Acting Foundation Course

Term One

This term will equip you with the fundamentals of an acting toolkit. You will be introduced to the key principles and key terminology of Stanislavski’s system, as well as exploring the methodologies of other leading pedagogues such as Meisner and Hagen. You will be introduced to textual analysis, as a central stratagem for gleaning information about the situation, character, and relationships from the story. Students will be introduced to the key principles of:

• Breath
• Imagination
• Observation, awareness, and attention
• Ensemble
• Objective
• Super-Objective
• Given Circumstances
• Units of action
• Actioning text
• Subtext

Term Two

This module is based on inhabiting character, making full creative use of textual analysis, an actor’s research, detailed observation, and the techniques of leading practitioners to assist in creating a truthful, connected, coherent characterisation.  This strand will also focus on the ability to ‘play’ in the present moment. You will be introduced to the key concepts of:

• Listening
• Responding
• Impulse
• Presence
• Play
• Bold choices
• Role analysis – Creating multi-faceted inner lives, and embodying character traits intellectually and physically
• Utilising an actor’s research

The exploration of this will require you to investigate characters and situations that are removed from your own realm of experience and, therefore, employ a greater degree of historical/social research and textual analysis whilst developing an appreciation of stylised texts that may sit outside of your own cultural and social experience.

Term One – Pure Movement

You will learn to unpack your physical habits and tensions and inquire how you can work from a place of ease, flow, and release gently and kindly. You will learn what it means to be in a state of ‘readiness’ as an actor, flexible and open to the offers in the space, with front-footed presence and awareness. 

Once this state of ‘active engagement’ is established, and the actor implicitly understands their own body as an instrument, the classes will start introducing the ‘Laban efforts’ as a tool for characterisation and transformation. You will experiment with what you can emphasise, remove, or replace in your physical habits to create character- and how these alterations to our physical self can inform and enrich how a character thinks, feels and behaves. 

The term will culminate in a class sharing of your personal physical interpretation of a character from the given text based on the Laban efforts. 

Term Two – Animal Studies

 The term will focus on ‘Animal Studies’, how you can make creative and specific physical choices to create character, and how, because of these external choices, the internal life is enriched.

You will first select an animal that feels ‘close to you’ in terms of rhythm, weight distribution, speed, how space is occupied, and its relationship to other creatures. You will then select an animal that feels ‘far from you’ and devise a character from this standpoint.

The term will culminate in working in pairs on scenes selected by the tutor, where you must identify, embody, and perform an animal you feel captures the spirit of the role. The animal must be sufficiently ‘invisible’ and serve to enrich the inner and outer life of the human being portrayed.

Term One

This work will begin by introducing you to the physiology of the vocal anatomy, helping you gain a greater physical, emotional, and intellectual connection to your voice. You will be asked to consider, analyse, and celebrate your speech system as a starting point for future character work. The work will focus on deepening your relationship with your breath, expanding capacity and control through increased flexibility and support of the ribcage and diaphragm. You will adopt several practices and techniques to warm up in preparation for all acting work, be it theatre or screen. 

You will apply this knowledge to poetic text, culminating in a class sharing where you will select and perform a poem you connect with. You will be encouraged to explore topics and themes that celebrate your social, cultural, ethnic, and economic background.

Term Two

This term will continue to work on releasing any unhelpful tensions that inhibit the fully functioning, free voice, further equipping you with a greater range of exercises to employ within your warm-up. You will experience opening the resonating ladder and developing vocal flexibility. 

The term will culminate in a class sharing of a storytelling project; you will work in small groups and select an epic myth, legend, fairy tale or piece of folklore from any culture or time to capture and perform the spirit of the piece using the full creative expression of your voice. 

Term One

This term aims to confront the actor with the challenges of classical text, which contains heightened or poetic language. You will be introduced to the linguistic devices used in Shakespeare’s work and explore how, through embodying these clues, actors can gain a deeper intellectual understanding of the text and a visceral emotional connection to the words. The term will culminate in a class sharing of sonnets, individually selected by you on the basis you feel a personal connection to the work. 

Term Two

This work will build on the work of the previous term, as you apply your skills and understanding of classical language to scenes from Shakespeare. You will be expected to recognise the devices and unlock the clues in the text that will help you to explore character, stakes, and relationship. This strand is designed to help you find the psychological and emotional three-dimensional truth of heightened characters and epic texts.

These scenes will be chosen by the tutor with an eye to stretching and challenging you. 

Acting Through Song

You will approach this strand as an actor; the emphasis of the work will be on telling the story via the medium of song. You will learn how to prepare the material as if it were a script, engaging in detailed textual analysis and actor research to ensure you have sufficiently fuelled your imagination with given circumstances, character intention, and sufficient knowledge of the subtext to embody a three-dimensional life effectively.

Term One

In this term, you will be introduced to the basic concepts of screen acting. The work will centre around ‘self-tapes’, as this is the first-round requirement for most drama schools. You will practice acting techniques and experiment in front of the lens, gaining confidence, ease, and trust in performing naturally.

Term Two

This term introduces you to the technical processes involved in filmmaking. You will practically explore how to write, produce, perform, and edit a short film created in small groups. Classes will support you in gaining a practical understanding of the range of technical and production roles required to make short films. You will be prompted to consider the social, cultural, and ethical implications of the work you are making – and the impact it will have on the world around you.

The module will culminate in week 5 by presenting the completed short films at an internal film festival.

Improvisation

Term One

This term’s work is all about embracing improvisation and performing spontaneously with others. You will learn to respond to the impulses of your body and imagination freely, and joyfully; trusting your instincts and resisting a need to plan. You will also learn to value the offers of others as precious anchors to the present moment and appreciate how the embracing of these ideas will both connect you as players, clarify the narrative, and please the audience. You will apply this work to pre-written texts and explore how improvisational tools can reveal insight into character, world, and relationships. At the end of the term, you will perform an improvised scene in pairs to the rest of your class, with stimuli provided by the tutor.

Term Two

During this term you will learn how to build stories. Gaining a tacit understanding of how to construct a scene’s beginning, middle and end, ensuring you include enough conflict, stakes, character, and resolution. You will write your own dialogues from these improvisations and gain the opportunity to edit and refine your work after performing it to an audience. The term will end with the sharing of these self-written scenes in small groups.

Devising

Term One

In these sessions you will explore the origins of devised theatre, complete with its aims and social, cultural, political, and ethical dimensions. The group will practically engage in a range of devising methods, including how to generate, reimagine, and write original material and non-text based approaches to exploring themes and content. You will develop a performance of self-written spoken word political poetry. Classes will examine the legacy of Bertolt Brecht, and other famous, real-life political speeches, analysing how rhetoric and language is used as a tool for persuasion. Classes will also investigate the practice, legacy, form, styles, and delivery of spoken word as a genre.  In preparation for their self-authored pieces, students will be encouraged to explore topics and themes that they particularly connect to – potentially celebrating their social, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. You will share your political spoken word in a year-group sharing at the end of term.

Term Two

In the second term, you will explore contemporary and Queer performance. Leading practitioners and companies such as Frantic Assembly, Marina Abramović, Drag Syndrome, Bryony Kimmings, George the Poet, Punchdrunk, and Spy Monkey may be studied and analysed, asking what they do that makes the work impactful, original, and distinctive. 

This part of the course will build your confidence in auditioning. It will help you to choose material that works to support you in being playful and connected in your performance and it will explore your options when you leave the course.