- Advanced principal study tuition from professional musicians – instrumentalists and singers
- Wide range of solo and ensemble performance opportunities
- Tuition available in supporting areas such as Alexander Technique, doubling instrument, end-of-line instrument and period instruments
- Advanced training in chamber music
- Professional coaching and accompaniment provision
- Language, movement and drama classes (singers)
- Specialist, advanced performance classes (instrumentalists)
- International masterclass series
- Fully integrated performance programme by international artists
- Wide range of performance opportunities in world-class facilities
- Outward-looking, flexible programme, allowing students to tailor their pathway
- Option to focus extensively on Principal Study
- Options to develop expertise in key areas of professional practice through Professional Projects, linked to real-world experiences
- Cross-disciplinary opportunities to work with Drama embedded in the programme
- Access to specialist mentors to support Professional Project work and broaden network of contacts
- Inclusive practice built into the programme
- Research and reflection underpinning development of creative artistry
- Drawing on industry and innovation as cornerstones of individual career development
- Opportunity to create and curate own performance projects
- Focus on employability and transferable skills
The MGA one-year foundation course in Acting offers a pre-vocational year designed to prepare you for the demands of professional, full-time training and provides you with the skills required to audition successfully for the country’s leading Drama institutions.
It is directed at those students who intend pursuing a vocational training but who either don’t quite yet have the skills required to audition successfully, or who do not have the required academic qualifications to start a Bachelor of Arts qualification.
The course is designed to thoroughly prepare you for the process of auditioning and the rigours of taking up a three-year place at a Drama school, expanding your skill set and enabling you to realise your full potential in your future training.
MGA Foundation Students have gone on to study at, amongst others, the American Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Arts Educational Schools, Bird College, Guildford School of Acting, Laine Theatre Arts, Mountview Academy, Performers College, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama – and, of course, The MGA Academy of Performing Arts.
The Foundation schedule runs for one whole academic year over three full-time terms of training and an HNC qualification is awarded to those who successfully complete all the required modules.
The course is technique orientated, giving you a solid foundation in the key discipline of Acting that can then be built upon in future studies.
Specialist classes and training workshops include:
- Acting 1: Developing Skills
- Acting Methods and Practitioners
- Movement: Developing Skills
- Production: Developing Skills
- Singing for the Actor
- Voice Technique
- Audition and Performance for Acting
- Personal Development
MGA’s unique focus on audition technique and professional development will ensure that students are best placed to gain entry into any of the UK’s distinguished drama schools.
Though MGA has an excellent track record, given the nature and level of competition for Drama School places, we cannot guarantee that foundation students will be accepted at their chosen full-time provider and successful completion of the MGA foundation course does not automatically mean that students will progress onto MGA’s own three-year programmes.
- Practical studio and rehearsal-based training in professional working conditions
- Small class sizes
- Established teaching team made up of experienced theatre professionals
- Regular opportunities to work with visiting actors and directors
- Core acting skills workshops exploring approaches to working with texts, building a character, improvisation and performing Shakespeare
- Vocal skills classes focusing on effective physical techniques for performance as well as vocal physiology, dialect and accents
- Specialist classes in singing technique, repertoire and musical theatre performance
- Movement skills classes including Alexander Technique and stage combat
- Training in the specialist techniques and requirements of acting for screen
- Roles in public performances selected from a wide and challenging repertoire
- Practical workshops to prepare students for professional auditions for theatre and TV
- Mentoring and support in the initiation, production and performance of an original piece of work
- London Performance Week
- Showcase presentations to an invited audience of agents, casting directors and potential employers in Cardiff, London and New York (for American students)
The MGA one-year Foundation course in Musical Theatre offers a pre-vocational year designed to prepare you for the demands of professional, full-time training and provides you with the skills required to audition successfully for the country’s leading Musical Theatre institutions.
It is directed at those students who intend pursuing a vocational training but who either don’t quite yet have the skills required to audition successfully, or who do not have the required academic qualifications to start a Bachelor of Arts qualification.
The course is designed to thoroughly prepare you for the process of auditioning and the rigours of taking up a three-year place at a Drama School, expanding your skill set and enabling you to realise your full potential in your future training.
MGA Foundation students have gone on to study at, among others, the American Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Arts Educational Schools, Bird College, Guildford School of Acting, Laine Theatre Arts, Mountview Academy, Performers College, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama – and, of course, The MGA Academy of Performing Arts.
The Foundation schedule runs for one whole academic year over three full-time terms of training and an HNC qualification is awarded to those who successfully complete all the required modules.
The course is technique orientated, giving you a solid foundation in the three key disciplines of Acting, Singing and Dance that can then be built upon in future studies.
Specialist classes and training workshops include:
- Singing Skills For Musical Theatre
- Jazz Dance For Musical Theatre
- Ballet Dance For Musical Theatre
- Acting: Developing Skills
- Vocal Techniques for Musical Theatre
- Performance 1: Developing Skills
- Graded Unit: Musical Theatre
- Audition Technique and Performance for Musical Theatre
- Personal Development
- Individual Singing Lesson
- Group/Ensemble Singing
MGA’s unique focus on audition technique and professional development will ensure that students are best placed to gain entry into any of the UK’s distinguished drama schools.
Though MGA has an excellent track record, given the nature and level of competition for Drama School places, we cannot guarantee that foundation students will be accepted at their chosen full-time provider and successful completion of the MGA foundation course does not automatically mean that students will progress onto MGA’s own three-year programmes.
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 Level 6 Trinity Diploma courses in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre provide the highest standards of education, training and guidance required for a career in both professional dance and musical theatre performance.
Safe practice and wellbeing are at the heart of each programme whereby students’ capabilities and needs are fully considered.
Designed for recent graduates and suitably qualified mature students, our taught Master of Music (MMus) and Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip) Choral Conducting courses provide the technical training, collaborative opportunities and podium time necessary to help you prepare for a career as a professional conductor....
WHAT'S COVERED IN THIS COURSE?
- Regular individual specialist tuition.
- Vocal lessons.
- Opportunities to join orchestral conducting classes.
- A dedicated chamber choir, ‘Camerata’, managed and nurtured by students on the course.
- Involvement in rehearsals of the Conservatoire’s highly acclaimed Chamber Choir, which has a regular and highly successful recording programme.
- Many other choral singing opportunities within the Conservatoire.
- Bespoke support classes in musicianship and repertoire.
- A core career development module designed to get you thinking about your future professional plans.
- The flexibility to choose from a broad menu of Professional Development Option modules designed to help you work towards achieving your personal career aspirations.
- In MMus, a core module designed to develop your skills as a researcher or informed practitioner.
- The possibility of transferring from PgDip to MMus once you have begun your studies (but before completion of the PgDip course).
Dance students take a daily ballet class and MT students take ballet three times weekly, which include pointe-work and virtuosity. Tap is offered twice weekly in five streamed-ability classes across three year groups.
As part of both courses, further options are available including early morning ballet where students can choose to work towards RAD exams (up to advanced 2). We also encourage students to take extra syllabus exams in both ISTD Tap and Modern (up to advanced 2). In addition, some students choose our excellent A-level options whilst others opt for the Michael King Pilates Teacher training programme. With the addition of Latin & Ballroom in the final year, these elements alone constitute a highly challenging and exciting programme.
Throughout the Dance course, students will also undertake singing and ensemble classes where they work towards building an audition portfolio in their final year. In addition, students will opt to take one of two electives. The performance elective includes a varied schedule of acting, voice and performance work. These classes are aimed at creating confident and versatile performers. Alternatively, students can opt for the choreography elective where they will have the opportunity to develop an artistic role as a choreographer and dance critic, delving into many exciting areas of composition including site-specific work and dance for the camera.
Realise your potential as a creative practitioner and train to be a professional voice coach at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. You will gain highly specialised knowledge in a range of professional contexts and develop advanced expertise as a voice coach, teacher or performer....
Realise your potential as a creative practitioner and train to be a professional voice coach at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. You will gain highly specialised knowledge in a range of professional contexts and develop advanced expertise as a voice coach, teacher or performer.
Through reading, discussion, reflective writing and practising as a coach or teacher, you will relate theory and practice and learn the ways of thinking and working of a professional voice practitioner. Through full engagement with the opportunities the course provides, you will be prepared for work as a voice practitioner in private practice, in Further or Higher Education, in business, in theatre, performing arts and media.
A two year intensive training for a professional acting career. The minimum age is 18 and there is no upper age limit.
The course includes comprehensive career guidance and opportunities to show your work to agents and casting directors through a season of productions and an end of term showcase in London’s West End.
“The moment I walked through the doors of The Bridge I knew I’d found my new home. It helped me to find who I really am.” - Suzanne Estevez, Graduate
