This is a unique master’s course, combining the academic study of performance with a practice-based approach to the art of acting. It’s ideal if you want to pursue a professional career in the theatre, to develop a deeper understanding of your craft and hone your performance skills. Based at our new, state-of-the-art University Square Stratford building, you will work in close collaboration with students and academic staff on our equally excellent MA Theatre Directing course as you produce and perform a range of innovative work of professional quality while also being given expert tuition in the skills of acting. Taught in the evenings and on Saturdays and available for both part-time and full-time study to fit around your needs, it’s a course geared to equip you with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to be a stage actor. You will be guided by leading theatre practitioners, who will both teach and mentor you. After a final degree show in which you will have the chance to showcase your talents, you will leave our course ready to discover that all the world’s your stage. We will lead you through the key building blocks to make your performance shine, giving you a complete grounding in a range of different approaches to acting. So you will study naturalism, realism, contemporary devising, intercultural performance, production and practice as research. You will look at the dynamically interrelated skills of acting, voice and movement and take a module in how to stage performances, during which you’ll be mentored by members of a professional theatre company. Our course is practice-based, so your final piece of theatre will be a performance piece involving both acting and directing students, while also producing a critical reflection on your own work.