Acting BA (Hons)
Length:
3 years
UCAS Code:
W410
Institution Code:
N39
Optional Diploma Years:
Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 diploma), or Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 diploma), available between years 2 & 3
Develop the creative, technical and professional skills required to become a successful actor for stage, screen and recorded media.
This course offers an unparalleled, vibrant and supportive environment for aspiring actors seeking to sustain a career in theatre, screen and recorded media. Led by a team of specialist and highly experienced teachers, professionals and researchers, you will develop the key imaginative, practical and critical skills for working confidently across a range of live artistic disciplines and emerging innovations in recorded media.
Why study with us
- Integrate practical training voice, movement and acting classes to explore a wide range of practices and techniques, encouraging you tap into your unique emotional and creative potential.
- Explore and refine performance techniques through studio and digital training methods supported by expert staff and visiting professionals, connecting you directly to the latest practices in industry.
- Collaborate with our screen-based courses in film, animation, visual effects, and games, as well as fashion and fine arts, developing cross-disciplinary skills and links with the wider industry.
- Explore the latest developments in performance through different live and recorded contexts and gain skills across various technologies including sound and camera work.
- Graduate with headshots, website, showreel, as well as audition, interview, self-taping and proactive networking skills.
Our partnership with Spotlight offers access to the largest online casting resource in the UK, as well as a wealth of support, content and events specifically tailored towards graduate actors.
“The incredible and intensive training has pushed me to create work that I’d never previously thought myself capable of and my tutors have helped me in every way possible.”
Sophie Stagg | BA (Hons) Acting
Course Content
Integrated Foundation Year (optional)
The Integrated Foundation Year option is currently unavailable for this course.
Year 1
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
This introductory unit launches your journey into the professional world of acting and performance. Through a combination of practical workshops, seminars and independent study, you will delve into the key techniques and guiding principles of the acting process: voice, movement, play, concentration, embodied awareness, imagination and active listening. Practical sessions exploring improvisation, scene study, rehearsals and presentations, combined with investigative approaches to research and critical reflection, will equip you with the essential tools for approaching text, making creative choices, developing your own personal practice and producing a body of creative work.
40 credits
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
This unit expands and develops core acting skills and understanding of performance theory. A focus on developing and embodying character in specific environments draws on various acting approaches integrating text analysis, animal work, points of centre, point of lead, sensory work, and is informed by continuous critical reflection on your learning. Together, these elements prepare you for observing, exploring, researching and creating a distinct physical and vocal characterisation. The unit also introduces you to the devising process. Exploring themes that move you and experimenting with aspects of collaborative creation, lead to an understanding of how to develop and structure your own creative voice.
80 credits
Year 2
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
This unit interrogates different approaches to acting and performance, strengthening your knowledge and understanding of a range of acting techniques across contemporary live and digital contexts. Engaging in practical acting workshops and film work, including camerawork, editing, and sound, will refine your interpretive skills, technical abilities and enhance your creative choices. Collaborative projects, alongside critical analysis, encourage you to develop a breadth and depth of experimentation around how acting and performance can address broader social and global concerns. You will gain a heightened awareness of ethical considerations in performance and explore what acting can do within wider contemporary contexts.
80 credits
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
This unit focuses on enhancing collaborative working methods and engaging with other creative practices. Collaborative projects explore team-working skills, project management and the ability to communicate effectively. Practical workshops are centred on movement and voice, interpreting text and devising immersive performance. Masterclasses in specialised techniques such as stage combat, mask work, and Laban Efforts encourage you to identify your own emerging interests. Cross-course collaborations with other disciplines such as film, sound, animation, fine art or fashion, enhance understanding of acting and performance from alternative perspectives, enabling you to gain new skills and knowledge within and beyond your subject area.
40 credits
Diploma Year (optional)
Students have the opportunity to spend a year after the second of their degree (or the third year if studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year) enhancing their employability options through a Level 5 Diploma. They can choose from courses designed to provide:
- opportunities to gain industry insight, developing employability skills through a series of supported experiences, expanding professional networks and building confidence in the workplace, or
- an introduction to creative computing, building an understanding of how coding skills can be used to advance and complement creative practice.
Final year
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
This unit involves the preparation, management and completion of a written project. You will develop a body of independently sourced reference material, applied through creative experimentation and text-based research. Working from your emerging interests you may wish to interrogate a particular area, practice or approach to acting and performance. Furthering your knowledge of relevant theories, histories and concepts encourage you to identify employment potentials and opportunities for further study. By the end of the unit, you should feel well prepared to work independently on your final project and have a clear trajectory towards launching a career in your chosen area.
40 credits
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
The final unit of study culminates in a showcase performance or performative event designed to identify, extend and consolidate your strengths as a professional actor and performer. Directed work and rehearsals immerse you in the entire production process. Alternatively, you can opt for an artist-led and/or mediated performance event. You will also develop a self-promotional strategy for optimising your career profile: guidance on headshots, voiceovers and film showreel, as well as technical workshops on professional website development and managing a social media profile. Career and employability sessions enhance your understanding of emerging opportunities in contemporary live and digital performance and/or further study.
80 credits
Careers Information
BA (Hons) Acting will equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in the dynamic and ever-changing world of performance. Not only will you be well-prepared to secure work as an actor in traditional contexts such as stage, film and TV, but you’ll also be encouraged to explore new and innovative performance practices at the edges of the specialism.
Typical career paths include
- Acting for stage and screen
- Directing for stage and screen
- Voiceover for radio and games
- Teaching
- Performance artist
- Broadcast presenting
- Community arts
- Drama therapy
- Arts administration
You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.
The Audition Process
Norwich University of the Arts announces its BA Acting Audition dates! Spaces are limited so we suggested that you book early.
- Wednesday 18 Dec
- Wednesday 22 Jan
- Saturday 1 Feb
- Saturday 8 Feb
- Wednesday 12 Feb
- Wednesday 12 March
- Wednesday 9 April
Offers are typically made within two weeks of the audition.
Tabbed Section
- Two monologues – one serious, one comic.
- Stick with contemporary texts and try to focus on film, plays or radio dramas.
- Choose two contrasting monologues that allow you to show that something has changed for the character during the course of the performance.
- Make them something that you can relate to, both in terms of the character’s age and their personality.
- Approximately three minutes each.
- Read the entire play/script that the monologue comes from so you understand the character’s journey.
- If the story take place in a different time or environment, research those so you can imagine yourself there and the conditions the character face.
- Ask yourself what happens in the monologue? What changes? What is at stake for the character?
- Know who you are speaking to and where they are.
- Create a time and space that is apart from the everyday and warm-up your body and voice.
- Think of the performance as a little play – think about shifts in tone, energy, pacing, mood, a sense of urgency.
- Consider how to use your voice and body and make creative choices in line with your character and the situation they’re in.
- Don’t just memorise lines but practice what your character is doing both when speaking and in-between lines.
- The process – Starts with a group practical workshop, typically a warmup. Students then wait with Student Ambassadors whilst each applicant goes to perform their monologues in front of a small panel. The panel will direct the applicant after their initial performance, and then lead straight into a short interview. After everyone has auditioned, the group will be lead on a campus tour.
- Arrive early!
- Eat at least half an hour before and bring water with you.
- Dress in clothes you can move in and don’t wear jewellery that dangles.
- Be yourself!
- The process – pre-record your audition, submit your video through the online portal, then take part in an online interview/review.
- Check the lighting is good enough to see your face and body.
- Don’t obscure your face with clothing, accessories etc.
- Check the positioning of your camera and that your background is plain and suitable.
- Triple check your video before submission. Check technical aspects too, that the audio and visuals are fine.
- During the online interview, you might be asked to perform one of your chosen monologues and be directed.
Tabbed Section
Typical UK offers
A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BCC (104 UCAS Tariff points) or above. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich University of the Arts will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.
BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject
BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject
T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above
UAL Extended Diploma
Merit
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 26 points
Norwich University of the Arts welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio (if required), responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.
If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.
If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.
International applications
We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.
Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).
We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.
You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.
2024/25 University fees for new entrants
Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs
Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements. They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich University of the Arts’ tuition fees upfront.
Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.
Fee status | Course | Annual fee |
---|---|---|
Home | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £9,250 |
Overseas | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £18,000 |
Inflation in subsequent years
The rules for inflation on fees in subsequent years depend on the type of fee status and level.
- For Home undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.
- For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.
For Home and overseas postgraduate degree students starting in 2024, fees will remain the same for each year of your course.
Financial support for UK students in 2024
Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.
International students
We offer a range of scholarships for international students to support your studies with us.
- Group briefings
- Academic tutorials
- Group tutorials
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Critiques (crits)
- Seminars
- Finished pieces of work
- Presentations
- Written work
- Your research
- A reflective journal
Work-based Learning Opportunities
Between Years 2 and 3 of this course, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake one of the following additional qualifications:
Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 Diploma)
Our Creative Professional Development Diploma gives you the chance to spend a year exploring your post-uni job options through a structured programme of input sessions and work-based learning. This year offers two much-sought-after industry placements – the first lasting six weeks, the second 12 weeks, and a group project or ‘hackathon’ exploring freelancing and business start-up.
Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 Diploma)
Our Creative Computing Diploma introduces you to coding and computational skills that will advance and complement your creative practice. No prior experience of coding is needed, just a curiosity about creative computing and a desire to push your own practice into new realms. You’ll also develop a wider knowledge of the creative tech industries, available roles and opportunities.
Teaching Staff
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In conversation with
George tells us what it’s like studying BA (Hons) Acting at Norwich, including the skills he’s gained, his creative practice and highlights of his degree.
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