MUSICAL THEATRE

YEAR ONE

Throughout the first year you’ll have an equal amount of acting, singing and dance classes to give you the foundations across all three disciplines you need to be a musical theatre performer. However, today’s musical theatre performers are expected to be good actors and that is where BSA excels. Acting is at the core of the training, whether that’s “acting through song”, or acting techniques that will give you the skills to excel, even as a non musical actor, or teaching you to understand movement psychology as well as choreography, our approach to acting will put you ahead of the competition.​

Acting classes introduce you to character development and text analysis using the approaches of Stanislavksi and Uta Hagen. In singing you explore the techniques that underpin the creation of contemporary musical theatre sound, belt, blend and mix, breath support, articulation and tone. You learn how to employ a wide range of vocal dynamics and styles to sing the text and explore the different styles of musical from pop-rock to hip hop from classic musical comedy to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber . Dance class focuses on the basics of a broad range of styles including jazz, ballet, urban and global dance.

​You will also take units in:
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• 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.
• Repertoire- understanding and interpreting the different genres of musical theatre.
• Audition Preparation that will help you select audition songs and understand the techniques of auditioning, in preparation for drama school auditions that you’ll do in your second year.

YEAR TWO

Acting, singing and dance training intensifies and the range of musicals you study broadens as you explore more complex styles. You’ll take part in

• ​A Masterclass Programme run by our Associate Artists – all working professionals at the highest level of musical theatre.
• A Professional Portfolio unit that gives you the skills to develop your career
• A Cross Arts Collaborative Performance unit that gives you the chance to create a musical performance for TV and film

Throughout year 2 you have individual tutorials to work on your audition pieces for drama school and other further training.

The highlight of the second year are the studio production staged in February and the final production staged in June in a professional theatre.

Submit your application on our website by visiting bristolschoolofacting.com/apply. You will then be invited to an audition for which we’ll ask you to prepare a speech from a contemporary play, sing a solo from a musical and take part in a dance workshop. You don’t need to read music but we would like you to sing your solo with our audition pianist accompanying you, so we ask you to bring the sheet music of the song to the audition. If that’s not possible for any reason, speak to our admissions team who can advise you.

Though experience of dance, drama or singing are advantageous, we are more interested in raw talent and welcome your application even if you have had little or no experience.

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 Distinction*, Distinction, Merit or Pass grade.