FAQs about our Full Time Acting Course
Since we announced our own full time acting course, we’ve a shit load of enquiries. And we’re grateful. You can’t start a venture like this, without students. If we’re sailing this boat, we need sailors for the journey. We’ve put a huge amount of thought into the content of this course, and it’s really important to us. So let’s take the time to answer some of the questions that we receive (for the 2016 intake):
How Much Time Will I Spend Actually Performing?
The course is unique because we put performance at the core of the course. Most full time 3 year courses don’t let their students perform until the 2nd, even 3rd year. Our course keeps performance in the centre. Throughout the year, the students will attend a weekly Performance Class, where they will always perform, each week. Performance is such an important part of the curriculum, that we need to see our full time acting students doing it all the time.
But aside from that, half way through the course, after six months of intensive studio training, we offer our acting students the opportunity to put their learning to the test in the arena of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. That’s a big challenge. Three shows in rep, with two shows per day over the 3 weeks.
After the festival, the students go back into training for on camera acting training with the likes of expert acting coaches Mel Churcher and Patrick Tucker. They then take part in 3 professionally made films.
After that, the students return to the stage with even more performance opportunities in a professional Glasgow theatre, directed by an emerging theatre maker. As if that isn’t enough, they perform at an industry showcase at the end of the year.
What Would An Average Day On the Course Look Like?
It’s debatable if 2 days will ever be the same on our full time acting course, but if we were to look at an average day during the first half of the year, it’s probably like this.
You’d arrive at around 9:45am, ready for their 10am Yoga Session with our highly experience Yoga teacher. This is aimed at increasing your strength, flexibility and focus. After that, you’d usually have a voice session, to develop your voice for the tough demands of professional performance – followed by a short lunch break. In the afternoon, you have your main acting technique classes for about 3-4 hours, delving into techniques, improvisation and performance. On some days, you’d head away for Stage and Screen Combat training, on others into rehearsal. Towards the end of the day, you might head off to the movies to watch a film we’ve asked you to see, or the theatre to show. Often, you’ll stay in the studio to work on something for class. This isn’t the kind of class where the learning stops at 5pm. We’ve got two additional studios exclusively for our Full Time Acting students, as well as common room to sit, read, study and relax.
Do I Get a Qualification at the End of the Course?
Yes, you do. Now, we’re not a big fan of certificates. But a credit bearing qualification IS what some people want to get out of this. So we’ve developed a Professional Diploma with the Scottish Qualifications Authority, comparable to a Higher National Diploma in Acting and Performance. Our course and qualification is specialist, it takes only 1 year to complete and provides over 2000 hours of training during that time.
We hope that answers some of your questions, and don’t be afraid to email us if you’d like us to answer more.