Course summary

The BA (Hons) Musical Theatre equips students with the fundamentals of musical theatre performance skills, enabling them to emerge with the confidence and creativity to launch a career as a performer. At RHCast the notion of the ‘thinking practitioner’ is central to our approach across all the performing arts. The ability to understand oneself as a performer and have the confidence to engage creatively and thoughtfully with the industry, and its innovations, is at the heart of our working ethos. Within this context our unique selling point for this course is its professional awareness. This is reflected in our primary focus, which is on developing the student’s singing, dancing/movement and acting. Experienced professional performers tutor students in a range of singing and dance styles, closely aligned to the industry’s constantly evolving sense of genre. We also put particular emphasis onto production, which provides the setting for the development of the students’ inter-disciplinary education. Here they use their skills to interpret and create a complete piece of work, while also learning to co-operate and adapt with their co-performers and the creative team. These increasingly demanding productions culminate in a performance in front of a paying audience in the final year. To reflect the professional production experience, we also intensify the students’ rehearsal schedule in a ‘timetable take-over’ in the run-up to two of their key large-scale productions. Further, every production is also an opportunity for students to reflect on creative process and analyse outcomes. To build on this reflection, a three-year strand of theoretical modules explores the evolution of the musical theatre form within popular culture and the cultural/political contexts of musical theatre traditions. As this knowledge develops students become increasingly confident in assessing and interpreting not only established 20th century repertoire, but also more recent innovations within the form. The result is an intellectually engaged artist who can evaluate their work within its social and cultural setting. RHCAST is a brand new college in the heart of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, a stroll from cafés, bars and shops. The newly refurbished rooms, and auditorium provide a fantastic space for you to perform and learn. We are also just up the road from The Apex – an event venue and the creative hub of Bury. Bury St Edmunds is just an hour and half outside London and gives our students an opportunity to train in their own creative hub away from the capital, but with the flexibility to easily travel in to London when required.