Course Specification

BA (Hons) Acting
with specialist pathways in:
Stage and Screen
Musical Stage
Collaborative and Devised Theatre

Course

BA (Hons) Acting
Acting for Stage and screen
Acting for Musical Stage
Acting for Collaborative and Devised Theatre

Teaching Institution

Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

Awarding body

University of London

Programme accredited

by National Council for Drama Training

Final Award

Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

Exceptionally:
Certificate of Higher Education (for students leaving after 1
year)
Diploma of Higher Education (for students leaving after 2 years)
Bachelor of Arts (for students leaving with only 60 Level 3
Credits)

Course Overview
The BA (Hons) Acting course takes as its focus the practical and intellectual
construction of the contemporary professional actor whose employment will be
predominantly located within a context of fast changing culturally diverse
performance opportunities. Why? Because in todays multimedia and multi faceted
landscape it is no longer useful to categorize acting in a single generic or restrictive
way - it is not how the industry works and it is not how we want to train you.

Introduction to the course

One course with three Specialist Strands
You will specialise in one of three areas: Acting for Stage and Screen, Acting for
Musical Stage or Acting for Collaborative and Devised Theatre. This is a single BA
(Hons) Acting degree, in which students work together. However, the proliferation of
artists and companies that create performance (live and mediatized) by a range of
performance styles and influences, as opposed to performance created solely by the
traditional rehearsal of a printed play, means that to be a contemporary actor you
must possess skills above and beyond the traditional core fundamentals of acting,
voice, and movement. The three specialist strands evolved out of this belief.
Acting for Stage and Screen (AFSS)
The strand is designed to offer a comprehensive training in the skills you will require
to work as an actor across the industry. Beginning with the self, you learn openness
and truthfulness in your work by finding a released body, a supported voice and a
connection to meaning, image and impulse in text. Courage, energy and tenacity are
needed to get the most out of the first year and to shed some of your tensions,
defence mechanisms and physical habits. As the course progresses you will acquire
skills of transformation and heightened theatrical style. The demands of non-realist
language and of the tragic form require you to hone your intellectual and
performance skills as well as a growing belief in yourself as an artist and a
professional.

Acting for Musical Stage (AMS)

The strand is designed to develop actors with existing singing and music theatre
skills, and will explore acting through a range of contemporary approaches to sung
voice, movement and dance. As an actor you will interrogate both musical and nonmusical settings ranging from Shakespeare, and the modern American realists to
Sondheim and the popular musical in the specialised setting of the BA (Hons) Acting
course. 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.
Acting for Collaborative and Devised Theatre (ACDT)
The strand is designed to develop your experience and understanding of the wider
contexts of theatre making, and expand your appreciation of acting and performance
through a range of contemporary approaches, including voice and movement-based
work, devising, dance theatre and multimedia processes. Work will be tested in a
range of performance contexts (for example, proscenium arch, site-specific, studiobased). This innovative strand offers practical training for actor creators through the
production of new theatre, ensemble and company based methods alongside
individual development, and will endeavour to address the emerging nature of theatre
today through physical, sonic, visual and narrative exploration.
Who is the course for?
The course is for post-18 students (including mature students) who wish to study
acting in a vocational setting at a professional level. We will encourage students to
become effective and inspiring advocates, collaborators, and leaders in their own
professional and personal communities. The BA (Hons) Acting course takes as its
focus the intellectual and practical construction of the contemporary professional
actor whose employment will be predominantly located within a context of fast
changing culturally diverse performance opportunities. The actor must be resilient
and resourceful, able to draw effectively on a wide range of processes, and must
frame these qualities with self-determined research strategies and career targets.
The actor so described will not express his/her learning in terms of cultural passivity,
but as one that interrogates and explores received precepts.

What are the distinctive features of the BA Acting course at Central?

Study in London
Part of the UKs largest and most wide-ranging specialist drama institution
The only undergraduate acting course within a Centre for Excellence in
Theatre Training
Collaboration with BA Theatre Practice in specialist professional performance
contexts
BBC Carleton Hobbs audition - Level 3
Public Productions & Showcases - Level 3
Professionally Accredited by the Performance Industry
Equity status upon successful completion of Level 3
Industry links
NCDT Accreditation
The purpose of the National Council for Drama Training (NCDT) is to promote,
enhance and maintain the highest possible standards of vocational training and
education for the professional actor/performer and stage manager. The BA

(Honours) Acting course recognises the importance of professional accreditation and

locates its training within the NCDT Competencies which are skill areas that the
industry has identified as being absolutely essential to the profession and the training
of those wishing to enter it.
AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
Course Aims
The single overarching aim is to develop the intellectual and practical artistry, craft,
and attitude of highly trained professional actors whose employment will be
predominantly located within a context of fast changing culturally diverse
performance opportunities.
The course will provide a safe environment in which experimentation, innovation and
creativity are a highly valued part of the learning process. The aims of the degree are
designed to provide you with an integrated academic and vocational training
environment conceived and structured in such a way as to enable you to gain the
knowledge, understanding and skills to pursue and sustain worthwhile acting careers
in the performance industry.
This high quality intensive educational experience will give you opportunities to:
develop a diversity of acting approaches,
develop, reinforce and test your personal process in relation to these technical
and professional skills,
develop your critical thinking skills to articulate the theoretical in the practical and
vice versa,
develop a professional work ethic
develop independent self-reflection (enabling you to understand, articulate and
critically appraise your skills)
develop as a life-long learner, able to identify both professional and personal
goals through Personal Development Planning
Course Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes describe what you should know and be able to do if you make
full use of the opportunities for learning that the course provides. If you successfully
complete the course:
A: You will obtain knowledge and understanding of:
A1

A3

Aesthetic, technical, and creative frameworks of a diverse range of

performance territories.
Current critical and cultural discourses relevant to the practice of different
performance processes.
Personal responsibility and professional codes of conduct.

B:

You will develop the thinking skills that will enable you to:

B1

Analyse and reflect upon critical evaluations (critiques) of your process and

A2

B2
B3

performance work
Engage in independent research, both to inform personal performance
practices and to explore practice in diverse professional environments.
Analyse literary, dramatic and performance texts using a range of
appropriate techniques.

C:

You will develop the practical skills that will enable you to:

C1

Demonstrate acquisition of NCDT Acting, Movement and Voice

Competencies appropriate to your level of study.
Work thoughtfully, sensitively and responsibly within a range of different
productions, and in collaboration with staff and other student groups (e.g.
Theatre Practice students) to demonstrate an understanding of relevant
theatrical interrelationships within this work.
demonstrate independence and self-reliance within the creative process,
applying skills autonomously and sustaining a professional working ethos.
Demonstrate acquisition of the NCDT Recorded Media Competencies

C2

C3
C4
D:
D1
D2
D3

You will also develop the broader life skills (transferable skills) that
will enable you to:
Demonstrate acquisition of the NCDT Professional Competencies.
Use a range of ICT skills in the selection, communication and
management of information.
Practise generic graduate skills such as communication, decision-making,
independent thinking, initiative, problem-solving.

These Learning Outcomes reflect those that will be achieved for the BA (Hons)
award. Exceptionally, a student who exits after one year or two years, will be
awarded a Cert HE or Dip HE depending on his or her achievement. In each case,
students will have achieved many of the learning outcomes listed above, but not all.
The NCDT competencies are listed in the Course Handbook for the degree for each
level of study.
What are the learning, teaching and assessment methods?
The course features a number of learning and teaching styles. Some sessions are
led by the course leader and team, guest teachers, or visiting professionals. A great
deal of emphasis is placed on your own interaction with the challenges and
opportunities which the course provides and you are expected to develop an
independent and self-directed approach to your studies, which will serve you in your
continuing professional development as a lifelong learner. The teaching and learning
methods used to enable these outcomes to be achieved and demonstrated are:
Practical sessions (voice based, movement based, acting based, specialist skills
based, and masterclasses)
Staff-led lectures including staff/student discussions
Showings of ongoing text, pre-text and stimulus exploration work
Student research (across all the fields of the degree)
Rehearsals (staff-led and student-led)
Supervised production support work (e.g. craft workshop-based; wardrobe-based)

 Productions (Live performance and/or Media based; directed and self-directed)

Tutorials (progress and academic)
Portfolios of collected notes and research
Small group devised projects; staff facilitated and/or assessed
Student presentations
You will be assessed through the following methods:
Reflective portfolios; assessments of practice (e.g. production work; workshop
practice); formal and informal student presentations and performance
demonstrations; contribution to practical sessions.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE, LEVELS, MODULES, CREDITS AND AWARDS
The BA (Hons) Programme is a 3-year full-time degree. Study is arranged in 3 X 10
week terms comprised of separate units (usually). The degree offers 120 credits at
Levels 1,2 & 3 of the credit framework. It is the purpose of course design that units
provide you with opportunities for ongoing development. The course leads to
opportunities for individual study specialism in the later terms. Units vary in form and
structure and include practical sessions, lectures, seminars, workshops, large and
small-scale production activity, and small group projects,
Overview of the three years of the course
Year 1 / Level 1 will provide you with the enabling conditions for you to reach a state
of intellectual, physical and emotional readiness vital for the development of an
effective actors working process. Learning and teaching strategies will focus on your
own identification and awareness of acquired physical, vocal and psychological
habits. The year will also introduce and advance NCDT Competencies thus providing
the means for you to acquire a personal / professional vocabulary combining
theoretical, analytical and technical aspects of the acting process. As honours
students you will be introduced to the notion of the reflective practitioner and are
required to keep a Working Journal throughout the course. This level establishes a
common understanding of Acting, taking a broad view of the many processes
involved. It could be identified as being similar to a foundation year.
Year 2 Overview
In this level you will focus on developing a solid foundation to your personal acting
process through an application and interrogation of the concepts introduced in Level
One, and your developing emotional investment in performance. Learning and
teaching strategies will make considerable new demands upon you, and your
anticipated mastery at Year One of a wide range of basic acting skills and
knowledges will serve as the essential foundation to these new challenges. Having
technically identified your own acquired physical, vocal and psychological habits, you
will now be required to advance intellectual, emotional and performance
competencies. You will be required to continue to develop your notion and
experience of the reflective practitioner, in addition keeping a Working Journal. At
Level Two, you will be required to develop your own understanding of the links
between the personal and the professional in acting, to recognise individual strengths
as well as the limitations these might impose, and to explore the means to begin to
experiment beyond these established parameters.
Year 3 Overview
This level is conceived and structured in such a way as to enable you to reinforce,
test and constructively critique the process of acting, and to broaden your range of
technical and professional skills. The key focus throughout is the provision of a range

of public performances, with appropriate casting choices made throughout such that
you experience a range of challenges, but at different stages throughout the year. In
your third year you will be required to take a substantial and individual professional /
academic responsibility for your own development and demonstrate a greater
capacity for high quality sustained independent work at this level. This is your
professional year where you will demonstrate your understanding of industry
standard performance. The year aims to replicate current professional practice, the
artistic director placing total emphasis on the professional actors craft. The year will
challenge your creative process with theatrically complex and demanding plays,
music theatre and new performance projects selected from non-realistic and realistic
modes of performance. You will be required to apply research techniques developed
in year 2 and incorporate your own established personal independent routine of daily
practice in your acquisition, investigation and interrogation of advanced vocal and
physical skills.

The structure of each years work and how it is assessed

Level One (First Year)

Unit

Credit

UNIT 1
Performance Laboratory I
UNIT 2
Dramatic Technique I
UNIT 3
Dramatic Expression I
UNIT 4
Acting Fundamentals
UNIT 5
Art and Craft of Acting OR
Acting for the Musical Stage I OR
Acting for Collaborative and Devised
Theatre
UNIT 6
Theatrical Interpretation I

10

Assessment/
Weighting
Pass/fail

20

Pass/fail

20

Pass/fail

20

Pass/fail

20

Pass/fail

30

Pass/fail

Unit

Credit Rating

UNIT 7
Performance Laboratory 2
UNIT 8
Dramatic Technique 2
UNIT 9
Dramatic Expression 2
UNIT 10
Acting Methodologies
UNIT 11
Acting in Different Modes OR
Acting for the Musical Stage II OR

10

Assessment/
Weighting
Pass / Fail

20

Pass / Fail

20

Pass / Fail

20

Pass / Fail

20

10% of overall degree

Level Two (Second Year)

Collaborative and Devised Expression

UNIT 12
Theatrical Interpretation 2

30

20% of overall degree

Credit Rating

Assessment/
Weighting
50% of overall
degree
(Each of the three
public productions is
assessed equally)
20% of overall
degree

Level Two (Second Year)

Unit

UNIT 13
100
Public Production (three productions;
one in each term)

UNIT 14
Industries of Performance

20

REGULATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT

All assessment is conducted in accordance with the procedures and regulations
described in CSSDs Assessment Handbook, which is available for consultation, and
in accordance with criteria which are published in the unit outlines and course
handbook, which you are given at the beginning of a unit and course.
You must normally pass all elements of assessment in a unit in order to pass the
unit, and you must normally pass all units in order successfully to complete the
course. If you fail an element or a unit, you will be offered an opportunity to retrieve
the appropriate assessment(s). Normally there is only one retrieval opportunity for
any element of assessment, and if you fail the same assessment a second time you
will normally be asked to leave the course.
Minimum pass for each unit is 40% (pass level)
To qualify for Cert HE, 120 credits at Level One must be reached (at pass level).
To qualify for Dip HE, a further 120 credits at Level Two must be reached (at pass
level, minimum)
To qualify for BA (Hons), a further 120 credits at Level Three must be reached (at
pass level, minimum).
Breakdown of assessment:
All Level 1 are assessed as Pass/Fail
70% of the final degree mark will be awarded across the two Level 3 units and 30%
across two of the Level 2 units.
Final awards are as follows:
1st class 70-100%;
2.1 (Upper second) 60-69%;
2.2 (Lower second) 50-59%;
3rd 40-49%
The Examination Board meets once a year in July. External Examiners are appointed
from the academic community in the role of a moderator to review a sample of all
percentage-based units and to attend the Examination Boards.

SUPPORT FOR YOUR LEARNING

Inductions to academic learning and practical skills
Centre for Excellence in Theatre Training
Levels of contact with tutors / visiting professionals as appropriate to the subject
Student Advisory and Counselling Service (SCAS)
Extensive e-mail bulletins from the staff team
Peer mentoring (through SCAS)
Detailed unit outlines with clear assessment criteria
Good library facilities
Library and computer inductions
Progress tutorials
Excellent learning facilities e.g. video editing suites, sound studio, state-of-the-art
theatre and performance spaces
Extensive Production support (technical, craft, wardrobe)
Comprehensive Course Handbook for the BA (Hons), Student Handbook and
Student Guide
Accessible Student Union
Dyslexia testing available
Staff member with specific remit to support students with a disability
CRITERIA FOR ADMISSION
The admission process for the BA (Hons) Acting has four stages:
1. Submission and Evaluation of a UCAS Application Form
2. First Round Auditions
3. Second Round Auditions
4. Final Recall Auditions
Each stage is available to candidates invited from the previous stage.
Evaluation of UCAS Application Form and selection for first round auditions will
normally be based on the following criteria for admissions:

engagement with theatre and acting at national/local level;

evidence of a real commitment to acting and a long-standing interest in acting

and theatre;

knowledge of a range of theatrical forms and genres;

experience gained in post-education contexts such as the workplace, travel

and voluntary settings;

the attainment or prospective attainment of the required tariff points

Please see prospectus or website for further details.

In the exceptional absence of formal qualification indication of academic potential will
be sought in your UCAS application.

During the audition and interview process, selection for the second round audition
process is based on:

Classical & contemporary audition speeches and an unaccompanied song from the
music theatre repertoire along with participation in a vocal and physical workshop. In
these environments we look for:
Essential
Evidence of a serious, ongoing commitment to an acting career in the professional
theatre
Evidence of fluent written and spoken English
Evidence of trainable vocal, physical, and imaginative/emotional skills
Evidence of potential benefit from the study in acting offered at The Central School
Evidence of an ability to understand, interpret and embody a dramatic text
Evidence of an ability to participate actively in group or ensemble situations
Desirable
Presence of a readiness to take risks, and an open, receptive and enquiring mind
Presence of enthusiasm and readiness for hard, rigorous work requiring sustained
concentration
Presence of a sense of language and rhythm, and the potential for identification
with the thought process of a dramatic text
Presence of the ability to portray and inhabit an imagined or fictional situation
Presence of physical, vocal and imaginative/emotional skills with significant
theatrical potential
HOW IS THE QUALITY OF THE COURSE DEMONSTRATED AND MAINTAINED
Internal and External Audit and Review including QAA Audit;
National Council for Drama Training Accreditation;
Our graduates performances have been recognised by major award-giving bodies
such as the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTAs), the American
Academy Of Motion Pictures (Oscars), the Laurence Olivier Awards, the Antoinette
Perry (Tony) Awards, the London Evening Standard Awards and the Sunday
Times/Royal National Theatre Ian Charleson Awards;
Programmes at Central are reviewed on a five-yearly cycle;
All courses at Central are subject to annual monitoring by the Schools Academic
Board;
All courses at the School involve external examiners, whose job it is to ensure that
the respective course remains in good academic standing and is in line with provision
in other parts of the sector;
You will have an opportunity to contribute to course development by providing
feedback at appropriate points including: Course Committee, Faculty Board, and
Academic Services Board