>. Three Year Acting - Course Overview

The only actor training course to offer acting for camera throughout the three year course.

Programme Director: Clive Duncan
Programme Length: Three years, full-time
Application: Apply directly to ALRA online
Entry to course through audition.

Accreditation: National Council for Drama Training (NCDT)
Qualifications: BA (Hons) Acting & National Diploma in Professional Acting

The Three Year Acting course is aimed at giving you the adaptability, flexibility and openness needed to sustain a career in the stage, screen and audio industries. Throughout the programme you explore your creative, vocal and physical potential and are shown current operational methods and practices enabling effective and professional work. 

The Three Year Acting Course provides thorough training in the core areas of acting, movement and voice, and throughout the course these skills are integrated in a series of focused projects including Shakespeare, TV and radio.

During the course you will enhance your capacity to learn in a disciplined, organised manner and develop skills leading to self-reliant learning. The course is fully based in the practice of performance, benefiting from the high levels of expertise of the practising professionals who make up ALRA’s teaching and directing staff.

Learning to be an actor is an ongoing process - your training will never be finished.  There are always new depths to reach, new skills to acquire, new information to take in to help you play a character. This course is the beginning of that process.

Click here to download a sample timetable - this is how the 2010 First Year students began their studies. 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 are the names of the three different groups.

---

Syerra Bissessar & Abbie Salt in Iphigenia [2010]

---

>. Akash Heer
[Three Year Acting student 2007 - 2010]

'Training at ALRA has been an exhilarating and challenging three years. I have been able to sharpen my knowledge of the profession and the intense classes have provided me with the tools I'll apply to stage and screen. ALRA has a very tight-knit community; the staff are passionate and provide excellent guidance to all students. I have had the opportunity to work with creative directors who have really pushed me as an actor. Having completed the three years I'm feeling confident, ready to take ownership of my work and enter the industry as a trained actor.'

[To view Akash's Spotlight page, click here]

---

3-Year Acting Course Graduates 2010 in The House of Bernarda Alba

---

Course Content
The programme consists of five courses:

>. Building Performance
Devised theatre projects / Performances based on a variety of texts /
Recorded performances

>. Acting Studies
Acting Technique / Acting for Camera / Improvisation /Acting for Radio

>. Voice Studies
Voicing text / Articulation and RP / Technical voice / Choral and Musicianship

>. Movement Studies
Creative movement / Core Movement / Period dance / Stage combat

>. Contextual Studies
Research Methodologies / Critiquing and reviewing /
Preparation for entry into the industry

Year 1
The focus on the first three terms is on discovery, with special emphasis on the self.  You are encouraged to play and experiment with voice, physical ability and creativity, and learn how to make connections between the three. You will discover what personal resources you have and how best to use them.

You find approaches to script and text - questioning, analysing and researching - to transform the written word into the imaginative visual world of the play. Throughout this year you explore in the live performance space and in front of the camera. Over six projects, some devised, others based on existing scripts, you discover the ethos of the creative ensemble; learning to accept, give and take responsibility for their own and other’s ideas to find a productive way of working together.

Year 2
This year’s emphasis is on putting into practice the skills you are acquiring. You work on six challenging plays at a deeper level and are expected to work privately, away from rehearsal, using the approaches and techniques you discovered in your first year.

Texts include Tragedy, 19th Century Realism, TV Comedy and Shakespeare. Voice and Movement become more concentrated and new skills are added to the timetable. You use your developing vocal skills for recorded performance in the Radio Studio and your work in front of the camera becomes more technically demanding. 

Year 3
The final three terms are about facing the public. You perform in three public productions in the ALRA Theatre both North and South, and experience a week of touring a production. You participate in a radio project, record a short film drama and undergo a TV presenting course - both are recorded to DVD for students to use as a showreel. 

Before Graduation, you appear in showcases both at ALRA North and in London before an invited audience of casting directors, agents and director. Throughout the year you attend industry workshops and lectures, led by professional practitioners. These prepare you for the practical business of being an actor - from marketing yourself and auditioning through to keeping accounts and tax returns.

Teaching
You are taught mainly by practical methods, such as technique classes, workshops, exercises, rehearsal and informal presentations. You participate in group discussions, seminars and lectures as well as tutor feedback and review. All tutors and directors involved in the delivery of the course are practising professionals.

ALRA requires constant attendance at all timetabled classes, rehearsals, seminars and other events. This rule is strictly enforced - any lateness means you are excluded from classes for the rest of the day.

---

3-Year Acting Course Graduates 2007 on the set of The Regal

---

Other Activities
>. Carleton Hobbs Competition

All CDS Schools are invited to put together a team of students for the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Competition. After several auditions and rehearsals, the team head to Broadcasting House to compete for a six month acting contract with the BBC Radio Drama Company. ALRA's latest winner was Robert Lonsdale in 2008, whose CV now includes a range of drama across Radio 3 and Radio 4. If you are a Postgraduate, you can apply to be part of the team the year after you finish your course.

>. Sam Wanamaker Festival
All full-time students also have an opportunity to audition for Sam Wanamaker Festival. This is an annual festival organised by the CDS in association with Globe Education. A pair of students from each CDS drama school perform a scene on stage at the Globe Theatre, in front of a packed house, including high-profile industry guests, agents and casting directors.

>. Christmas Cabaret
Directed, produced and stage managed by students, and held in the ALRA Theatre, this is a chance to show off your comedy, dance and singing skills in a party atmosphere.

>. Stand-Up Night
Led by the Second Years, but open to everybody, face the fear and try your hand at comedy to celebrate the end of the Spring Term.

>. The Five Minute Play Festival
A chance to write, direct and produce as well as act, this Festival features site-specific plays, held anywhere from the TV studio to the car park.

>. Verse Speaking Competition: Open to Acting students in First and Second Year.

>. Short Film Project
Second Year students work with Film and Directing students from LCC (the London College of Communication) to produce short films. This is invaluable preparation for the showreels and short films produced in your final year at ALRA, and many students stay in touch with directors they've met, working with them again and again.

>. Workshops and seminars

>. Theatre Trips

>. Summer Ball
Celebrate the end of the year in style, and raise a glass to all your hard work!

Qualifications
Upon successful completion of the course you are awarded:

>. National Diploma in Professional Acting (validated by Trinity College London). 

>. BA (Hons) in Acting (validated by University of Greenwich)

In addition to this, you will gain full Equity membership through NCDT accreditation.
You will join Spotlight in the first term of your final year.

Entry Requirements
Selection is made on the basis of audition. Normal entry requirements also include two A levels, BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts with a high profile or GNVA Advanced in Performing Arts. However, ALRA may also consider applicants with an exceptional level of practical ability.

You must be at least 18 years old at the start of the course, and ALRA welcomes the older student.

Candidates for whom English is not a first language are required to demonstrate a level of fluency appropriate to professional acting training; this will be assessed at audition.