Thinking about studying performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and want a deep dive into how training here will help to shape you as a versatile, confident and industry-ready artist?
Programme heads from BA Acting, BA Performance, BA Musical Theatre and MA/MFA Classical and Contemporary Text share their insights on the educational journey at RCS.
Mercy Ojelade, Interim Associate Head of Acting
How will my training encompass different performance genres?
Students on the BA Acting programme at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland benefit from acting classes and screen acting classes from the beginning of their training. Across the three years, students meet and collaborate with peers from various disciplines on offer at the Conservatoire – this includes potential opportunities to work with film, production, music, dance, performance in British Sign Language and English, and musical theatre students.
All these overlaps provide opportunities to acquire and develop transferable skills across various performance mediums for our actors. Students also have opportunities to elect option choices of interdisciplinary study or extended practice to further the breadth of their training, understanding and employability.
What skills/techniques do you focus on to cultivate versatility across different acting styles?
The changing nature of the industry has meant that our students should be prepared to be versatile in their artistry and entrepreneurial in their approach to work. Students explore new work in their training and are encouraged to create their own work as part of a student festival open to the public.
Acting for Recorded Media means our students are competent with contemporary, digital performance platforms; Professional Practice classes are delivered throughout the training – keeping students up to date with industry practice.
Can you share some graduate destinations?
The BA Acting programme has provided a versatile training background for a number of artists now working across the performance industries. Some notable alumni include 2007 graduate Finn den Hertog. Finn is a leading director working across Scotland and is the co-founder of theatre company Groupwork. Finn recently directed fellow alumni David Ireland’s play The Fifth Step starring another alumni Jack Lowden. Meghan Tyler graduated in 2019, appearing in the original cast of Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), Meghan also wrote the play Crocodile Fever – winner of the Stewart Parker Award, presented at the Traverse Theatre. Francesca Hess, a 2022 graduate, was a Citizens Theatre Graduate Actor and is now the co-curator of I’ll Scratch Yours – a new writing event for writers and performers in Glasgow. Fran is also developing her own written work. Multilingual graduate actor Ferdinand McKay (2023) continues to work on screen whilst developing his own music and written work. Graduate Lola Aluko (2023) continues to work across various theatre productions and most recently appeared singing and acting in Beautiful – The Carol King Musical at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
In what ways do you integrate classic methods with modern approaches to equip students for the evolving needs of the industry?
Students are prepared for the industry by being taught by working professionals with an extensive body of acting and teaching experience. Whilst there are core overlaps or direct links with the work of renowned practitioners, the training delivered is personal and supported by the applied industry knowledge of the tutors. The training is robust and underpins the actor’s preparation for various mediums.
How can students connect and collaborate with industry professionals?
It’s an important part of the training for students to learn from external professionals and we regularly invite industry guests to engage with our students as early as the second year. Some of these professionals go on to become future colleagues or employers of our acting students. Our students work alongside these professionals to build working relationships and expand networking opportunities.
Brian Ferguson, Head of Classical and Contemporary Text
How will my training encompass different performance genres?
I am the Head of MA/MFA Acting/Directing Classical and Contemporary Text at RCS. As our programme focuses on working with text, it gives us a great flexibility in working across screen and theatre. Even within those mediums, the programme offers a wide variety of performance styles. In terms of theatre work, our students are given the opportunity to work in different theatre spaces, from small black box studio spaces to a month-long residency at the Globe Theatre, London, where they have the chance to perform on the main stage.
For screen work, in term two we run an Acting for Camera module where students work with existing scenes to learn technique prior to embarking on a project where they write, make, edit, and produce a brand-new digital work. The finished pieces for this project create our digital On the Verge festival.
What skills/techniques do you focus on to cultivate versatility across different acting styles?
Naturally, a lot of what we focus on centres around textual analysis for both actors and directors. As the course title suggests, the techniques we teach, such as Active Analysis, can be used when working with all text, old and new. The fact that our programme also includes several opportunities for students to write their own original work or adapt existing literature gives them the opportunity to develop these techniques as writers.
Can you share some graduate destinations?
As the course works with both actors and directors and gives both the opportunity to develop as writers and creators of their own work, our alumni go on to work in a wide variety of disciplines. For example, while Isobel McArthur trained as an actor on the course, she has gone on to have great success as a writer with her play Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) winning the Olivier Award for Best Comedy.
We also have a large number of international students on the course. Jeremy Crawford trained with us before returning to America and landing a recurring role in The Witcher. Director Debbie Hannan studied on the course and has gone on to work with many of the UK’s leading theatres, including The National Theatre of Scotland and The Royal Court.
In what ways do you integrate classic methods with modern approaches to equip students for the evolving needs of the industry?
We do this through the work with the text. The text often informs the practice. Sometimes, during projects such as the month-long residency at the Globe, this means learning techniques from external practitioners who are specialists in working with Shakespeare’s language. We are also very lucky to have a teaching team on the course with a wide range of professional experience in working with text internationally.
How can students connect and collaborate with industry professionals?
There are opportunities to work with external practitioners throughout the course. In the early terms, this tends to be in the form of practical sessions where the students are trained in new techniques, however as the course goes on, these sessions become more focused on opportunities for the students to meet casting directors and agents in order to get a sense of how the industry works at that level.
Jane Hensey, Head of Musical Theatr
How will my training encompass different performance genres?
The BA Musical Theatre degree programme at RCS is the only one in the UK (possibly the world) that offers integration of actor musicianship skills alongside the traditional focus on acting, singing and dance disciplines. The programme was established 15 years ago, predicting the industry shifts towards a demand for multi-skilled performer-creators. The programme has continued to flourish and secure its reputation as being sector leading in this field.
What skills/techniques do you focus on to cultivate versatility across different acting styles?
On the BAMT programme, acting is at the core of our training, and we consciously explore this through a variety of approaches – through song, contemporary and heightened dramatic text, spoken voice, movement, music, acting for screen and integrated project work.
Can you share some graduate destinations?
We evaluate our success by the variety of work our students engage in; commercial West End, actor-musician regional rep, plays, new musicals, TV/film etc.
Examples of successful alumni who have traversed performance contexts include Michael Ahomka-Lindsay, who recently came out of Cabaret in the West End straight into Reverberation – a contemporary play at the Bristol Old Vic. Some of our graduates also move into musical theatre writing (O’Neill & Savage), directing and/or musical direction – an example being current Musical Directing post-grad student, Thomas Bolam, who first completed our BAMT programme.
How can students connect and collaborate with industry professionals?
Collaboration is obviously at the heart of musical theatre; so, working with directors, choreographers, musical directors (studying on our postgrad programmes) and musical supervisors will happen naturally throughout the programme. The additional advantage to learning in a conservatoire environment is the opportunity to collaborate with peers and professionals in other performing arts disciplines including film, opera, music and production.
Mark Stevenson, Interim Head of BA Performance
How will my training encompass different performance genres?
The BA Performance programme has dedicated three-year training pathways which prepare students for careers in different performance media: Actor and Script trains actors to develop performance from narrative theatrical text from fundamental basics, through scene study and monologue work to fully realised main stage productions.
Actor and New Work develops devising and writing skills which students apply to their own theatrical creations as well as adaptations of existing material. Over its three-year progression, Script to Screen develops students’ ability to be actors in front of the camera, write their own short film scripts and finally act in and direct student-led shorts. They also take on production roles such as production planning, art department and editing.
Where possible we also look to collaborate with other programmes within RCS. Working with stage management and design students is built into our theatrical productions; we work closely with colleagues in the BA Filmmaking department to realise our shorts. And when timetables allow, we share practice across the performances courses – both with BA Acting (in our Devised Theatre work festival and Industry Showcase) and BA Musical Theatre (for example in an upcoming production of A Christmas Carol). This cross-fertilisation is a bonus of the RCS and is very valuable in students learning from each other’s methods, but also developing an awareness of the richness of British Sign Language and its culture.
What skills/techniques do you focus on to cultivate versatility across different acting styles?
Exposure to, experience of and teaching within these different media helps students recognise the different demands and performance parameters within different media – as well as fundamental elements and similarities. The Actor-training has a Stanislavski basis. Movement work with principles of Lecoq, Feldenkrais and specific visual theatre elements help train the theatrically expressive body. Students explore the principles of naturalism for their screen work alongside bouffant, mime, mask, clown and Michael Chekhov work which demands exploring more embodied forms.
Can you share some graduate destinations?
As we have hoped, graduates are finding and making work in a variety of fields. Here are a few examples: Benedetta Zanetti, a 2021 graduate has written and directed a short film, directed new writing for theatre and is maintaining her theatre acting career. Jamie Rea, graduate of 2018 as well as performing in theatrical events and his own co-written short film, is also developing his work as a producer and creative access advisor. Amy Murray, 2021 graduate, went straight into a Netflix series upon graduation. She has recently performed in the Edinburgh Festival and leads workshops with schools and community groups.
Our students have also written plays, created digital art, worked as BSL performers in majority hearing productions and created and toured their own non-verbal theatre pieces.
In what ways do you integrate classic methods with modern approaches to equip students for the evolving needs of the industry?
Alongside RCS staff teaching, visiting professionals leading workshops allow students to learn about contemporary techniques to add to their toolkit. We look to what is happening in the industry and to connect to it wherever possible – whether this be new writing, new stage technologies or best practice to do with access.
How can students connect and collaborate with industry professionals?
Within the modules listed, the BA Performance degree looks to work with a variety of professionals in different fields: we have professional directors leading on third-year plays (plus choreographers, movement directors, intimacy coordinators as required); professional theatre makers teaching and mentoring devising work; working screenwriters, directors and cinematographers mentor students through their screen journey.
