Acting - Classical

Entry requirements

Applicants will normally have either undertaken conservatoire training, have professional acting experience, or have a degree in the broad field of performance and drama studies. Students from other disciplines may be considered if you have sufficient experience of theatre. An offer will normally only be made after audition and interview, and you may also be required to take part in a short practical workshop and/or submit a short piece of written work.

Months of entry

January

Course content

Designed primarily for students with previous experience and/or training, the MA Acting - Classical masters programme at Central is a creatively, physically and intellectually demanding, advanced level, conservatoire acting programme specialising in Classical plays.

Perform in two fully-realised public productions and an industry showcase

Hone the individual technical craft of the actor, and release your collaborative and imaginative creativity within a small ensemble company (typically 14-16 students)

Take part in practical group classes in acting, movement and voice, undertaking separate period dance and stage combat training

The Classical course follows the development of the theatrical art from its earliest ritual roots to the birth of naturalism:

• Greek Tragedy, Chorus and the Neutral Mask
• Clowning and Commedia dell’arte
• Shakespeare and the English Renaissance
• Stanislavski, the Method, Realism and Expressionism.

The course draws on the hugely influential theories and techniques of the great French acting teacher Michel Saint-Denis, training the expressive body, voice and imagination. Working with some of the greatest dramatic texts ever written, you are asked to consider what they mean now, and how their 21st century reinterpretation and re-imagining still holds a ‘mirror up to nature’.

You are encouraged to understand the demands of both art and craft, as participants in, and practitioners of, the Western theatrical tradition, through a course structure that examines, in chronological order, four key periods of innovation and transition.

Information for international students

Central holds international auditions/interviews. Please see Central’s website for details. To book a place please email admissions@cssd.ac.uk. If you are unable to attend in person, the course admissions tutor may offer you the opportunity of a distance audition/interview.

Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to prove their English language proficiency by gaining an overall score of 7.0 in an IELTS test. We do accept equivalent English language qualifications

More information for international students can be found on Central’s website.

Fees and funding

Additional information at https://www.cssd.ac.uk/fees-and-funding