BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre

East 15 Acting School's BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre course is renowned not only for its pioneering, highly influential training program, but also as a creative hub that produces original, bold theatrical work.

This unique and highly challenging pathway is dedicated to training multi-talented actors. We combine developing your skills as a performer with experimentation in European physical theatre, devising, creative writing, composition and cross-media art, allowing you to expand into roles such as actor/musician, actor/writer and actor/choreographer. The training is inspired by leading contemporary international companies such as Complicite, the Schaubühe and the Wooster Group.

Our philosophy sees the actor as an independent, inventive and entrepreneurial 'artist', and gives you the confidence and the competencies necessary to realise your artistic inclinations.

This course is taught at our picturesque Loughton Campus which is located on the edge of East London and is just a short 30 minutes by underground train from the heart of the capital's West End theatre district.

View more undergraduate courses from East 15 Acting School, including further Actor training programs as well as behind the scenes courses in Creative Producing and Stage & Production Management.

• Intensive acting training.
• Industry showcase.
• Creation of independent Alumni theatre and production companies.

Previous university/college study is required in addition to local high school qualifications for our Undergraduate Bachelor degree courses.

We accept a number of international qualifications, including the International Baccalaureate with the majority of our courses requiring a grade 30 or above or the SATR with the majority of our courses requiring a minimum of 1100 out of 1600 with 550 in each test.

Alumni of the BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre course are participating in the industry not only as actors in theatre, film and TV, but also by staging their own work to audiences worldwide. Recent graduates have gone on to work with major companies such as the National Theatre, Complicite, Cirque Du Soleil, The Globe, Frantic Assembly, BBC and ITV.

A highlight of the graduate year is the acclaimed 'Debut Festival', a unique platform dedicated to staging new work written, directed, produced and performed by students. Many works have transferred to professional production in Britain and abroad, winning awards such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award, The Stage Best Ensemble, Scotsman Fringe First, Best New Musical and BFI Best Short Film. Transfer venues include the Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange as well as tours to Belgium, Denmark, Iceland and New Zealand.

Festivals to which BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre students work has transferred includes;

• Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• Brighton Festival
• Latitude Festival, Southwold, Suffolk
• Pulse Festival, Ipswich
• RADAR Festival at the Bush Theatre, London
• Greenwich and Docklands Festival, London
• Vaults Festival, London
• Camden Fringe
• HighTide Festival, Halesworth
• Incoming Festival, London Diorama
• Festival 45 at the Kings Head Theatre, London

In its short history, the course has shaped a number of exciting new practitioners including film and TV actors Lily Newmark and Adam El-Hagar, writers Charlotte Josephine and Somalia Seaton, directors Bryony Shanahan and Jesse Briton, as well as major theatre companies such as Fat Rascal and Police Cops.

UCAS

Applications to UCAS are open for 2023-24 entry. Applications are made online via the UCAS Apply and UCAS Hub, where you will be charged a small fee for processing your application. Here you will be able to fill out your details, upload your personal statement, choose the universities you would like to apply for, and track your application status.

It’s important that you complete your application fully to give us all the information we need to make a decisions as quickly as possible. A few key things that we will need are:

• Details of all qualifications, including those you may have not finished yet and any predicted grades
• Your personal statement (we have some tips for this)
• A suitable reference – if this is not provided or does not meet our requirements this may be a condition of any offer made and will be required before your place can be confirmed.

The UCAS code for Essex is ESSEX E70. Our individual campus codes for our Loughton and Southend campuses are ‘L’ and ‘S’ respectively. There is no campus code for Colchester – please leave this blank in your application.