This course does not train actors, but develops a practical understanding of what it is to act, enabling graduates to work as actor trainers and coaches, drama and theatre practitioners, and directors of actors. Students are introduced to the principles and practices behind the training, education and support of actors and performers developing their practice.
Teaching methods include tutorials, group seminars and workshops. Practical sessions are designed to enhance understanding of acting processes and skills in pedagogy, together with associated study of contemporary issues of performance including theatre, film and television.
Students will build on their existing skills and focus on specific needs. Drawing on the expertise of Central’s staff and professionals from the industry, this course aims to develop highly-skilled actors with the ability to work across all performance mediums, specialising in screen.
Acting and movement classes will interrogate the body, and there is a specific focus on relaxing and working with ease, developing the imagination, unpicking personal habits and creating believable performances. Voice and dialect classes will encourage an understanding of the voice as an instrument. Students will work with a variety of texts, including classical and contemporary material.
This course is now full for 2016 entry and we are unable to consider any new applications. We will begin accepting applications for the 2017 intake from October this year.
MA Acting - Contemporary combines teaching in voice, movement and acting techniques with an exploration of some of the key playwrights who have helped forge the canon of Western theatre, including the Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, Chekhov, Beckett and Kane. Uniquely, it explores the relationship between the two artists at the core of much Western theatre: the actor and the writer.
On this course, plays are frequently developed in collaboration and students are encouraged to explore their role as creative artists. There will be a chance to work with, and alongside, established playwrights as well as students on Central’s MA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media.
This course draws on the influential theories and techniques of the great French acting teacher Michel Saint-Denis, training the expressive body, voice and imagination. Working with some of the greatest dramatic texts ever written students are asked to consider what they mean now.
Four key periods of innovation and transition in Western theatre are examined: Greek Tragedy, Chorus and the Neutral Mask. Clowning and Commedia dell’arte. Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. Stanislavski, the Method and ‘Realist’ Theatre.
Students are encouraged to understand the demands of both art and craft, as participants in, and practitioners of, these theatrical traditions.
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 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.
Central’s BA Acting (Collaborative and Devised Theatre) is in creative partnership with international touring theatre company Complicite.
An innovative and rigorous actor training, emphasising the creation of new theatre. The course embraces a multicultural and multidisciplinary methodology with diverse student groups. It celebrates the creative potential of collaborative processes alongside development of the individual actor. It is a 3 years full-time course, and students are entitled to full Equity status upon graduation.
You will graduate with the skills to work in classical and contemporary theatre, film, radio and screen, as well as being an accomplished maker of your own work. The core actor training includes the psychophysical techniques of Jacques Lecoq, Michael Chekhov, Konstantin Stanislavski, Kristin Linklater and Moshe Feldenkrais and emphasises an embodied and experiential approach.
As well as developing rehearsal techniques for script-based work, the course will encourage you to explore the most up-to-date forms of theatre and filmmaking and to have a full creative and political engagement with your work.
The BA (Hons) Acting at Central:
A comprehensive classical and contemporary actor training that prepares actors who aim to become world-leading artists in theatre, film and television. The course focuses on new thinking in response to the rapidly evolving world of the arts and culture. It is a 3 year full-time degree, and students are entitled to full Equity status upon graduation.
The course has four key principles:
Self-discovery – we encourage you to investigate and interrogate your world, challenging your own habits and preconceptions and opening yourself to the journey of the training, while learning to accept uncertainty and failure as part of the process of change and growth, and making curiosity, originality and artistic courage the cornerstones of your professional and artistic life.
Artistry – we offer you the skills you need to build your craft as an actor, so that your imagination and creativity can find expression in truthful characterisation and in the telling of complex and profound stories that offer insights into our world and the human condition.
Empowerment – within the safety of the creative space and the integrity of the acting ensemble, we promote the honest exchange of thoughts and ideas, the sharing of creative inspiration and the generosity of spirit which should always characterise a true actor.
Tradition and innovation – intrinsic to this course is a commitment to studying longstanding theories and practices while welcoming innovation and new vision.
This course integrates acting, dance, movement, singing and spoken voice within a framework of relevant theory and research, in order to train students to a professional level. Specialist lecturers and professional artists deliver classes and workshops that complement Central’s experienced teaching staff. Emphasis is placed on acquiring and practising skills through creativity, collaboration and performance within all aspects of music theatre. Imagination and creativity are valued, and are explored from many different perspectives.
Where students demonstrate skill and interest, there are opportunities to create original work and to pursue related activities, such as composing, writing, choreography and acting with instruments.
