MA/MFA Actor and Performer Training

The MA/MFA Actor/Performer Training is a practice-based programme for those seeking intensive advanced training as actors and performers alongside rigorous academic study and performance research.

The programme focuses specifically on actor/performer training, theatre creation, performative writing, informed critical reflection and practice research. The uniqueness of the programme lies in the way it seeks to integrate traditional text-based conservatoire training and practices with the physical collaborative approach that has grown out of Eastern and Central Europe over the last 60 years.

The MA/MFA includes an expedition which offers a unique context for learning and ethnographic and cultural research.

The focus of the MA and the first year of your MFA is experiential learning and practice – exposure to rigorous craft and skill-based practise, and developing complementary artistic and professional skills to support and enhance their creative performance work.

To support this widening field of knowledge and to develop an understanding for contemporary global initiatives and professional opportunities and realities, a series of seminars, workshops, lectures, keynote interventions, and discussions will be programmed throughout the year. It is envisaged that individual students will have utilised this first year of training, study and research to develop a clear understanding of their skills, abilities and faculties as Actor/Performers and the particular field of enterprise they wish to pursue through their second year of study and beyond. MA students will undertake a Final Independent project to complete their course.

The second year of your MFA focuses on deepening and widening your field of professional practice and knowledge; the gaining of professional experience and exposure, developing professional networks and contacts and culminating in the creation of either an artist’s portfolio or a piece of independent work that typically manifests your vision, artistic practice, skills, inclinations and aptitudes. This may take the form of a live performance or presentation, an electronic presentation or a combination of these mediums.

While the MA  programme and first year of the MFA have been holistically conceived, it is built on a modular framework, culminating in the first year in a research expedition which becomes the stimulus for subsequent collaborative work towards a performance. The second year of the MFA includes a professional placement, taught weekends and a Final Independent Project module which is equivalent to the Masters’ dissertation commonly found in most MFA programmes.

Please note: Course content is regularly reviewed to make it relevant and current. Course modules are, therefore, subject to change