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Acting - Classical at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London - UCAS

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2025 - 20262026 - 2027
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Open days

15Jan
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London - Postgraduate Open Evening
Postgraduate

Course summary

MA Acting Classical at Central is a creatively, physically and intellectually demanding, advanced-level conservatoire acting programme. It is designed primarily for students with previous training or performance experience who wish to focus intensively on plays from the European classical repertoire. Perform in two professionally supported public productions and an industry showcase Hone the individual technical craft of the actor, and release your collaborative and imaginative creativity within a small and diverse ensemble company (typically 18-20 students) Learn through practical group classes in acting, movement, voice and stage combat; seminars on theatre history, dramatic theory and research skills; and individual tutorials and feedback panels. The Classical training follows the development of the theatrical art from its earliest ritual and political roots to the birth of psychological naturalism:

  • Greek Tragedy, Chorus and the Mask
  • Clowning and Commedia dell’arte
  • Shakespeare and early modern English drama
  • Stanislavsky, the Method, Realism and Expressionism.
The structure of the course draws on the hugely influential theories of the great French acting teacher Michel Saint-Denis, training the expressive body, voice and imagination. Methodologies are drawn from a range of European and other theatrical thinkers: from Stanislavsky and his inheritors Vakhtangov, Demidov, Adler, Hagen, Meisner and Strasberg; from the physical theatre, improvisation and mask work of Lecoq and Johnstone; from the psycho-physical expressionism of Laban and Meyerhold; from the post-Brechtian and post-Grotowskian experimental traditions; and from radical contemporary dramaturgical practices. Working with some of the greatest dramatic texts ever written, you are asked to consider what they mean now, and how their 21st century reinterpretation and re-imagining still holds a ‘mirror up to nature’. You are encouraged to understand the demands of both art and craft as participants in the European theatrical tradition; and to envision the recreation and reimagining of that tradition for the future. The course rests on three structural pillars, three key moments of dramatic innovation and social transition, encountered in chronological order: Greek theatre, early modern English theatre, and 19th/20th century Russian and European theatre.

Assessment method

Via audition

How to apply

International applicants

https://www.cssd.ac.uk/international-students/information-international-applicants

Entry requirements

Applicants will normally have either undertaken conservatoire training, have professional acting experience, or have a degree in the broad field of performance and drama studies. Students from other disciplines may be considered if you have sufficient experience of theatre. An offer will normally only be made after audition and interview, and you may also be required to take part in a short practical workshop and/or submit a short piece of written work

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.

Sponsorship information

https://www.cssd.ac.uk/fees-and-funding/scholarships-bursaries-awards

Acting - Classical at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London - UCAS