PROFESSIONAL ACTING OXFORD

YEAR ONE.

Throughout the first year you’ll take acting class in which you explore the core acting system of Stanislavski. During the class you work on scenes from contemporary plays, building your skills in script analysis, understanding the building blocks of character and exploring truthful character in action. You also make an in-depth study of the acting exercises developed by Uta Hagen. Uta Hagen was one of the great acting teachers of the 20th Century and her seminal book Respect for Acting is a handbook for the course.

Alongside acting you take voice and movement classes each week to develop your skills. In voice you explore the techniques that underpin strong vocal support, use of breath, articulation and resonance. You learn how to employ a wide range of vocal dynamics to voice character and to be able to project in a variety of theatre spaces. Movement class focuses on training the body as an actor’s instrument. You study Laban and the system of analysing and developing technical movement language and the relationship between space and dynamics. This system helps the actor create characters with strong physical lives.

You will also take units in:

Rehearsal Skills in which you work on scenes for performance, learning how to rehearse professionally, apply a variety of rehearsal techniques and develop your own approach to preparation.

Acting for Camera in which you work on contemporary TV and film scenes. The objectives of the unit are to learn the basic techniques of ‘revealing’ rather than ‘playing’, develop skills in preparing for a scene and learning the technical skills required of the process, such as marks, playing for a variety of shots and continuity.

Audition Preparation that will help you select audition pieces and understand the techniques of auditioning, in preparation for drama school and university auditions you do in your second year.

The year culminates with a public production of a piece of ensemble theatre for young people and provides you with the opportunity to put all the skills you have learned in year one into practice.

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YEAR TWO.

Acting class continues with a detailed exploration of Meisner technique. The emphasis is on building a tool-box of approaches that you can use selectively to find what works for you as an individual young actor.

You’ll take units in:

Comedy. You are introduced to the basic techniques of comedy drama and apply them to two contrasting styles of comedy scene. Texts are chosen from genres including comedy of manners and French farce to contemporary dark comedy, social comedy and satire.

Physical Theatre. You explore the work of practitioners such as Lecoq, Frantic Assembly and Pina Bausch and create an ensemble piece of physical theatre.

Shakespeare and Jacobean theatre. This unit introduces you to the way an actor unlocks and communicates complex text.

Throughout year 2 you have individual tutorials to work on your audition pieces for drama school and university acting courses. The highlight of the second year are the productions staged in May.

We are not taking applications for September 2024.

The course is a practical one. There is some written assignment work but much of the evidence is filmed and evaluation is conducted through filmed interview. We describe the course as consisting of 80% practical and 20% written work. There are no examinations. You are assessed continually through an assignment for each unit. On successful completion of the course, you will be awarded an overall grade of Distinction*, Distinction, Merit or Pass.