This course provides an opportunity to explore applied theatre via one of two specialist pathways: Drama in the Community and Drama Education or Drama and the Criminal Justice System. Each pathway is designed to support current practice at work, or a particular field of interest in applied theatre and drama.
Students will develop their own practice and scholarship, learn key practices in applied theatre, engage with new ideas in the field, undertake project-based study examining specific professional work with a range of client groups, or specialise in working with people whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.
The course receives substantial support from The Leverhulme Trust. This unique funding of over £138,000 a year for the next three years (from 2019) is specifically to enable both MA and BA applied theatre students to undertake projects and placements in the UK and abroad.

This course provides skills and knowledge in all aspects of theatre and performance and can be used to progress into higher level study, or as a foundation for your future career. It can provide you with the opportunity to study and develop skills in various aspects of performing arts through live performances and a range of projects you will not only develop your technical skills, but your performance skills too. The course will give you the opportunity to gain experience and an understanding of what is needed to become a performer. It will also help you decide whether you wish to study in industry, and prepare you for further training.

Course structure:

Course is free for 16-18yrs; for 19-23yrs, course is free if you have not achieved a full Level 2 qualification.

For all other students fees apply:
1st year course fee £1,286; Exam Fee £134

As an active participant in the MA or MFA Advanced Theatre Practice, you will:
Participate in workshops with leading professionals;
Learn to research and extend your own practice;
Launch a company, make new work, and take this to an audience beyond Central;
Extend the roles of performer, director, writer, designer, dramaturg, puppeteer, musician, artist, or creative thinker in new and unexpected ways;
Build on the tradition of theatre-making as a communicative medium of exchange, i.e. through working with digital media.
If an MFA student, you will have excellent opportunities to work for an extended period with a number of distinguished external companies.

Our Level 1 Performing Arts Course is ideal for those who are looking for a career in this sector, to build on skills and knowledge to move on in your career path. You will work towards a BTEC Level 1 Diploma in vocational studies alongside Maths and English.

You will work on a range of units relating to Performing Arts alongside employability units, All work is portfolio based.

This course is free for 16-18yrs; for 19-23yrs, course is free if you have not achieved a full Level 1 qualification.

For all other students fees apply: course fee £994; exam fee £92

As an active participant in the MA or MFA Advanced Theatre Practice, you will:
Participate in workshops with leading professionals;
Learn to research and extend your own practice;
Launch a company, make new work, and take this to an audience beyond Central;
Extend the roles of performer, director, writer, designer, dramaturg, puppeteer, musician, artist, or creative thinker in new and unexpected ways;
Build on the tradition of theatre-making as a communicative medium of exchange, i.e. through working with digital media.

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.

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.

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