What is the course about?
You will spend most of your time on this course preparing for and working towards a performance in front of a live audience. This means working creatively with text and developing skills in voice, movement, acting and stagecraft.
You will learn to work cooperatively in teams, to respond to direction and, in so doing, also develop self-awareness and a professional attitude.
This drama masters reflects the contemporary professional world which calls for flexible, innovative practitioners who are willing and able to work across the full range of theatre and media. These roles might range from mainstream professional organisations to applied and community contexts.
Whether you are an experienced artist wishing to have the time and space to develop your practice, or starting out in your career as a theatre maker, drama practitioner, story-teller or educator, the MA Drama course will help you fulfil your potential.
The course has a high level of practical exploration, under-pinned by critical reflection, with excellent support and supervision. The over-riding ethos is on reflective practice: making work, writing about it, watching work, and exploring different approaches thoughtfully.
Though the emphasis is on theatre, there are opportunities to work through other media for those students with appropriate experience and aspirations.
This Theatre and Drama degree invites you to explore theatre-making. You’ll integrate practise and theory, work with play texts and devise and link personal creativity with ensemble-based artistic collaboration. You’ll investigate approaches, conventions and theories connected to theatre and drama through studio practice and academic research.
Our range of modules enables you to study acting, directing, theatre and performance histories and theories, voice and movement, devising, ensemble practice, theatre production, applied drama, practice as research, and more. The flexible nature of our drama degree means you can focus on your interests and career goals.
Studying drama in Cardiff, you’ll benefit from being in the centre of a booming arts industry, from television production to independent arts venues. So, you’ll be surrounded by countless opportunities during and after your drama course.
Our Performance and Media degree invites you to explore the growing and diverse field of performance by questioning the relationship between live performance and a range of recorded media. You’ll study all major media forms such as theatre, film, television and radio through academic and practical work. You’ll also examine the production of new ideas in digital, interactive and multi-media performance practices.
Course content is designed to develop your intellectual, practical and technical skills, so you can explore global traditions, concepts and approaches to performance and media. You’ll work alongside visiting companies, professional theatre, film, and television practitioners. There are also many extracurricular activities that will look impressive on your CV, including public productions, student films and a student radio station.
Studying Performance and Media in Cardiff means you’ll have world-class venues and production companies on your doorstep, including the headquarters of BBC Wales, a major centre for production in the UK (Dr Who, Torchwood), the recently developed Pinewood Studios Wales, National Theatre Wales and the Welsh National Opera amongst others. USW's Performance and Media degree is also part of Film & TV School Wales, which provides students with the skills and opportunities needed to work in today’s exciting TV and Film industry.
The foundation course is aimed primarily at school leavers who are interested in preparing themselves for three-year actor training at conservatoire level, either at The Lir or a similar academy.
With an additional focus on broadening students’ reading and understanding of plays and theatre history, it also prepares students for broader drama degrees and related areas of study and work. The course is taught by a committed team of teachers, including many of The Lir’s core acting tutors and teachers from our Master of Fine Art programmes.The personal development of the foundation course students is enhanced by regular individual tutorials with The Foundation Course Director, a dedicated member of staff who supervises all aspects of the programme.
The course also encourages students to develop their own individual creativity with a focus on collaboration, improvisation and lateral thinking.
This course is an NFQ Level 7 Diploma (60 credits)
The Foundation Diploma in Acting and Theatre at The Lir Academy is not part of the CAO point’s race. Students are expected to have achieved the minimum matriculation requirements for Trinity College Dublin courses, however, exceptions may be made based on the demonstration of exceptional natural talent at auditions.
At The Lir Academy we believe that students learn best by doing. This three-year, full-time, intensive honours degree in acting will provide each student with all the training necessary to become a professional actor through a series of skills based courses. Acting technique, voice, movement, and singing form the core subjects taught and practiced whilst classes in Dramaturgy and Text Analysis complement this learning.
In order to emulate best practice the course is taught over nine semesters (three per annum) and over three years. Given the practical nature of the course, and the principal objective of training the actor’s body as an instrument as well as the creative imagination, the intensity of the training for actors means that a student can expect to be in class for approximately 35 hours per week and 36 weeks per annum. Additional commitment during production modules will also be required.
The Bachelor in Acting at The Lir is not part of the CAO/UCAS point’s race. Students are expected to have achieved the minimum matriculation requirements for Trinity College Dublin courses, however, exceptions may be made based on the demonstration of exceptional natural talent at auditions.
