BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Top-Up)

In this module, you will undertake a significant project of your own choosing. It’s your chance to explore your passion within the industry and creative arts: experiment, take risks, strengthen your skills and create a product/cohesive portfolio of work that you are proud to showcase at the end of your degree. This module will support you in consolidating the broad learning and development from the course so far, building a bridge into the industry, the workplace and future opportunities. You will be supported to self-direct your own learning through a series of lectures, seminars and 1:1 tutorials with expert supervisors.

This module is designed to build on your previous experience of performance and to apply your learning within the context of a production. The nature of the piece you work on will be appropriate to the route you are studying. You will rehearse intensively towards a production, which will be director-led. Rehearsal etiquette preparation and discipline will be core elements of your process during this module and will contribute significantly to the assessment. You will be expected to utilise your skill – sets with proficiency and assurance as well as engage openly and with creativity to the demands of the piece.

Following on from Performance 1 in the previous semester, this module is designed to build on your experience. Performance 2 provides you with the opportunity to apply what you have learnt in terms of approach and technique. within the context of a second production. It allows you to explore any strategies, approaches or methodologies that have arisen from your reflections on the previous performance. It also gives you the chance to work with a different director, and potentially a different process in the rehearsal room. This will be invaluable as a performer you will need to be able to adjust and respond to a variety of directorial styles. The nature of the piece you work on will be appropriate to the route you are studying. You will rehearse intensively towards a production, which will be director-led. Rehearsal etiquette preparation and discipline will be core elements of your process during this module and will contribute significantly to the assessment. You will be expected to utilise your skill – sets with proficiency and assurance as well as engage openly and with creativity to the demands of the piece.

This module is the final step in your journey and will support you as you look to enter your chosen field as a creative professional. Drawing on evidence from throughout your time here. you will critically self-evaluate your personal learning journey and industry engagements to date. You will explore concepts and theories of personal and professional development to support, challenge and test your assumptions, to determine your readiness for work in the creative industries. You will have the opportunity to discuss this with your peers and learn from your collective experiences in both small degree path groups and large mixed discipline sessions.

With this position in mind, you will then be challenged to create and consolidate creative assets to give you the edge over the competition in your chosen field. Specialist workshops will be offered throughout the module, informed and delivered by our wide-reaching connections and specialist tutors in the creative industries. This culminates in the creation of a portfolio which tells the story of your personal and professional journey so far, communicating your unique professional identity and future career plans in the creative industries.

This module is designed to build on your previous experience of acting for camera, and to deepen both your ability and confidence in this medium. You will become familiar with both the physical nature of a set as well as all the roles that contribute to creating film & TV. You will embed the terminology involved so that you will fully understand what is being asked or discussed when you are in front of the camera. All sessions will be practical, allowing you the maximum amount of time to become comfortable being filmed and to make sure you fully understand the acting requirements for different shots and situations. You will revisit previously explored acting methodologies, such as Meisner and Stanislavsky in order to deepen the quality of your work. During the sessions, you will be given scripts that make different demands on you in terms of style and choice. You will become used to working with little rehearsal, depending on the genre, and to make clear decisions quickly. Audition technique for film and TV will play a part in the practical sessions as will self-taping.

Whether it’s Voice-Over, Performance Capture or VR, this module will provide you with a basic understanding of immersive narrative storytelling and encourage you to develop your skills in order to create and deliver believable characters in the medium. This module will also introduce you to a variety of transferrable skills to expand your confidence and versatility as a performer. These include effective audition technique, studio etiquette, good sight-reading and voice technique, microphone technique, facial capture, as well as experience working in the field of Mo-cap and Pro-cap. Fundamentally this module will provide you with the experience and knowledge to empower you to find work in the fastest-growing sector of the entertainment industry.

This module will explore ensembles from different genres including opera, operetta, and Gilbert & Sullivan as well as a wide range of challenging musical theatre pieces. Rather than choral music, the works studied will be suitable ensemble pieces involving several characters all with their individual lines and harmonies. Pieces chosen will be dependent on the suitability of your vocal ranges, but it is anticipated that extracts will be taken from works such as The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, La Boheme, Carmen, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Natasha & the Great Comet of 1812, Curtains, Guys and Dolls etc.

By studying this module, you will improve your ensemble and harmony singing skills and increase your knowledge of a broader repertoire and of more advanced musical grammar. All points of musical expression will be discussed as well as looking closely at, and understanding, the layout of a vocal score. The skills acquired will give you a great advantage in any music rehearsal situation.

With such a diverse range of Musical Theatre productions being staged in the West End and across the UK, each has its own choreographic style that ranges from hip hop in Hamilton, disco in The Tina Turner Musical, lyrical/Ballet in An American in Paris, Fosse/Jazz in Chicago (to name a few), it is ever more apparent that dancers need to have a broad range of dance vocabulary, technique and styles within their repertoire.

In this module, you will take part in genre-based performance workshops designed to increase knowledge and development of the key technical elements and choreography associated with different styles of current MT productions. Topics include style-specific choreography and associated techniques as used within contemporary musical theatre.

This module focusses on the creation and delivery of a piece of work devised specifically to be filmed. You will take agency for your own work by choosing your specific area of performance. This can be purely a dance piece, or you might wish to explore using vocals or create a short piece with a clear narrative focus. It might well be that ultimately you incorporate several elements into your work, but the key factor is that you are responsible for producing a piece of art in video form. Through engaging with this process, not only will you work creatively by drawing on your inspirations and influences, but you will also learn the relevant techniques for performance in front of a camera. This knowledge will extend to an understanding of the different roles undertaken on a film set, providing you with a fuller knowledge of the medium. The module also provides you with an opportunity to discover both the limitations, as well as the range of possibilities open to you as an artist working for film. Professional protocol will be a key aspect of your learning. You will showcase your work to a panel and engage in a thorough discussion both about your process, but also concerning how you might promote and market your work.

As Theatre, TV, Film and Video Games move towards a level of expertise usually reserved for actors with greater physical skill, it is now becoming apparent that performers need to think of themselves as a complete actor. An actor who has as much skill physically as they do vocally.

In this module we will look at what it means to connect the disciplines fully, to create a truly versatile and individual performer, exploring how to work as an ensemble, how to story tell a story in its purest form, how to use our bodies to communicate, how to devise collaboratively in order to create theatre which is embodied and expressed through our physicality as much as the words we use. In this module, you will utilise your skills in performance and channel your imaginations in order to, not only deepen your ability as actors but also become theatre-makers.