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
(
CLP11178
)
In this module you will develop the short scene presented in Tri 1 selected by staff to a full production lasting between 50-80 minutes. Working in your company of actors under the guidance of your director and tutor you will rehearse and perform this to a professional standard in a public setting. You will also have lectures and work as a group to create a business and marketing plan for the production.
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Festival Production
(
CLP11179
)
This module develops the production and your performance from its preview in the Festival Preview module towards public performances throughout the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As well as performing, the cast and director of each company will refine and execute your Festival Preview module's marketing strategy throughout the run. You will also be required to see a minumum of three 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 will develop your skills as a performer and developer of theatre and your collaborative and communication skills. You will start by being cast in and rehearsing a short scene (15-20 min utes) with an MFA Director. You will also commence your festival group project which leads to a final Edinburgh Festival Fringe production. 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, developing a marketing plan, sympathetic listening and responding, and enhancing group problem-solving abilities. Along with classes to enhance your knowledge in these areas, you will have scheduled rehearsal times with the directors focus on creating, honing and performing to a professional standard short sample scripts (10 mins) as your Fringe Festival presentation proposal(s).
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Film Production I
(
CLP11170
)
Film Production 1 is the first of two modules designed to provide students with a range of practical opportunities to engage in film-making projects from an actor-centred perspective. Through a series of lectures and workshops, students will develop skills in self-taping for auditions, short film planning and production (including technical elements), and pre- and post-production processes.Practical assessment will include self-taped exercises and the performance of a short two-minute filmed scene, which students will help to plan and produce in collaboration with staff. This will involve responsibilities such as art direction, securing locations, and coordinating shooting days. In addition, students will begin work on three-minute film projects produced in collaboration with MFA Film students or academic staff, introducing professional collaborative screen production practices within a postgraduate context.
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Film Production II
(
CLP11171
)
Film Production 2 is the second of two screen-focused modules and builds directly on the skills developed in Film Production 1. The module offers students a range of advanced opportunities to engage with screen performance and film-making through both independent and collaborative projects. Students will further develop skills in short film creation, screenplay development, and the production of screen work intended for web and digital exhibition.Working either individually or in groups, students will create a filmed artefact in a chosen genre, which may include a short dramatic film, extended scene, sketch work, or a mini web-series. In addition, students will be cast in two filmed projects: a scene produced and shot by peers, and a longer film project of approximately five to ten minutes, developed in collaboration with MFA Film Directing students or other screen collaborators.Alongside practical production and performance work, the module requires students to reflect critically on their creative process, evaluating their development as actors within screen contexts and analysing how engagement with film-making has informed and expanded their performance practice.
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Performance Skills
(
CLP11159
)
This 40-credit, two-trimester module is designed to cultivate advanced, integrated approaches to physical, vocal, and imaginative expression. You will critically engage with a range of established and contemporary techniques, enabling you to develop greater freedom, precision, fluidity, and expressive autonomy in performance practice.The module is closely aligned with, and responsive to, your wider practical training. As the complexity and demands of your performance work increase, you will be expected to synthesise and apply technical and conceptual knowledge with increasing independence and adaptability.You will take significant responsibility for your own learning, demonstrating initiative and originality through independent research, critical reflection, and informed presentation. Ongoing dialogue with course tutors will support your development, with an emphasis on sustained, self-directed progression and leadership within the learning environment.A core focus of the module is the advanced exploration of physical and vocal expression, encompassing both spoken and sung forms. You will engage critically with key practitioners and theoretical frameworks in voice and movement, which may include the work of Linklater, Berry, Rodenburg, Alexander, Houseman, Estill, and Carey, among others. Through this engagement, you will develop an informed, critically evaluative understanding of technique, and the capacity to integrate diverse methodologies into your own professional practice.
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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
)
Throughout the module, you will work in small tutorial groups to explore a range of plays from Greek drama to the present day. You will undertake contextual research and carry out detailed literary analysis of form, style, structure, language, and thematic ideas, while also examining the specific production challenges each play presents in practice.Weekly peer led analytical presentations will support collaborative knowledge building, allowing you to investigate the relationships between language, character, and narrative, and to test your ideas through structured discussion. These sessions create an inclusive, dialogic learning environment in which diverse perspectives contribute to a shared understanding of dramatic storytelling.The module culminates in an individual presentation in which you analyse a chosen play in terms of its production demands and propose a series of creative, practical solutions. Both your presentations and the resulting peer exchange form a significant part of the learning experience, enabling you to integrate theoretical insight with practical dramaturgical reasoning.
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.