MA Acting

We believe 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.

This double module is capped by your final degree show, which will be devised and created by you. It could be purely a solo effort but, alternatively, you could collaborate with performers from other UEL courses in dance and music.

Either way, it's a big opportunity, offering you the chance to develop important future contacts while acting as the main shop window for your talents.

• Bachelor's degree: GPA of 2.5 / 4 or overall classification of "Good" or higher
• UK Bachelor's degree with Honours: Second Class, Second Division or higher
• US Bachelor's degree: GPA 2.5 / 4

Extended Diploma or Diploma

FROM

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE

Diploma with 24 points including a minimum of 15 points at Higher Level

The work you will be doing with theatre professionals and the constructive help and advice you will receive from professional actors throughout your course is all geared towards helping you establish yourself in the industry.

Your final degree show will act as your showcase to attract agents and develop your professional networks. 

By having your own mentor in the last six months of your course, you will not only gain important insight and advice about the technical aspects of acting but you will receive invaluable help in developing important contacts.

We believe our course helps nurture independent-minded, creative individuals - actors such as the RADA-trained Takunda Kramer, who shone while at the University of East London and has gone on to star with various professional companies as far afield as New York, Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi. 

Like many of our other students who go on to further postgraduate research and study, Takunda has now returned to UEL to undertake a PhD based on protest theatre in his native Zimbabwe.

Another graduate, Neil Walker, now co-manages a theatre company and is currently taking the lead role and touring in a play which he wrote himself: Do We Do The Right Thing?

"Seeing the work I started to create at UEL performed before audiences is deeply rewarding - a real buzz!" says Neil. It's a feeling many of our students will relate to. 

Explore the different career options you can pursue with this degree and see the median salaries of the sector on our Career Coach portal.