Performing Arts
Right: American Classics, The Crucible, UCA Farnham
Cover: Vivien Lau Wee Na, UCA Rochester
Performing Arts
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A Raisin in the Sun, Acting students, UCA Farnham
Introduction
At UCA, our Performing Arts courses help you explore your creative abilities in an inspirational, artistic environment. We offer a personal learning experience, with smaller numbers on our courses that deliver a unique approach to performance. Our teaching staff have a background in acting for theatre and film, as well as experience directing for the stage and screen. This makes them wellequipped to teach you in all areas of the performing arts, such as how a team of creative practitioners contribute to the staging of a performance, through to the development of a film from initial conception to final iteration. Our creative community also enables you to build a network of contacts that could provide the bedrock for your future career. Depending on your subject, you may even collaborate on projects with students studying topics like animation, film production, games arts and many others – strengthening your skillset even further. Our BA (Hons) Acting in Farnham integrates the teaching of acting for stage and screen. As well as learning acting techniques, you’ll become versed in the use of digital technology, with rehearsals and live performances taking place at Farnham Maltings and London venues.
We also offer BA (Hons) Theatre Design and BA (Hons) Acting at our Rochester campus, where you’ll have the chance to learn about design and production, theatre design, film, technical drawing, costume design, puppet-making and set building, or develop your skills as a performer for the stage, festivals or screen. We’re confident that you’ll really grow as a professional during your time with us. Our graduates leave us with an understanding of the creative process, and appreciate the collaboration behind final productions and performances. Once you join us, you’ll benefit from an exciting and innovative curriculum which supports you in developing your skills as part of a creative community. Studying one of our degrees will prepare you in taking that next step towards an exciting career within this competitive industry.
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Find the right course for you
BA (Hons) Acting UCA Farnham
All My Sons, UCA Farnham
The acting course at our Farnham campus focuses on preparing actors to flourish, both on stage and screen. In the first year, you’ll tackle the basics of movement and voice. Singing, stage combat, self-tapes and voice recording will help develop your skills over your years of study. The degree culminates in the Performance Unit where you will make a short film and finish the third year with a live performance. Alongside this, you’ll develop your theoretical understanding of performance with units such as Approaches to Acting and Stage Screen Connections in Year 1 and Violence and Revenge and American Classics in Year 2. You’ll also be given the opportunity each year to develop your own ideas through self-directed and written performance, either in groups or as solo projects. With a dual emphasis on recorded and live performance, you’ll study these subjects along with a range of techniques for camera, microphone and stage. We’ll encourage you to draw on your own interests and background in your explorations and performances. Twitter: @UCA_AandP Instagram: @uca_aandp
Duration: 3 years full-time UCAS code: C93/W410/F UCAS tariff points: 112
Find out more 4
BA (Hons) Acting
BA (Hons) Theatre Design
UCA Rochester
UCA Rochester
A Raisin in the Sun, UCA Farnham
Deborah Abbott, UCA Rochester
Our Acting course at UCA Rochester has a focus on screen performance, physical performance, presenting and skills which will enable you to share your work on social media, festivals and non-theatre based live venues.
Theatre Design will prepare you for a career within the imaginative world of creative image-making for performance.
In each year of study, you’ll learn a variety of techniques and skills through the Performance Skills units, which will develop and progress your abilities. Units such as Cracking Shakespeare, American Classics, Dramas & Soaps and Comedy & Improvisation will give you a contemporary view of adaptations, current television productions and alternative filmmaking. Opportunities to write and perform your own pieces either within a group or solo enable students to be creators as well as performers. After the course, you’ll have developed a well-rounded skillset and theoretical understanding of performance, ready for a career in a changing industry.
On each year of the course, you’ll learn design skills; practical making skills needed to develop concept and interpretation through to modelled form; how to design and make scaled scenic elements, props, and costume; and learn about the various approaches to staging performance. You’ll be encouraged to experiment with the visual and material when designing and making. Alongside these essential tools, you will also develop a thorough theoretical understanding of culture through the units Cultural Contexts and Practice in Context; examining, reflecting and writing about aspects of design, both historical and contemporary. As you progress through to your final year you’ll have the option to choose a specialism, encouraging the development of your personal interests within design for theatrical performance.
As well as allowing you to develop practical performance experience, the course will teach you valuable business acumen including marketing, event management and artist management.
Whether working on a small-scale touring, in traditional venues, or with larger scale concepts, stop-motion film, or events, you’ll develop artistic interpretation and leadership to support designing for performance.
Duration: 3 years full-time UCAS code: C93/W411/R UCAS tariff points: 112
Duration: 3 years full-time UCAS code: C93/W440/R UCAS tariff points: 112
Find out more
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Your career
The UK’s creative industries are growing faster than at any time in their history, generating £92 billion a year in revenue for the UK economy. Thanks to tax relief incentives for film, TV and theatre productions, many producers are choosing the UK as a top destination to develop their projects, and demand for graduates is at an all-time high. Throughout the course, you’ll have the opportunity to perform for audiences including casting directors and agents, and network regularly with figures from the industry, giving you access to work as soon as you graduate. Our Performing Arts courses give you the opportunity to learn practical skills for the industry alongside exploring your own creativity and imagination. Technical workshops teach our students relevant skills such as camera work, screenwriting and editing alongside traditional acting and performance skills.
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You’ll be equipped with a strong knowledge of each aspect of the industry to get your foot in the door of this competitive market. You can pursue a wide range of exciting technical and creative careers in areas such as acting, sound design, advertising, broadcast programming and production management. After your studies, you can go on to work as a set director, filmmaker, set designer, or screenwriter; or you could launch your own acting career and make your name on the stage or starring in films, TV productions, commercials, or even voicing popular computer game characters. But importantly, our performing arts courses will have equipped you with the confidence and creativity to thrive in any arena. UCA has a proud tradition of supporting students and equipping them with everything they need to thrive in the workplace. 96.9% of our students find employment or go on to further study within the first six months after graduating.
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The Crucible, UCA Farnham
Audition and portfolio advice What is an audition? If you’ve applied to one of our Acting courses, you will need to take part in an audition. This is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the course team and demonstrate your performing abilities. You’ll be invited to attend an audition which comprises two activities: a group workshop and an individual audition piece. The workshop will include improvisation games and imagination exercises incorporating voice and movement, allowing you to demonstrate your collaborative working skills. The individual audition piece (maximum two minutes long) will either be a short piece of contemporary text (play or screenplay); or a piece of Shakespeare; or an original piece you’ve written.
Your portfolio should feature examples of your research and show the development of your ideas and projects – this should be highly presentable and well organised. It may be useful to arrange your work into themes, styles or chronological order, demonstrating good organisational skills and your own artistic awareness. Make sure you show your passion for the subject – look into your favourite designers, directors and performers and the different things they make. Show us some ideas you’ve had for sets, props, scripts or stories.
Make sure you know the text thoroughly, the play or film it comes from and the author. You’ll be asked to perform it in at least one ‘different’ way so you need to be secure with the text. You should be ready to discuss the character who says it and where it’s situated in the play or film.
Your portfolio should exhibit your creative journey, thinking processes and individual personality, so we can assess your potential. It’s important to show both your inspirations and aspirations, as your portfolio says a lot about you and your creative identity.
What is a portfolio?
Documenting the development of your ideas in a sketchbook is a great way to show us how you approached the task of creating your work, giving us insight into your creative thinking and how you approach your subject.
If you are applying to the BA (Hons) Theatre design course, you will need to submit a portfolio as part of your application. A portfolio is a collection of your work that demonstrates your range of skills and creative talent. It’s your opportunity to showcase your individuality, creativity, inspirations and artistic abilities, and a useful way for us to evaluate your suitability for the course you’ve applied to. It might contain design work, drawings, art projects, photographs, films, sound work, music composition, or examples of creative writing or essays. Think of your portfolio as a statement about your work – it should exhibit your creative journey, thought processes and influences. Don’t be afraid to be bold and appeal to a viewer, keeping their attention and leaving them feeling excited about your creative potential. 8
What should my portfolio include?
Make sure your portfolio is well presented. Our tutors only have a short amount of time to look through each portfolio, so you need to organise your work intelligently. We recommend that you include between 10 and 25 pieces of work, neatly mounted on white or off-white paper in either landscape or portrait format (not a mixture of both). Put some of your most attention-grabbing and interesting work at the front and lead us through your journey, showcasing a variety of skills, materials, techniques and influences – it could include paintings, drawings, photography, digital pieces, storyboards, animation images or written work. If you include moving image work, we recommend a maximum of two minutes’ running time. Highlight your favourite pieces too, and indicate what or who inspires you.
Find out more The course pages at uca.ac.uk provide clear guidance on what we’d like to see in your portfolio for each of our courses. We’ve also put together a set of videos talking you through the process: uca.ac.uk/study/portfolio-advice
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The Grenfell Project, UCA Farnham
“ A ll of our tutors are previous working actors or are currently still working in the industry, and they’re always open to share their second-to-none experience and advice. Everyone has been extremely supportive and we really are one big family – everyone is always inspiring each other. “ Not only is it brilliant to be at uni learning our craft, but every day we’re surrounded by our future employers in the form of students on other courses. From filmmakers to animators to composers to photographers, it’s a great place to be when you’re working in this amazing but challenging industry.”
Eleanor Crouch BA (Hons) Acting, UCA Farnham Graduated 2018
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Conor Eastwood, UCA Rochester
“ I have learned so many new skills, I don’t even know where to begin. All the design elements, drawings and illustrations, the technical drawings that go with them, model boxes – making things to scale, whether it’s furniture, buildings, people. You get a range of the practical things, like using silicone moulds and resin, or wood in the workshop. We’ve had a couple of scenic workshops with someone from the Royal Opera House which has been amazing, there’s a whole range of things to choose from. “ Work experience has definitely been one of the best things we’ve done. You get to meet industry contacts, have the opportunity to learn so many new things about materials and techniques, and then bring your new knowledge and skills back with you and build on them for your final year. You get to just go and have fun with all these cool people and see what they do. “ To start in the real world with work experience means that you have a whole range of contacts already to go back to and work from, and from there they can give you other people to go and work for. The course gives you the basic skills in everything, it’s not just designing, it’s prop making, painting, as well as technical drawings and the computer side of things. It means you’ve got all this breadth of knowledge to go ‘okay, I know how to make this, let’s do it.’”
Catherine Barron BA (Hons) Theatre Design, UCA Rochester Graduated 2018
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Jodie Searle, UCA Rochester
Course leaders
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Gary Thorne
Ruth Torr
Acting Course Leader for BA (Hons) Theatre Design
Course Leader for BA (Hons) Acting
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UCA Rochester
UCA Farnham
Gary studied fine art with Byam Shaw School in London, later acquiring his MA in Public Art (Art in Architecture) through UEL. He studied in London with Motley Theatre Design (1983–84) under Margaret “Percy” Harris and Elizabeth Montgomery whose creative period embraced 1923–2000.
Ruth Torr leads our Acting degree at Farnham. She lectured at Middlesex University for 11 years and was recognised by the University for teaching excellence and awarded the role of teaching fellow. She has recently been awarded the HEA Senior Fellowship.
Gary’s professional work since 1984 ranges from touring, repertory theatre in the UK and across Canada, opera, public art commissions and fine art group exhibitions in London. Gary has written three educational books on design: ‘Stage Design’, ‘Designing Stage Costumes’, and ‘Technical Drawing for the Stage’. Before joining UCA, Gary was RADA’s Head of Theatre Design (2004–2016), responsible for the two-year postgraduate course in Set & Costume Design, and tutor for Stage Design and Costume for Stage and Screen (1997–2016) with Central Saint Martins. Gary has supported over 100 students annually in preparing a design portfolio for applications to programmes in Theatre Design. Many of his graduates work professionally across theatre, film, television, opera, and dance.
Ruth has significant experience of curriculum development at undergraduate and postgraduate levels within drama, performing arts and dance departments. She read Drama and Dance at the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, following a European tour of her devised physical theatre piece. Ruth then spent time with Temba Theatre Company, and completed her MA Dance Studies, focusing on choreography and anthropology. Ruth also holds professional experience of arts policy and funding, having worked for Arts Council England on project applications, and supporting theatre makers in realising their plans. She continued to perform (previously as an actor with the English National Opera) and make her own work, through her own company and as a director/ collaborator on other projects. Her current interests include movement direction as part of traditional theatre and film practice.
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The Grenfell Project, UCA Farnham
“ On a daily basis, I play and act out various characters – making people laugh, cry and feel different emotions – which is where I receive my most enjoyment in life. I want to tell stories for a living and more than anything I wanted to learn more skills, meet new people, gain connections, and experience new emotions. “ Studying acting is a pathway which has led me to new enthralling and fascinating adventures. My creativity and inspiration comes from everyone who taught me what it means to be alive. “ The course has been really interactive and I’ve been able to communicate with many new people and experience amazing new memories.”
Gabby Ellison BA (Hons) Acting, UCA Farnham Graduated 2018
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Our facilities Farnham
Rochester
UCA Farnham has extensive purpose-built facilities for over 2,000 students studying a wide range of creative arts subject areas. We have dedicated rehearsal and performance spaces for our students.
Our UCA Rochester campus provides you with a fantastic range of facilities to help you realise your creative visions. Dedicated workshop space includes equipment for metal work, wood work, casting resin and plaster work. You’ll also have access to our sewing rooms, dye and print facilities, campus photography studios, laser cutting and 3D printing.
Our resources on campus include: –– IT suites fully equipped with both PCs and Macs for graphic design and general work –– E xtensive equipment store for the hiring of digital equipment such as cameras, laptops and projectors –– Photography equipment and darkrooms
On our Rochester campus you’ll find the Theatre Design course – please note this is part of the school of architecture and is not a performing course.
–– Access to industry design software
Our campus at UCA Rochester offers a range of theatre and prop design facilities, including: –– Access to campus photography studios
–– A ccess to the Media Resource Centre for printing and publishing.
–– D edicated studios for set building, costume and prop-making
–– Scanning and printing facilities
–– Dye and print facilities If you choose to study on our BA (Hons) Acting degree, you’ll enjoy our partnership with Farnham Maltings - a leading performance venue located in the heart of Farnham. You’ll get to benefit from its network of professional theatre makers and extensive resources, including performance and rehearsal spaces and a screening room.
–– Laser cutter and 3D printing –– Sewing rooms –– W ood, metal, resin, plaster and ceramic workshops.
Our Farnham campus is also currently undergoing a large building project – our Film & Media Centre, due to be completed in December 2018. The brand-new build will feature state-of-theart, custom designed studios and theatres, including: –– A 250-seat lecture theatre with 4k projection facilities –– B lack box studio with Arri Skypanel lighting, makeup space and retractable bleachers –– L ive room for band performance with instruments provided (pianos, drums, keyboards, etc.) –– C ontrol room for sound mixing, with Audient producer desk, synthesizer and Apogee Symphony MK II audio interface –– D ubbing theatre for configuring sound mixes to picture, with Avid Pro Tools control surface and software. 18
Please note, access to each campus and its resources can sometimes depend on the campus you choose to study at. For example, you may be using the facilities at the campus where your course is based but not always at others – this depends on your course.
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The Crucible, UCA Farnham
“ I’ve learned a bit of everything while I’ve been on the course, really. Often people come to uni with an idea of what they want to do – I originally wanted to work on props – but then you try costumes, pattern making, digital work, model making, filming, editing, and do a bit of everything that’s out there in the creative industry. It’s not just one job, it’s getting prepared for all of them, because you never know when you’re going to have to do something else when you need to. “ The course has prepared me to get ready for the outside world because originally I did want to do props, but now I probably want to focus more on sets. I wouldn’t have got that opportunity if I had only focused on one thing, and I wouldn’t have been able to try the different aspects that led me to wanting to create the whole world and let my imagination run wild rather than just focusing on the little bits.”
Tinuke Hypolite BA (Hons) Theatre Design, UCA Rochester Graduated 2018
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Next steps
How to apply The course you choose determines how you apply – this could be through UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) or directly to UCA. Find out more uca.ac.uk/study/how-to-apply ucas.com/apply Contact us If you’ve got any queries regarding the admissions process or your application, please contact the relevant admissions team: UK/EU admissions T: +44 (0)1252 892 960 E: admissions@uca.ac.uk International admissions T: +44 (0)1252 892 785 E: internationaladmissions@uca.ac.uk Connect with us @UniCreativeArts facebook.com/ucreativearts @unicreativearts @unicreativearts youtube.com/unicreativearts #WeCreate blog.uca.ac.uk social.uca.ac.uk Join us at #UCAlive We run live Q&A sessions where you can ask us anything you like about what it’s like to live and study here at UCA. Visit uca.ac.uk/live to find out about our next #UCAlive session.
Disclaimer The information in this brochure is believed to be correct at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to introduce changes to the information given including the addition, withdrawal, relocation or restructuring of any programmes. The information in this brochure is subject to change and does not form part of any contract between UCA and the student and his/her sponsor. For up-to-date and more detailed information on any of our courses and studying at UCA, please visit uca.ac.uk 1035-0318