Studying Acting at Adelaide College of the Arts provides students with the opportunity to pursue their vocation in a practical, diverse and collaborative studio-based environment. Most commonly, graduates work as professional actors in all areas of theatre, film, television, and related industries. More generally, people who train as actors end up in a myriad of rewarding careers, both inside the
theatre and related industries, including teaching and community work. This is because studying acting is studying humanity—one’s own, and other people’s—and this tends to make acting graduates deeply intuitive, sensitive, and emotionally intelligent people with the skills to improvise a career in various fields. ACTING
First year begins with an emphasis on the ways that acting is like life. In second year, this is disrupted by accepting that in order for acting to become art, it needs to embrace the artificialities of stage & screen-the fiction, style, and collaboration with writers & directors. This emphasis on the actors’ collaboration sustains the third year of the course, with a focus on repertoire-building, stretching skills & artistic horizons
MOVEMENT
The movement practice teaches the ability to synthesise physical spontaneity & discipline, inspiration & technique, instinct & knowledge to bring to the body a state of readiness for acting. The first year begins with the exploration of physical possibilities & expression through formal exercises & informal creativity. The second year has more emphasis on specific movement ‘arts’ like stage-fighting, dance for musicals, physical theatre & placing those arts into the context of a scene, a play, a production. The physical dichotomy of reality & artificiality continues to be refined in the third year through the theatre-making processes & productions
VOICE
Spoken voice training provides the skills required for athletic voice use in live performance & the discrete skills of voice use for film & television, as well the skills to use the voice effectively in all facets of daily life. The focus is on both craft & artistry, with vocal health the underpinning principle
PERFORMANCE/PRODUCTION
The performance units of first year allow access to a wide range of teachers of acting & theatre-making. In second & third year, performance units make way for production units. Rehearsals for shows run from 2.00-6.00pm every day for the first half of each term, then full-time. Productions are created within an intense ‘production house model’, which means that you will work alongside students from our other course disciplines including stage managers, designers, lighting and sound technicians – all lead by professional directors
CONTEXTUAL STUDIES
Contextual studies cover a range of areas that create a context for the intensive study of acting. This includes history of theatre & acting, different genres of dramatic literature, dramaturgy, play-writing & performance studies, industrial structures, processes, & expectations of professional actors, grant writing & screen studies.
