Acting

BA (Hons) Professional Acting

Key Information
  • Award

    Bachelor of Arts with Honours, BA (Hons)

  • Application process

    Multiple-round audition

  • Duration

    Three years (full-time)

  • Academic year

    22 September 2025 – 10 July 2026

  • Application deadline

    31 January 2025 (16:00 GMT)

     

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Course overview

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This industry-renowned course provides you with advanced-level skills and techniques in acting for all media including theatre, television, film and radio. It is a predominantly vocational course, equipping you for a varied and fulfilling career as a professional actor. You will be part of a close-knit ensemble, working together on in-house projects before performing in professional-standard productions across Bristol. We aim to equip you with the tools and techniques required to present your natural talent in performance and to realise your own professional ambitions.

From the 2024-25 academic year onward, our audition process is changing. Please make sure to read about our updated audition process.

A short video to give you an idea of our auditions process.

Course highlights

  • Learn your craft as part of a close-knit and supportive ensemble
  • Perform in a range of theatre productions for the public at prominent Bristol venues
  • Meet agents and casting directors for practice auditions and feedback
  • Hone your acting to camera skills in the School’s specialist film department
  • Develop your professional practice as a well-informed and responsible actor

Course structure

Year One: In the first year, you will work on the core disciplines of acting, voice and movement. Through these, you will explore a wide range of skills through text interpretation, improvisation, acting to camera, singing, accent and dialect work, vocal interpretation, actors’ movement, stage combat, dance and period movement.  Your development as a well-informed actor is supported by specialist workshops in areas including understanding boundaries, intimacy training, race and allyship, and unconscious bias. We aim to familiarise you with the practises of major drama practitioners, whilst helping you find your own, personal approach to your work. 

Year Two: In your second year, you continue to develop acting, vocal and movement skills, and you refine the craft of storytelling through productions for local school audiences, and performing in an ensemble production to the wider public. Through these projects, you will be introduced to working in a variety of settings and venues to explore a range of theatre traditions.  You will also continue acting for screen and audio work, acquiring studio and on-location etiquette. 

Third Year: The focus of the final year will be on both preparing you for public theatre performances, and ensuring you are empowered to work as a professional actor.  The year is structured around main house ensemble productions, smaller cast productions and your showcase to industry professionals. You will also spend time creating audio and screen work at our dedicated studios.

Career pathways

Time is dedicated in your final year to preparing for life as a professional actor who works with autonomy and responsibility as part of a team.  The work focuses on self-presentation and career management, as well as preparing you for the industry showcase and meetings with agents and casting directors. Our actors have an exceptional track record of graduate employment, and work in theatre, film, TV and radio.  In recent years, new graduates have performed with theatre companies across the UK including the Royal Shakespeare Company,  the Globe and the National Theatre, as well as major tours, and on screen in major TV series  and  critically-acclaimed feature films.

Many of our acting alumni have become household names, recognised through their receipt of Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Olivier awards. Professional Acting graduates include Olivia Colman, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Naomie Harris, Faye Marsay, Phil Dunster, Pearl Mackie, Jyuddah Jaymes and Ryan McKen amongst many others. Read more about our graduates’ success on our alumni pages.

Students relaxing outside of the School
The School is in a beautiful part of Bristol, overlooking a huge park called the Downs. We sometimes take advantage of our close proximity to the Downs during the summer term, practising fight and dance routines, or voice or singing classes! Dan Hall, BA Professional Acting student