Program Overview

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BA (Hons) Acting & English

Overview

Develop your acting skills to a professional standard, while exploring English literature, and gain a deep understanding of the relationship between text and performance.

We offer the only combined actor-training and English degree in the UK, allowing you to develop your acting skills while studying English literature, giving you a firm knowledge base from which to work in either field.

Acting is the practical realisation of text and is closely linked to the discipline of English. This unique combination of study will open up many options for work or further academic study. You’ll have a range of options, which will allow you to tailor the course to fit your particular interests, and have the chance to develop allied skills such as theatre directing.

Acting classes cover acting for both stage and screen, and will include substantial workshop performances as well as public productions in the final year, including the opportunity to present your own fully supported show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

When you leave the course you’ll be armed with a career action plan, a show reel and significant experience in both acting and English.

Mode of Study:

Full-time

Duration:

4 years

Start date:

Sep

UCAS code:

QW34

Course details

This course is aimed at those with an interest in both practical acting and English literature. You’ll enhance your performing skills to industry-standard, while simultaneously studying English literature in its cultural-historical context. The course is split evenly between the study of English literature and the study of acting.

English is studied from the early 19th century to the present day providing a modern, interdisciplinary approach to literature. You’ll develop an appreciation of different genres and explore the value of literature in the modern world. Practical acting projects will often work alongside the English texts you are studying. You will read, analyse and perform texts of a similar era at the same time, thereby deepening your understanding of both literature and acting.

Our programme is not a drama/theatre studies course – we aim to train actors to vocational standard over four years. Along with intensive classes and workshops in acting, you will study alongside the BA (Hons) English degree students in a variety of classes that cover subjects from Shakespeare to Romantic poetry to modern drama.

You’ll study:

• Acting: The ability to develop, play and sustain a character in performance
• Voice: Enhancing your vocal range and potential
• Movement: Enhancing your physical capabilities.

You’ll also get vocational and industry-relevant training through intensive workshops, centred on acting for stage and screen and on the craft, practice and business of performance.

Throughout the course there will be a particular focus on enhancing confidence and communication, and deepening the ability to be cogent and articulate about a variety of critical approaches and the process of performance. You’ll benefit from studying in a vibrant city with a great literary heritage and plenty of relevant cultural events.

You’ll prepare for work in live and recorded performances. The course culminates with the opportunity either to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or to produce a thesis in a chosen subject area, depending on where you decide to concentrate study in your final year.

This unique combination of skills and knowledge will equip you with a wide range of options for work or further academic study.

Additional mandatory costs

• ‘Mastering the Shakespeare Audition: A Quick Guide to Performance Success’ by Donna Soto-Morettini (£17)
• 32GB USB pen drive which (around £15)
• Women: A rehearsal skirt (£10-£20) and character shoes (£10-£25)
• Men: dark rehearsal suit jacket (second hand is fine- £10-£30) and dark-coloured hard-soles shoes (£10-£30)
• Year 4, trimester 2: you will need to get a professional head shot (ranging from £50-£150 depending on the photographer)

How you’ll be taught

Your learning experience will consist primarily of practical, workshop-based classes, tutorials, and seminars with visiting professionals.

Assessments

The majority of your assessments will be practical and performance-based, all of which will be underpinned by research and analytical course work.

Popular modules

Year 1

• Critical Contexts: Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory
• Reading Texts: Analysing Film, Literature and Culture
• Acting Fundamentals I
• Acting Fundamentals II (Naturalism)
• Interpreting Text
• 19th Century Literature and Culture 1 or Literature & Adaptation

Year 2

• Modern Drama: Shakespeare and the Renaissance
• Fundamentals of Directing
• The Modern Novel
• Intermediate Acting (20th Century Drama)
• Shakespeare Workshop Performance

Year 3

• C21 Literature: Writing the Unfolding Present
• Advanced Acting (Style)
• Directing II
• Leadership in the Creative Industries

One option module from:

• Women's Writing & Film-making
• Unacknowledged Legislators: Poets in History and Society
• Science fiction: text and film

Year 4

• Dissertation
• Performance Workshop II
• Festival Production

One option module from:

• Postcolonial Fiction and Film
• Modern Scottish Fiction;
• Lateness and the Modern
• The Gothic Tradition
• Performance Skills for Professional Practice
• Memoir, Documentary and the Essay Film
• Fictions of Terror

Entry requirements

Entry requirements

• SQA Higher: BBCC including English.
• A Level: CCD including English.
• Irish Leaving Certificate: H3, H3, H3, H3 at HL including English.
• HNC: Pass HNC Acting and Performance or another performance based subject with grade B in the graded unit. Grade C in Higher English is also required.
• BTEC (QCF) Extended Diploma Level 3: Minimum grades MMM (Merit, Merit, Merit) in a related subject. Grade B in Higher English also required.
• International Baccalaureate Diploma: Award of Diploma with 26 points overall with three HL subjects at grades 5, 5, 5 including English.

English language

If your first language isn't English, you'll normally need to undertake an approved English language test. The English Language requirements for this programme are IELTS (Academic) with 6.0 overall and no element below 5.5.

International students

We welcome applications from students studying a wide range of international qualifications.

Fees & funding

Tuition fees for 2024/25

• Scotland: £1,820
• England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland: £9,250
• Overseas and EU: £16,680

Tuition fees are subject to an annual review and may increase from one year to the next.

Careers

Career opportunities include:

• Actor
• Journalist
• Theatre Director
• Creative Producer
• Production Manager
• Presenter
• Teacher
• Arts Administrator
• Lecturer
• Theatre Stage Manager
• Artistic Director
• Playwright
• Artistic Programmer
• Box Office Manager
• Project Director
• Participation Director
• Communications Manager