Acting

Early career actors need to be proactive. We show you how to take an entrepreneurial approach – how to sell your brand, find opportunities, and bring the transferable skills you’ve gained on the course into many areas of the industry.

You’ll get the chance to create your own work and collaborate with professionals, especially at our student-led festival, SparkFest, which is run by our in-house production company, Bath Spa Productions.

By the time you graduate, you’ll know what it’s like to work with directors, technicians, venue managers, writers, producers and your fellow performers. You’ll know how to position yourself to find opportunities – and how to create them. You’ll learn about all aspects of communicating with future employers and freelance clients, by developing your:

• entry into Spotlight Graduates (one of the main casting databases in the UK)
• creative portfolio of projects in live performance and digital media 
• creative entrepreneurial thinking and enterprise skills 
• Showreel and Self-taping and audition skills
• graduate career action plan and interview techniques.

This is a challenging Acting degree, led by specialist staff, and designed to equip you to succeed in an increasingly competitive profession. 

Year one : Developing the technical process-led actor 
The first year introduces you to the key practitioners and processes that underpin actor training. You’ll learn about the connections between composition, rehearsal, research and performance, and develop key skills such as:

• physical and vocal preparation 
• script analysis
• improvisation and play 
• devising and content creation
• reflective practice 
• mental and physical wellbeing for a training actor. 

Year two :Developing the creative and interpretive actor 

The second year provides you with opportunities to apply your technical acting skills in a range of creative projects. You will interpret, analyse and perform various texts in order to extend your understanding of performing across multiple performance platforms for example:

• acting for screen and emerging technologies 
• acting for voiceover and audio drama

To extend your employability as an actor, you'll have the opportunity to complete your Stage Combat BADC qualification.

Year three: Developing the entrepreneurial actor 

This is your apprentice year, when we’ll encourage you to take your skills into an outward-facing environment.

You’ll become a member of Bath Spa Productions, a professional company that produces a range of live and recorded work. This provides a safe environment in which to test your ability to work collaboratively.

You’ll get the chance to connect your acting work with design, technical, management, music and other production elements. Within this collaborative environment you’re expected to meet industry standards and work within professionally-recognised timeframes. 

You’ll be assessed through a variety of methods including:

• performances
• self-reflective journals and essays
• vivas (where you talk about your work)
• blogs/vlogs
• presentations.

In your final year, you’ll also be assessed on a range of projects, all led by external industry professionals.

You’ll learn in a wide variety of settings, including regular practical acting classes, seminars, workshops, tutorials, rehearsals and small groups. You’ll have regular one-to-ones with our specialist staff to check your progress and provide individual support. It's a full time course , with an average of 12 hours of teaching contact,  6 hours of facilitated rehearsals and additional independent study time.

You’ll have an average of 18 contact hours per week in your first two years, with more independent rehearsals in your graduating year. You need to complement this with equivalent hours of independent study and preparation.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our information on Your Learning and Teaching at BSU.

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

We work closely with professionals, companies and organisations in theatre, film and television. These collaborators are both national and in the region. The course has a successful professional partnership with Theatre Royal Bath.

Our students have recently worked with director Kirstie Davis and Lex Kaby, writer and director Emma Williams and Ed Viney.

Our graduating students work across stage, screen and voiceover for books and video games; they’ve performed at Comedy Clubs, in TV commercials, and on UK national tours. They’ve appeared in immersive experiences, major touring pantomimes, short award-winning films and musical theatre productions. They’ve also acted in dramas by Netflix, the BBC and ITV.

Several have established successful theatre companies, and gone on to create their own national tours and even employ members of the creative community they established at Bath Spa University.

Acting graduates from Bath Spa work locally, nationally and globally, and are recognised for their creativity and versatility as actors, creatives and makers, building their career in what they were trained to do.

Our graduates also engage in further study or work in related performance roles, as artistic directors, writers, arts officers and teachers.

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Global Citizenship Programme, which you’ll study alongside your degree. You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience.

On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

At our stunning Newton Park campus, you’ll be surrounded by wildlife and beautiful eighteenth century landscaping.

You'll have access to a range of excellent facilities, including:

• Commons building with its state-of-the-art classrooms, study spaces and café
• Digital labs (Mac rooms)
• Virtual Learning Environment to support you in your modules
• Breakout spaces and quiet study areas
• Lecture and seminar rooms

 The School has access to a large range of state-of-the-art facilities at BSU’s Newton Park campus , including:

• dedicated black box and rehearsal spaces
• fully-equipped television studios, including green screen and mo-cap technologies
• our 186-seat University Theatre.

Further afield, our purpose-built performance and production facility, Oldfield Park Theatre workshops has facilities including:

• rehearsal studios and Black Box performance space
• breakout spaces and quiet study areas
• lecture and seminar rooms
• IT suite
• carpentry workshop 
• set building workshop
• costume making workshop
• prop making workshop.

• Our Library offers a wealth of learning resources including books, journals, DVDs and an extensive range of electronic services. Our Subject Librarian for Performing Arts provides subject-specific support, including help with research.
• ASk (formerly the Writing and Learning Centre) provides support for your academic work, including feedback on written drafts and other help with academic writing.
• Our Virtual Learning Environment provides online access to learning materials such as lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards and other resources. 
• The Careers team run networking events and advisory workshops that explore your future options and the essentials of the job application process. They help you get experience by assisting with your search for work placements and paid part-time jobs while you're studying. When you're ready to progress into your chosen career, they can help you secure graduate-level employment, freelance opportunities, and funding for your own business ideas. Career support continues for years after you graduate with the dedicated Grad Support Unit.
• You’ll have free access to thousands of business, design and tech courses online via LinkedIn Learning.
• If English isn't your first language, our English Language Unit can help you improve your English, reach your full potential and boost your confidence.
• Our Student Wellbeing Services are available to support you through your learning.

The Professional Placement Year (PPY) provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your PPY, you'll work to identify roles of interest and secure a placement. The Placements Team will support through timetabled sessions and 1:1 appointments.

As well as completing a minimum of 900 placement hours, you will complete two assessments demonstrating your skill development, growth in professional behaviours and how the PPY has impacted your future career aspirations.