Acting: Contemporary Scenes
(
CLP11165
)
This module enables you to engage with a range of acting theories and approaches to performance, focusing on contemporary texts. A variety of scenes from contemporary plays, of increasing length and complexity, will be critically analysed and performed in a workshop setting, enabling you to develop knowledge of specific genres and styles. The texts chosen, and therefore the acting theories explored, will be dependent on the year cohort, but will allow you to explore and develop a diverse, yet specialised combination of skills and acting theoretical knowledge.
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Acting: Heightened Text and Style
(
CLP11150
)
This module will provide a practical setting for the application of theory specific to the interpretation of heightened dramatic texts and complex language.
You will explore the relationship between acting and psychology, acting and emotion, acting and character, acting and cognitive processes, and the many ways in which traditional theories of acting have responded to the question of how actors interpret, prepare and perform heightened dramatic text. Techniques for inspiring imagination and play will remain at the heart of the work, and you will be extending your ability to create acting that is engaging, believable and sustainable in a variety of challenging and historically varied texts.
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Advanced Acting for Stage & Screen
(
CLP11169
)
The class will combine intensive work on screen acting technique with an extended exploration of stage acting. Screen acting work will include work on a variety of increasingly demanding scenes. Stage acting work will allow students to concentrate on an extended role from an edited canonical work. This module will be divided between screen and stage classes each week.
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Festival Preview
(
CLP11167
)
This module develops the productions selected in the previous trimester by the festival panel (on the basis of quality and overall equality of student participation) to a public preview showing. Working in small theatre companies, you will rehearse a full festival production and perform this in a public setting. You will also work as a group to create a business and marketing plan for the production.
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Festival Production
(
CLP11168
)
This module develops the productions previewed in the Festival preview modules to be given a final public performance in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As well as performing, each company will research, develop and execute a marketing strategy which includes social media, live extracts from performance, PR, and face-to-face marketing throughout the run. You will also be expected to see other performances during the Edinburgh festival fringe to enhance your own understanding and critical appraisal of the Festival fringe context.
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Festival Workshop
(
CLP11166
)
This module commences the group projects which lead towards a final Edinburgh Festival Fringe production. You will be cast in a group, and you will work together as a collaborative team. You may also be working with an MFA Director if appropriate. The module will focus on strategies for enhancing creativity, setting the stage for innovative work, effective group communication, sympathetic listening and responding, and enhancing group problem-solving abilities. Along with classes, you will have scheduled rehearsal times with the directors (and possibly writers) and will be focused on creating and honing short sample scripts (15-20 mins each) and performances of a contemporary scene and for a Fringe Festival presentation proposal.
Further information
Film Production I
(
CLP11170
)
This is the first of two modules which will present you with opportunities to develop your screen acting skills by being involved in a variety of film-making projects. The module covers a wide range of screen related content including preparing screen audition material, the production context of short film planning and producing, as well as learning pre- and post-production skills for short film on smart phone video cameras. You will also cover topics on developing independent short film proposals, story structure, story-boarding and scripting. Short, self-generated films with a given script will be produced as preparation for the self-generated film project in the module Film production 2. These short self-taped projects will also be used as casting for 3- and 10-minute films being produced by the MFA Film Directors. You will develop work on these 3-minute film projects during the module.
Further information
Film Production II
(
CLP11171
)
This is the second of two screen focused modules which will present you with a variety of opportunities to be involved in a range of screen projects. Building on Film production 1, you will develop and extend your skills in short film creation, exploring opportunities to create independent work for web presentation and developing screenplays. Working in groups, you will create a film artefact in any genre (short dramatic film/extended scene/sketches/mini-web series). In addition, you will be cast in two filming projects: the first will be a scene shot by professional staff and the second will be a 5 to 10-minute film, made in collaboration with MFA Film Directing students or other collaborator
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Performance Skills
(
CLP11159
)
This 40-credit, 2-trimester module is designed to deepen your knowledge of a variety of techniques that can help you find freedom, fluidity and ease of expression physically, vocally, and imaginatively. The module is designed to enhance and support the practical work you will be doing elsewhere within the course, and as material increases in complexity over the year, the technical work in this module will respond to that complexity. Your progress will be the subject of significant and continual communication with the course tutors and this module will require that you demonstrate initiative in research, presentation and leadership. You will focus on physical and vocal expression (both sung and spoken), and will explore selected theories of voice, movement, or singing theorists/practitioners (which might include, amongst others, Linklater, Berry, Rodenburg, Alexander, Houseman, Estill, Carey).
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Professional Practice
(
CLP11172
)
This module will focus on deepening your knowledge of the broad entertainment industry and the live and screen acting professions in particular. You will explore necessary skills appropriate to working as a freelance artist. Areas covered will include: exploring allied areas in which you may find work, mock interviews, auditions and establishing professional networks. You will be showing excerpts from your professional portfolio at set assessment points in the term and you will be expected to carry out directed and self-directed research into specific areas of the industry that represent particular target markets for you and your skills/abilities. The module also includes significant research time, which is designed to help you further understand the cultural and commercial contexts in which the live and recorded media performance industries operate. You will attend a series of classes, many delivered by visiting professionals, introducing necessary performance, business and self management skills. You will prepare a thoroughly researched critical reflection essay of the career path of the performer. You will have ‘mock-interview’ sessions in which you will be interviewed and/or present auditions and portfolios, and get immediate feedback from industry professionals. You will also be expected to produce a professional opportunities analysis, for which you will research and identify opportunities for your work once you have completed the course. Areas covered will include: The ‘business’ side of acting (agents, accounts, commission etc) -- Effective marketing, including online presence, social media, etc. -- Exploring allied areas in which you may find work -- Self-promotion and networking -- Mock interviews -- Establishing Professional Networks
Further information
Script Analysis For Actors
(
CLP11163
)
Working in groups within your year, you will conduct appropriate contextual research and carry out literary analysis of form, style, structure, language and thematic ideas on a number of plays. Each play will be examined in terms of the very specific challenges it poses for actors in practical production. Then plays chosen will vary dependent on the cohort of students. You will work on two individual projects, the first focusing on the relationships between language, character and narrative and the second identification of challenges and character analysis.
Further information
* These are indicative only and reflect the course structure in the current academic year. Some changes may occur between now and the time that you study.