BA (Hons)Acting and Performance

Core modules

Curtain Up

In this module you'll participate in a short, directed play/performance. Using relevant practitioners, acting styles, skills and methods (including voice, acting and movement) you will prepare, rehearse and polish a short play or section of a play in preparation for a live or filmed performance.

The Actor's Technical Toolkit

This module develops the core practical skills essential to an actor’s craft through integrated training in voice, acting, and movement/dance. You will cultivate vocal clarity, range, and expressiveness, building healthy and sustainable habits that support both spoken text and embodied character work. Acting classes introduce techniques for truthful performance, emotional connection, and imaginative storytelling. Movement and dance sessions enhance physical awareness, coordination, and versatility.

Improvise and Devise

During this module you'll explore a range of strategies for generating new performance material in relation to the disciplines of acting, voice, and movement/dance. You'll engage in long form devising processes and explore methods to help devise new work in contemporary theatre. You will also hone your skills in the art of improvisation and build your ability to respond to stimulus immediately in a live circumstance.

Performing in Digital Media

In this module you'll develop the foundational skills required to act effectively across single-camera and multi-camera productions, exploring the use of green screen, location-based, and studio-based filming. You'll also develop microphone skills and techniques for audio-recorded productions such as radio drama, podcasting and audiobooks. Through practical workshops, technical simulations and studio-led exploration, you'll learn how to adapt your performance technique to industry-standard digital platforms and workflows.

Core modules

Period Acting for Stage and Screen

This module introduces you to core principles of period acting for both stage and screen, with a particular focus on Shakespearean performance and historical stylistic conventions. Through practice-led learning, you'll explore movement, voice, etiquette, and historical research to build authentic character worlds, while adapting techniques to the contrasting demands of single-camera screen work and live theatrical performance. Workshops, rehearsal labs, and filmed exercises align training with current industry practice in classical theatre, film, and streaming platforms producing period drama.

The Big Play

This module emulates what it means to put on a full show in relation to industry timeframes and standards. You'll work at pace to learn taught material, vocal work, script, and movement and blocking, and practice this in rehearsal settings and independently to retain this work to an excellent standard. You'll audition for specific roles and becoming a key member of the cast while developing the skills to work efficiently during an intensive rehearsal period to highly tune your acting, physical and vocal techniques.

Acting in the Community

During this module you'll apply your performance making skills to respond to a local or national community need by generating a new performance work tailored towards the specific requirements of a pre-selected audience demographic. The ‘applied’ nature of this exercise will encourage you to consider how theatre can be used ethically as a beneficial tool in improving the lives of those who engage with it.

Optional modules

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

Directing

This module gives you the opportunity to direct a scene from a play script/musical theatre libretto and present it to an invited audience/screening. The work you do on this module will give you an insight into what's required of the professional theatre director – working with actors, working with scripts, and organising people and time.

Finding Your Voice

The number one fear among people is speaking in public. Learning how to use our voice is an important skill - it assists and secures our ability to tell a story. All aspects of performing and presentation require breath control, proper vocal technique, and posture - it’s important to have an understanding of the anatomy of our voice box and mouths in order to create the sounds we intend to, as well understanding what keeps an audience engaged.

Performing Arts Education

In this module, you will plan, research, resource and teach an observed drama lesson that is aimed at a specific and stated age-group and which will be accompanied by a detailed lesson plan and scheme of work. With its fun approach and its consideration of theory and practice, the module is great preparation for PGCE study and/or for teaching in a professional environment - perfect for anyone interested in using performing in teaching as a career, or in developing skills in leading workshops.

Core modules

Industry Ready

This module prepares you to transition from university training into professional acting. Through practice-led learning, you'll engage directly with industry-standard processes, including creating showreels and voice-reels, preparing online casting profiles, undertaking headshot sessions, and developing advanced audition techniques. You'll gain an understanding of current casting expectations, navigate digital casting platforms, and present yourself as a competitive, informed actor.

Theatre Maker Festival: Professional Partnership

In this module, you'll create your own theatre company and present your work in a celebratory festival of theatre. Working in small groups, you'll gain experience in researching, preparing and performing a production which you'll present to the rest of the class, assessing tutors and an external audience. The piece may comprise of an adaptation of a pre-existing work or be an originally-devised performance.

Innovation Lab

The Innovation Lab enables you to design, test, and evaluate an original practice-as-research (PaR) inquiry, working independently to investigate a self-generated research question relevant to contemporary performance practice. Responding to real-world industry expectations for reflective, research-informed practitioners, you'll use studio experimentation, rehearsal laboratories, and iterative creative testing to develop new methods, models, or artistic provocations.

That's Entertainment

You will participate in creative workshops exploring several popular performance disciplines, developing performance skills applicable to a wide variety of professional contexts. These workshops will culminate in the opportunity for you to create, lead and design an exciting show packed with popular and commercial entertainment styles. You will leave the module with a portfolio of performance ‘turns’ ready to be applied post-graduation within the cultural industries.