performances will be part of the RWCMD's NEW season. You’ll work with a professional writer, dramaturge, and director within the process of a commissioned play. Students will interrogate and workshop the writing over the course of the year before, entering an intensive five-week rehearsal process where the piece is rehearsed and staged. NEW season performances will take place in Cardiff before touring to a London venue.

The new Self-led module introduces you to the process of devising and creating your own work. In the first and second years, you will have the opportunity to perform your work as part of an internal festival. In the final year, you can continue to develop your work and realise this into a fully stage production which will run alongside the NEW season (available to four students).

Throughout the course, you will take part in a series of practical classes and seminars designed to orientate you towards the world of professional acting and offer strategies for finding employment, with particular emphasis on audition technique.

During the third year, you will perform in Actors Showcases in Cardiff and London to an invited audience of industry professionals, including agents and casting directors. North American students also have a US Showcase in New York City.

The BA Production Technology and Management programme is a very practical course that will see you take on industry-standard roles from the very start. With a timetable that is also reflective of industry practice, you will build the stamina and resilience to withstand a challenging yet rewarding career.

Production consists of both the BA Production Technology and Management and the BA Production Arts and Design programmes. Production students will work very closely with each other in the classroom and on RCS productions.

This is the only conservatoire-based technical theatre degree in Scotland. Through the programme we aim to produce production technicians, stage managers and lighting designers who can turn their hands to any related role, making them employable in a range of contexts, whilst also being specialists in career pathways, i.e. stage management, stage technology, sound design, sound engineering, lighting technology and lighting design.

We’ll help you to create your own pathway through the programme, focusing on your areas of interest. You will learn to work creatively, as an individual artist, as part of a production team and in collaboration with other students of all disciplines.

RCS is a major public performance venue with world-class facilities. The combination of professional venues, extensive workshops, construction spaces, design studios, and the latest stage and workshop technologies provide a fantastic learning environment.

We work closely with industry to ensure our curriculum is current, competitive, and of the highest professional standard, so you will gain all of the skills and knowledge needed for your future career. We have very close relationships with key Scottish national companies, such as Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet as well as companies across Scotland, such as the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, Blue Parrot Production and Events in Edinburgh and Warehouse Sound in Glasgow.

Further afield we have well-established relationships with national and international organisations such as the Association of British Theatre Technician (ABTT), the Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians (ASP) the Production Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT), Cirque du Soleil, TAIT, Just FX and the National Theatre in London.

Our graduates will aspire to become the creative leaders and innovators of the future and will be encouraged to push accepted boundaries and create new standards of practice in the industry at large.

Become a multi-disciplinary artist with outstanding abilities in acting, singing, dance and music

The BA Musical Theatre programme is for exceptionally talented students who are dedicated to developing their skills in acting, singing, dance and music. We are looking for the next cohort of students who want to train with us alongside industry professionals, and who aspire towards a career in the competitive musical theatre industry.

Now more than ever, artists who can showcase musicianship as an integrated part of their acting, singing, and dancing are in demand both creatively and commercially.

This programme is distinctive in that it offers conservatoire-level tuition in acting, singing, dance and music. We want to work with the most talented and committed actors, so we ask that students are multi- disciplined in the performing arts.

Perform
Your education here will centre on performance and you will have numerous opportunities to perform on stage both within RCS and at external venues around Scotland. During your final year, you will participate in fully- produced musicals, including an actor-musician show, as well as perform in a final showcase. Our aim is that you will graduate from this programme as a confident, versatile artist ready to work in the profession.

Collaborate
RCS is the only conservatoire in Europe to offer programmes in dance, drama, music, production and film. We encourage collaboration between all art forms, therefore as a musical theatre student here, you could regularly work with your peers to create new and engaging work.

Opportunities for collaboration include Options modules and the annual Bridge Week festival, where students can come together from across the conservatoire to bid for project money to create new pieces of performance. You may also have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from industry professionals during your studies, benefiting from the Royal Conservatoire’s close relationships with Scotland’s national artistic companies.

Our graduates consistently gain industry representation and continue to work across the arts and entertainment sectors. Graduates can currently be seen performing in the West End, on Broadway, in national and international tours, with national companies, regional theatres, and in a variety of television and film projects.

This course is for musicians who want to enter the music industry as performers, producers, singer/songwriters or those who want to get into a business role within the industry. You will study and develop skills in performance, production, composition, musicianship and music business, and will have the opportunity to record in our state-of-the-art recording studios.

This hands-on course is both practical and theoretical, focusing on vocational projects to develop your performance, composition and production skills, as well as your understanding of the music industry and the job roles within it.

We have industry-standard rehearsal and technical facilities to help prepare you for ensemble performance and music production.
Location: Centre for Business, Arts and Technology, Camden Road

The Foundation Programme in Musical Theatre is designed for aspiring musical theatre artists who wish to develop their skills and techniques through a dedicated programme of practical and contextual study. It is an opportunity for students to access high-quality conservatoire training and may provide an entry route to further specialist/vocational training (e.g. undergraduate degree programmes within the conservatoire or wider higher education sectors, particularly within the UK) or a platform for a dedicated period of personal study.

Key Features:

- Individual singing lessons and group classes in acting, dance (ballet, tap and jazz), singing, voice and acting through song.
- Regular performance workshops and auditions preparation training, including the opportunity to have mock auditions.
- There will also be the chance to work with Music and Dance students during CoLab, our two-week festival of creativity and innovation.

After completing the programme, many students successfully move on to undergraduate study.

The BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance programme is designed to enable you to develop the skills, attributes and knowledge necessary for a career as a creative entrepreneur and artist (singer-actor-dancer) in the Musical Theatre industry.

Key Features:
- Support and guide your development in preparation for a career in the professional musical theatre industry
- Empower students to operate as creative entrepreneurs
- Foster the development of graduates able to make and perform musical theatre works that reflect, interrogate and/or enrich society
- Enable you to value, have confidence in, articulate and execute your own artistic choices
- Support your development as an independent learner able to recognise and realise your own intellectual, creative and practical potential
- Facilitate your learning from professional musical theatre practitioners
- Enable you to understand the range of creative roles within musical theatre and how these might inform future employability
- Nurture your collaborative and leadership skills.

Our Graduate Diploma Programme is ideal for instrumentalists, vocalists and composers who have gained a degree and want to deepen their skills before undertaking postgraduate study.

During the programme you will hone your skills as an artist through one‑to-one Principal Study lessons, group tuition and experience playing as a soloist and in ensembles. We will encourage you to develop skills for lifelong learning by building working relationships with other students.

This is a graduate programme aimed at students considering entry to postgraduate study at a conservatoire or university who do not currently meet the required standard. The programme enhances musicianship skills to bring students to the level needed to enter a postgraduate music degree.

We also offer an International Graduate Diploma in Music and English for international students who wish to improve their English language skills alongside their musicianship skills. You can find out more on the International Graduate Diploma: Music and English course page.

The MA in Music Education and Performance is designed for any student wishing to pursue an active career as both a professional musician and a teacher or educator. It aims to equip you with the necessary musical skills, insight and experience required by the contemporary profession in its widest sense, with a focus on the artist in educational settings, from instrumental and/or vocal teaching to workshop leading.

This programme can be taken on a full-time intensive basis for four terms (15 months, Sept 2021 – Dec 2022) or on a part-time basis over seven terms (27 months, Sept 2021 – Dec 2023). The programme is auditioned and accepts students in composition and classical or jazz performance. Teacher-artists in other genres will be more suited to the Teaching Musician Programme, which shares some modules with the MA MEP.

The Master of Music (MMus) programme is designed for students wishing to be professional musicians: performers and composers. It aims to equip students with the necessary musical skills, insight and and experience required by the contemporary profession in its widest sense but with a focus on the Western Classical and Jazz traditions.

Our named Awards: Collaborative Piano, Composition, Ensemble Artistry, Jazz, Performance and Performer-Composer each offer comprehensive specialist training pathways. (Find out more in Course Details).

Key Features

- Provides advanced musical training at postgraduate level which encourages the demonstration of individual musical talent and scholarship.
- Enables musicians of proven ability, and with the potential for further training, to advance and refine their skills and specialism/s and deepen their professional expertise.
- Acknowledges the significance of musical context, highlighting the relationship of music to wider artistic, historical, philosophical, cultural and/or social practices, issues and/or phenomena.
- Cultivates musicians who have the ability to work in a variety of complex musical groupings and to exercise leadership in professional practice.
- Creates an environment which encourages risk and nurtures creativity and innovation, reflecting cutting-edge thinking within the profession.
- Produces enterprising, entrepreneurial musicians equipped both for today’s diverse, internationalised and ever-changing music profession.
- Explores the application of artistic research within a clearly defined are of music.