Why you should study this course
You will have the opportunity to learn from our experienced creative practitioners, some who have worked as theatre directors, movement directors, educational programme developers, freelance actors, designers, mask-makers and applied theatre specialists for organisations ranging from Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), The Globe, Théâtre Sans Frontières, Trestle, Spike Theatre, Tinderbox Theatre, The Lion’s Part and The Fabularium. The teaching staff have significant experience in major project events, such as Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 programme, international touring with the British Council, co-productions with the National Theatre and performances at the Sydney Opera House. A number of staff members are also founders and directors of organisations that have been within the Arts Council of England National Portfolio.
The teaching team has a vast array of international research expertise with exciting collaborations including examples, such as a site-specific project on the use of Pico pocket projectors during field trips with Das Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin, as well as long-form improvisation research with alumni of Chicago’s Second City and teachers from The Hothouse Los Angeles.
You may have the opportunity to participate in the Telepresence in Theatre initiative which is an ongoing project between Coventry and the actor training degree at the Tampere University, Finland. Using repurposed technologies such as videoconferencing, rear projection, directional sound, Adobe Connect and Facebook an immersive rehearsal space is created in both locations to enable students to rehearse and explore a variety of classic plays. The project, which has now received multiple international awards (Gold in Arts and Humanities Reimagine education 2016, Gold in Arts and Humanities and Hybrid Learning Reimagine Education 2018 and Highly Commended at the Times Higher Education Awards 2018) is now in its fifth year and is continuing to develop new ways of teaching and learning at a distance. The project has conducted performances in Hong Kong, Finland and Miami and in 2019 collaborated with Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan and Purdue University in the US.
The degree combines devising, scripted and experimental work with opportunities for live and mediated performances emphasising the development of acting as an art form. Teaching and learning methods selected for this course are designed to facilitate your ability to develop and reflect on your own skills and understanding, and to foster links between this, the practice of others, and theoretical knowledge and concepts.
The course is predominantly practice-based with workshops and classes exploring a wide range of different styles and forms from character building methodologies, chorus and ensemble work, and approaches to intermediality (the integration of digital elements within the live performance space), voice and movement studies and working within a technological framework such as film or voiceover.
Year one
In year one you will begin to develop skills in voice, movement and characterisation coupled with an exploration of contemporary acting styles and practices underpinned with knowledge and theory to help develop your practice. Key practitioners and styles of acting are explored as well as the fundamentals of acting in live, digitised and mediatised settings.
Modules
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The Actor's Toolkit: An Introduction - 20 credits
The module aims to introduce students to a range of acting skills needed to work across a range of live and digitised media. Students will focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance and coursework
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The Performer and The Space - 30 credits
Students will examine and evaluate, through practical exercises and classes, some of the processes and techniques used by performers in the telling of stories in a variety of settings. With the basic resources of an empty space (physical or digital) , their own bodies and voices, students will create performance pieces from a given story source. Students will explore the acting process and the mixture and balance of roles needed to create an effective performance.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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The Actor's Toolkit: Development
You will further develop a range of acting skills needed to work across a range of live and digitised media. Yoiwill focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories. Skills sessions will be linked to a series of workshops that challenge notions of the ‘theatrical’, audience communion and psycho-physical performance.
Compulsory
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Devising Performance Texts - 20 credits
Students will further develop a range of acting skills needed to work across a range of live and digitised media. Students will focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories. Skills sessions will be linked to a series of workshops that challenge notions of the ‘theatrical’, audience communion and psycho-physical performance.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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The Cultural Industries and Creative Economy - 10 credits
In this module students will study the place of the actor within the wider creative industries and will look at how they contribute to the creative economy of a region. The development of arts policies since the Second World War and the rise of the ‘creative economy’ will be introduced. Students will explore how the cultural industry has evolved nationally and regionally within this period and how this has been linked to social, economic and political policy.
Compulsory
Assessment: Coursework
Year two
Year two takes skills developed in year one and applies them to a series of contexts from the digital to the live. From classical to experimental performance styles, you will undertake a series of activities that will continue to develop and hone your performance skills through a series of live and mediated performance tasks.
Modules
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The Actor's Toolkit: Digital Performance - 20 credits
Students will continue to develop a range of acting skills needed to work across a range of live and digitised media. Students will focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories. Skills sessions will be linked to a series of workshops on performance with screen and interactive media. Continuing the work in the Level 4 'Actor's Toolkit' modules this module will examine how an actor applies these skills in a digital context.
Compulsory
Assessment: Assessment: Portfolio/performance, coursework
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Directed Performance 1 - 40 credits
Students will perform in a chosen play (or plays) through practical work and relevant research. These plays will be selected by a tutor/director from a culturally and globally diverse range of materials from the ancient to the modern and will form part of the School's annual production programme. Students will use rehearsal exercises to identify relevant performance techniques for the effective realisation of the text, in a style appropriate to the demands of the text and to the cultural/historical/sociological and stylistic context they determine.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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Exploring New Forms of Creative Practice - 30 credits
Students will undertake practical study of relevant techniques for the devising and realisation of contemporary performance in unconventional spaces and scenarios. Students will explore the nature of immersive performance and work that utilises the various technologies available in the digital age. This module will explore some of the cultural and theoretical background to new performance practice and will be supported by lectures and seminars focusing on some of the key developments in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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The Actor's Toolkit: Global Shakespeares - 20 credits
Students will continue to develop a range of acting skills needed to work across a range of live and digitised media. Students will focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories. Skills sessions will be linked to a series of workshops on specific acting challenges presented by the texts of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and facilitates, through practice, an in-depth examination of proven analytical and practical approaches to these challenges.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
Students successfully completing Level 5 of the course may choose to undertake a Professional Placement or Study Abroad Year. This route allows students to spend a year abroad or a year on professional placement between Level 5 and Level 6 of the course.
Students opting to take this route may undertake one of the following: a study placement under the Erasmus exchange scheme; a study placement under another study abroad scheme for placements outside the EU; a work placement under the Erasmus work placement scheme or a work placement organised on their own initiative outside the EU. Alternatively, they may choose to combine a period of study with a period on placement.
Final year
In the final year you will continue to develop your performance skills through a series of workshops and projects that prepare you for entry into the industry, examining how you apply skills in voice, body and character creation to a series of performance opportunities, leading to a final industry showcase event.
Modules
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The Actor's Toolkit: The Actor's Voice - 10 credits
Students will focus on the development of voice, movement and character through the exploration of a range of techniques, practices and theories. Skills sessions will be linked to a series of workshops that develop vocal dexterity and the application of vocal technique in performance. In order to fully appreciate the complex relationship between the actor and the actor’s voice, this module will also require students to further investigate the interaction of the speech organs and apply their knowledge of how an actor’s whole body influences the quality of voice produced.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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Negotiated Performance Project - 40 credits
This module is designed to give students the direct experience of working within a professional environment. Students will work with professional film/theatre practitioner(s), a member of current lecturing staff or colleagues within BA Film Production, as appropriate, to create live/filmed/digital/performance work together that will reflect the practitioner’s own style. This experience will develop the students’ understanding of the need for a professional attitude and working ethos in the production of high-quality professional work.
Compulsory
Assessment: Coursework
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Preparing for Industry: Business Matters - 10 credits
This module is designed to encourage the student to develop an appreciation of the nature of professionalism in the context of acting, the performing arts and new media industries and related fields, and to recognise the relationship between professional arts practice, critical reflection and personal planning. Students will be introduced to key issues to address when beginning a career in acting.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio
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Directed Performance 2 - 40 credits
This module will provide the student with the opportunity to collaborate in the creation and presentation of a substantial piece of creative work in collaboration with a director(s). This work shall be staged or screened in a final 'showcase' festival of work and students will be exposed to a variety of material, directors, rehearsal styles, and production concepts to meet the demands of differing audiences both live and mediated. This work will engage with intercultural issues and will encourage engagement with digital practices.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
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The Actor's Toolkit: The Actor's Body - 10 credits
Building on work in the previous Actor's Toolkit modules, this module will examine in depth the physical and psychophysical processes and apparatus underpinning the actor's work. Students will be encouraged to explore the relationships between the body, movement and the representation of character and identity, and empowered to make informed choices from a range of expressive techniques according to their needs and interests.
Compulsory
Assessment: Portfolio/performance
